Here’s some interesting food for thought today. Have you ever been the victim of a scam?
I’m super paranoid about being scammed. All emails that look even remotely like spam or a scam immediately gets binned. All text messages telling me I’ve won something, especially if its a million dollar lottery I never bought or a contest I never entered, gets deleted immediately. People who approach me seeking donations, I decline and give directly to the bodies in question. I even put banks through their paces if they call me out of the blue.
But despite all that, I have been the victim of a scam.
It happened when I was in Thailand quite a few years ago. Its the well known Thai Jewellery Scam and I’m telling you my story so you know you have to be careful and won’t fall for it.
We were headed to the Pratunam area for a spot of shopping and it was our first time, so we were looking a little lost looking for the place, when we were accosted by an English speaking Thai stranger. He offered to help us get a tuk tuk and also to take us to some random temple. For whatever reason, we agreed and headed off. At the temple, was another English speaking man who mentioned how some people bought jewellery and resold it elsewhere for a profit. We thought nothing of it, but after visiting the temple, we were taken to some jewellery store where the tuk tuk driver told us that he’d get some petrol voucher if we just browsed a little, and we thought to help him.
So we did. And we did end up buying something. We were told it was worth much more than it really was, which might make a difference if you had believed the man at the temple and the store, and were in it for a profit. But we weren’t, so we just bought something that we liked and which looked pretty.
So where’s the scam then? The scam is in the quality of the jewellery sold. Its not quite what they say it is. Its real stones (I got them checked out) but they aren’t worth the money you’d pay for it. If you were it in for a quick profit, hoping to resell it at a higher price, you’d be burnt. But if you bought something because you liked it with no intention to resell, then it only hurts you when you think of the price you paid.
But ultimately, it was a scam and we realized it only hours later when we seemed to wake up from a dream. I looked it up online and you’d be surprised at how many people have been scammed the same way.
Locally, I’ve been told of stories where people we know were approached by strangers looking for directions, and they “woke up” later to find that they had lost their mobile phones or money to such predators.
These days, I’m extra careful everywhere I go and I never allow strangers to approach me while I’m in a foreign land, or even locally, just in case they try to scam me. I think these people look out for those who aren’t as alert of their surroundings so being alert and aware of your surroundings will help you.
Its quite embarrassing to admit to being scammed, but I have been and now you’ve read about how I was scammed, I hope you never will be scammed the same way.
Do you have a story to share? Do feel free to use a pseudonym if you don’t want to use your regular handle to tell your story 🙂
Your Say: Have you or anyone you know ever been a victim of a scam?
Paris B
I encountered a similar scam when I was in Thailand too, luckily my aunt’s colleague’s driver (wahahahahah, almost no connection) who was a local told us that it was a tourist trap. For me, it happened on that HUGE pedestrian walkway that links Holiday Inn right to Siam Paragon?
Well, on scams, my guitar teacher just told me that we were ripped off by Yamaha for our starter electric guitar… HAIH.
Well it will take a teacher to know if you aren’t getting a good deal on something.
That sounded quite scary PB, glad you were okay. I’ve also heard of people who described the feeling as “woke up” after it was over.
Thanks for sharing your experience, will be useful as we’ll be headed to Thailand soon. But then again I’m going with Mr Top Monkey who is usually suspicious of everything… hehe.
Yes! Do be super suspicious. I am these days and recently, when I was approached by someone trying to tell the same thing I literally screamed at them to “Go away!!” and ran! It was a bit surreal but it happened at a difficult time in life so perhaps the chi was low and all you know…
I don’t think I’ve even been scammed before, but many have tried. I always receive those text messages and emails saying I’ve won something, when I know I didn’t join anything. The worst of the text scams I’ve seen was something my mum received. It said that her child was kidnapped and that we should reply immediately and send some money or else the child would be in grave danger. Luckily, both my brother and I were home that night and we just laughed off the wrong grammer and atrocious spelling. But what if it had been a mom who’s kid was out somewhere? She might have been scammed. Another instance was my dad’s friend, who was actually scammed. After talking to these people, he suddenly “woke up”. They think he was hypnotized into exchanging his hard-earned cash with a bag full of newspaper.
Goodness! I realize you aren’t in Malaysia, but we hear of the SAME scam here! Especially that of people who get texts telling them that family members need their help etc. I think they all learn this from some scam school somewhere…
It happened to me outside Westminster Palace. A group of middle aged women were approaching random people and claiming it was “Children’s Day” and asking for donations. I wanted to give some change I had but she insisted she wanted “paper money” and right at that point, someone thrusted a note into her hands saying “for the children”. Part of me realised it was a scam at that point but another part of me seemed to react on automatic mode and I lost 10 bloody pounds. I was incredibly pissed and yes, embarrassing, to be a victim of a scam like that when it was so obvious on hindsight. But sharing experiences can help others to be on the alert for it so hopefully others don’t into the same trap.
