Monday, November 19 2007
Curiosity’s attempt at felinicide
Curiosity, and my innane belief that people aren’t evil, got me to be an intended target of a tourist scam. I wish I understood the full scam, but before it could get to the point of no return I managed to escape unharmed. With the advantage of 20/20 hindsight I will explain the whole story but keep in mind that I wasn’t absolutely sure it was a scam until the last 10 minutes or so.
A kid and a middle-aged guy struck up a conversation with me on the street. They told me their cousin was going to America and they wanted me to meet her and help her get to know the culture. I chatted with her on his phone, things didn’t seem too suspicious at first but tourist scams usually start with a premise like this, right? And I’ve been invited into stranger’s houses before, but never after a 5 minute conversation on the street. They hailed a taxi and we headed toward their house. I was thinking to myself this was probably the dumbest thing I’ve done, at least this month, so I paid close attention to where we were going and constantly made sure we weren’t going far. The cab driver didn’t seem involved, and I did have him give me his card within a few blocks of getting in.
Now as it happened I only had 150 ringgets in my wallet and my cellphone, my valuables were in the safe at the hotel. So I wasn’t concerned about losing money or my passport, just making sure I had an exit route.
The neighborhood was decent, I got invited in and met the family. We ate dinner and had tea. Well, I didn’t drink the tea, and I only ate out of the same dishes they ate out of. Really they were so insistent that I drink the tea that I was thinking it was poisoned or something. I ended up carrying the cup with me from table to table pretending it was too hot to drink.
How do you tell people that it’s great that they are being very nice and accommodating but you don’t have any reason to trust them yet?
During the conversation there were some small points brought up about a mother that needed an operation, but I didn’t make much of it until later.
So here’s where the scam starts: An elderly guy who was there when I arrived at the house wanted me to learn how to cheat at gambling, playing a variation of blackjack. Since this was all on friendly terms I was going along with it, and no money was part of it at this point. It was like he was showing me some interesting tricks as conversation. Apparently the guy knows some tricks with majhong but it didn’t take much convincing that I haven’t a clue about that game.
Oh but now he said that someone was coming over to visit, and this guy had won $40K in Vegas and was throwing around money. And to make matters worse, he was bisexual, so apparently he really needed to be cheated out of his money. And he’s already late, he was supposed to be here 3 minutes ago.
Ok so now I’m sure this is a scam and am trying to get out of this gracefully. When I said I wasn’t going to use my money, he said he would front the money and pulled out two $100 USD bills (why would Malaysians carry USD). When I said I would get nervous and screw up the cheating, he said his sister (who was next to us) would play. I then said my conscience would get to me and he used the sad sick mother story as well as trying to convince me that this guy would probably give them the money but hold it over them.
At this point we basically parted at the front door saying “Hey that was great, lets do it again some time!” and the two women gave me a ride to the train station. They continued the sad sick mother story which probably means I convinced them that I still didn’t know it was a tourist scam.
I’ve considered calling the police but there really isn’t much to go on. I wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the house, the taxi driver is unlikely to remember, and there was no scam, I stopped it too soon. I don’t even know how it was supposed to finish, dammit I’m sooo curious.
So the score here is Me: 2.60 ringget train ride, a sip of cold tea, mediocre Malaysian home cooked meal, a little excitement on my trip. Them: 10 ringget cab fare and a couple hours wasted.
At one point earlier I gave the guy my card, which means he could be reading this, or maybe calling me later with different ideas ….
Filed under: Life is an adventure
November 27th, 2007 at 6:27:33 PM
Apparently this is a popular scam. Just today I watched an episode of “Ultimate Tourist Scam” that outlined a very similar scenario, and in KL of course. Had I known this before I would have gathered a bunch of information and presented them to the police afterward.
The object of the scam is to build up your confidence in the gambling scheme then have you cough up some of your own money in a few “sure win” hands where you lose, and the family gets pissed off about you losing and sends you home. Actually the whole thing seems quite elaborate. Too bad for them I’m not into gambling or cheating at gambling.