It’s like how I read over and over again about the gypsy women in Spain handing people flowers and then demanding money. When it happened to us in Spain, I immediately yelled at her and pulled my friend’s handbag away (the old woman had, in the blink of an eye, unzipped the bag and was rummaging through it).
Ouch! GBP10 is a lot to lose but I’m glad you’re otherwise alright. In Italy as a student, I was approached by a bunch of gypsy children who were waving papers in their hands as they approached and surrounded us. After we shouted at them, they ran off, but I’d realized that the zips on my bags were all opened. Fortunately, nothing was taken as I’d had just handed over my camera and wallet to a friend and I was the only target. But it was scary nonetheless – they work very quickly! On my recent trip, I kept a very sharp look out for these kids and the gypsies but saw none. I’m not sure if its because I’m more careful or if they had been cleared away.
My mum was very nearly scammed. She was approached by a young lady while at the market, who told her that there were evil spirits (or something to that extent) following her husband and kids, and in order to ward them off, she’d have to withdraw all her savings for the lady to perform some sort of ritual. My mother, being the incredibly superstitious sort to start with, panicked and was all prepared to withdraw her life savings for that lady. Thankfully, we live in JB and her main bank account was located in Singapore, so she actually had to travel 2 hours to reach an ATM, so she kinda reached her senses by the time she had reached the bank so she called for a friend to accompany her back. Apparently when she got back to our neighbourhood the lady (now accompanied by a man) was still loitering at their designated meeting place waiting for her, but a few friendly shopowners invited her into their shops to wait for them to leave and one even drove her right to the doorstep.
Unfortunately we later heard that many people living in our area had been / were later scammed of tens of thousands. My mum claimed that she was hypnotized as she felt that she was almost in a trance while on her way to the bank – i’m a skeptic but it still sounds pretty frightening.
Thanks for sharing your story PB! Serves as a good warning for us to be more cautious when it comes to dealing with strangers offering us a ‘good deal’.
Thank you too for sharing your story Lynne. I’m glad to know your Mum is ok and that she didn’t lose anything. It must have been scary and its strange how these people just know who to prey on. I’ve heard a lot about people who lose lots of money to such predators and its awful but we just don’t know what they might be thinking at that point in time when they were approached or if the scammers have some sort of hypnotic powers. It pays for us to be more aware of our surroundings and to not believe everything we hear!
hmmmm in my case………………..
4 years ago, I bought a phone from a acquaintance who sells handphone. I told the fella I wanted an original (zitron) and not a recon. He told me its an original but I found out that the handphone was a secondhand SG. To make it look new, the phone’s outer body was replaced.
I found out that this was a secondhand phone because there are some application that weren’t suppose to be in there when you just bought it. And there were a photo or two which wasn’t suppose to be there, a scenery of SG’s apartments. And at the back of the phone when u remove the battery, there is no original sticker and no code. Furthermore, the on/off button didn’t work quite well. And there were SG networks in the settings, when there’s suppose to be none until you insert the SIM-card and register the networks.
when I told a friend whose is knowledgeable in this line, he told me most likely the phone is from Singapore’s phone shop who then sells secondhand phone to Malaysia cheaply, repackage it, and sell at a higher price. I was very angry as I paid RM800 for a secondhand phone~!! As a secondary student, it was a lot to me, I had to save and be stingy just to save up and buy a savvy phone~!!
But then again, it was able to last me about 3 years before it knocked out.
Ouch! RM800 for anyone is a lot of money, much less a student! It must have been horrifying to find out. A friend of mine bought what was supposed to be a brand new original phone a while ago from a store at Sg. Wang Plaza. When we turned on the phone, we saw a whole bunch of numbers that shouldn’t have been there in a new phone with no sim card in it. We took it back and they exchanged the phone without comment. BUT the next phone we got gave a lot of problems and eventually died about 2 years later. I don’t buy my phones from these places anymore.
Yea~! Never again from these places anymore T.T
2 years of savings gone~! I still keep the phone as a reminder though. Just in case~
Hehehehe, graduating soon from University. In the future, after 8 months in the workforce, I think i might get an iphone….i think so……
Congrats on graduating from Uni soon! Your life starts now eh? 😀 By the time you want the iPhone they might have already come up with another. Can’t keep up with technology! 😉
I have similar experience, whereby we were about to visit the Grand Palace in Thailand and being blocked by someone at the main entrance and said it was closed for the 2hours, due to special chanting day. So instead he offered to organise some other tours around that area for us via tuk tuk. Beside sight seeing, the tuk tuk also took us to see jewellery shop in exchange for petrol vouchers. Initially, we just thought is only one shop so can kill some time, but he brought us to 3 different shops! What a waste of time. We did not buy anything , but we did not get to visit Grand Palace due to time contraint. I was quite upset and wanted to write to the Thai tourism about this scam, ladies be warned!
These scammers always do that! They always say that the sight you want to see isn’t open, or that the destination you are headed to isn’t open till a certain time and that they can can get you a tuktuk cheaply. I’m sorry you didn’t eventually get to see the Grand Palace (I don’t think I ever have either!) but count yourself lucky you didn’t buy anything just wasted time 🙂 I actually looked up complaints to the Thai Tourism Board about these scams at the time, but I also learnt that many people have lodged complaints to no avail. I’ve chalked it up to a bad and expensive experience but I hope by telling everyone about it, it’ll save you from that bad experience.
Gosh, similar thing happened to my friend and i few years back. We were told the temple was closed that day. And the tuk tuk driver took on a detour, he said if we’d just browse even if we don’t buy anything, he’d get petrol vouchers. And we bought some jewelry. I remember clearly they even showed this really big ISOxxx certified sign on the entrance. Sad to say, they all looked really good in the display case. But upon returning to our hotel when we checked on the stuff we bought, they look kinda cheap.
So sorry you were in the same boat that I was! These people must make a heck lot of money out of us. On the plus side, its also made us a lot more careful when we travel. I hope others will learn from our experiences. You’re right. The jewellery does look good in store but outside its just alright and not quite worth what we paid.
The funny thing is, all this while i never thought it was a scam. I just thought i got carried away looking at the jewelry, and purchased on an impulse because a lot of other tourists bought from them too. That i wasn’t careful to check the craftsmanship. And i thought the close of the temple was for real. Until.. i read what you wrote here and other comments. Haha.
So naive.. 😛
Hehe… in that case, perhaps you didn’t feel the sting then. Its alright. We all now know to be more cautious 🙂
This happened to my friend who went grocery shopping by herself at Warta Bangi when a guy came up to her and acted like they were bf-gf. She gave all her jewellery to this man and promise to give some cash too. But luckily she didn’t bring any atm cards with her and when she went back home, she suddenly “wake up”. When she reported to the police, the police couldn’t do anything because she couldn’t remember anything about the guy (the face and all). Guess she’d been hypnotized…
Gosh! She actually gave away her jewellery to a stranger? It must have been some strong “jampi” or hold he has over her. Lucky she’s safe though, and didn’t lose more than just her jewellery.
I’ve been approached by such people in BKK countless times too! From “tuk tuk to jj market! very cheap!” or “MBK not open today. Take you to fashion outlet” and even the outrageous “Grand Palace is not open for tourist today. Take you to Lucky Buddha!” before! Thankfully i’ve read all about them before and did avoid getting scammed.
My colleague had a real “scare” the other day though. A Chinese (as in mainland China person) lady called her up and told my colleague that they had kidnapped her daughter and demanded a RM100k ransom. What did my colleague do after hearing that? End the call of course, cuz she aint got no daughter!! lol! 😛
Sadly I hadn’t read about it before it stung me. Now I go to Bangkok more often, I’m a little more savvy about things and recently when someone approached me, I literally yelled at them and ran! LOL… Your friend might have had a real scare if she did have a daughter. In my case, if anyone calls me speaking with a Chinese accent, I hang up. No one I know will speak Chinese to me haha!
Don’t feel bad. What’s great is that you learned from the experience and that you got out of it in tact and just a bit of money lost. Thanks for sharing this experience. Having the courage to share an embarrassing situation is really brave. Most people will just want to forget it. Not knowing that sharing the experience could save someone’s life.. and this post being read by your readers is actually you helping and saving them from being scammed in the future. 🙂
Kuddos to you, sis and your blog!
Thank you Shen! I’ve stopped feeling bad about it now but it took a while before I could stop cringing over it. I do hope it opens up the eyes of everyone reading this, because we need these scammers to STOP!
I agree with Shen’s comment … It’s not your fault at all I think everyone has gotten “duped” at least once in their life And usually these ‘conmen’ have had years of practice. But to be fair to the Thais, our Malaysian sellers on Petaling Street do this to foreign tourists as well? I guess its the MO of sellers everywhere to look for easy marks ( tourists). But thanks for sharing your experience. It’s a lesson to all would be travelers to be more careful ( and street savvy). : )
Thanks Heidi. Not blaming the Thais (even though that jewellery scam is an art form!) as scams and conmen are everywhere in the world including right here in Malaysia. I’ve heard of so many people locally who get conned and we read of it in the papers too! We just have to realize that anything that might seem too good to be true probably is! 😛
My relatives and I fell for that jewelry scam too, and the sad part is we already went to that particular jewelry store on a tour the day before. Waste of time 🙁
Another scam I fell for is different but still relatively common… I received a call for a supposed training & development position and they invited me to come for an interview. I was very excited about it because I’m a fresh grad still looking for jobs. When I got there I realized it was a multi-level marketing (MLM)/networking scheme and not the job they told me about at all. 🙁 They showed all these presentations about how their business was the next money-earner, how they had all these employees who were already millionaires, and I just had to give around Php12,000 (around RM840) to get started. I only found out after that they really deceive people on purpose just so they could get us to listen and be seduced by the thought of making that much money in a short time. The minute I get wind that they are trying to recruit people I know I will definitely warn them against going, and also: never trust a recruiter who refuses to give contact details or take e-mails for further clarification of a job offer.
Oh dear it sounds like this is such a common scam and that so many people have been stung. I do hope it wasn’t for too much money. Ultimately I tell myself that we’re all safe and money lost can be earned… and we all learnt our lessons to not talk to strangers.
Thanks for sharing your experience about your work offer too. I’m sure there are lots of those going around and everyone, especially young grads should be aware of it.
When I was in my secondary, I encountered a nun or rather someone dressed as a nun while I was out alone in the supermarket buying things. She immediately approach me and put a string of beads on my wrist and stuff me some sort of pendant and a card, told me it would help me stay away from bad luck and stuff. Then she starts to talk about donations and she said a donation of rm20 would be sufficient for all the stuff she gave me and I “donated” rm20. similar to you I “wake up” after few hours. I am not a religious person and yet I fall for the scam. I think they are out looking for people who are young and vulnerable like me back then. In my opinion rather than really hypnotising the victims, these people know which people and when they are vulnerable to being scam. But luckily it was just rm20 and it really taught me a lesson to be extra careful of strangers and surroundings.
Oh these nuns and monks loitering in the street are really something! One of them tried it with me once, but I picked up the bracelet and put it back in their bowl and walked away. A proper Buddhist monk and nun will not ask for money. Their alm bowls are meant for food. And a true monk and nun wouldn’t be walking the streets in any event. This scam was exposed a while ago in the newspapers, as I recall, but we could all do with some reminding. As you said, thankfully it was just RM20 and not more.
Only RM 20? When I was studying my A Levels in SS 15, I was approached by a nun just after I photostated a bunch of reference books. She gave me this golden card with the picture of Kuan Yin on it and told me that it would ward off evil, yada yada yada, and told me that if I “donated” some money, I would be blessed, able to pass exams etc.
I told her no, but she kept on pressing me, telling me that Kuan Yin would not give blessings to such cold hearted people, etc etc, and when I thought: alright, I’ll donate RM 5 to placate her, she set her eyes on the RM 50 note and almost reached into my purse to get it.
I glared at her and closed my wallet and left. Bloody nun even cursed at me in Mainland Chinese!
Gosh! That was awful – not much of a nun was she? 😛
The same thing happened to my friend in Thailand. Apparently, you can report it to the cops like she did and she immediately got a refund. I’ve never been scammed in the same way but I’ve always feared such a thing would happen. It always spoils a nice holiday when you know you’ve been conned or harrassed. 🙁
We realized it quite late and we were leaving the next day. I don’t think I can remember how to get to the store anymore and I don’t want to 😛 I don’t quite mind being fleeced a little when it comes to street food or buying things from markets. I expect it. But its when its an outright scam that makes me mad. Glad its never happened to you Monstro! But you now know to be extra careful!
Oh my! I also fell to the same touristy scam at Bangkok. Totally felt cheated of 2 hours listening to that guy in the temple talk on and on about selling the jewelery for profits. Funny thing was, we saw the same guy again the very next day and he tried pulling the same stunt on us by telling us that the festival was extended another day due to some special magical sightings -_-
Hey, at least you were just cheated of your time! 😉 I hope you weren’t cheated of money too. I’ve realised the trick is to not look lost. If you look like you know where you’re going, no one bugs you. The minute you look a bit lost, these scammers appear. I told the last one to go away. Perhaps I overreacted by raising my voice but I was adamant to not be scammed again 😉
Oh Paris, ur topic today reminds me of my ugliest, most embarrassed experience many years ago. I always thought I’m a smart person, overestimate myself for able to detect any fishy con/scam anytime. I almost lost my dignity after felt into the Thai jewellery scam 4 years ago. Similar story, similar place. My friend and I went to this temple and was told by a “friendly” Thai stranger that it was closed because monks are praying. Then this fella started to chit chat with us, mentioned about “Thailand is famous of exporting red ruby and blue ruby internationally… how other tourist make profits by buying from here and reselling back to their country..” We didn’t pay attention to this Jewellery thing of course. But then comes the tricky part. He didn’t continue the jewellery topic furthermore, instead, told us about this Lucky Buddha, a very nice temple that we shouldnt missed out. We felt strange, but since we are tourist, any info relating to nice tourist spot, we bought it. He even stop a tuk-tuk driver, negotiate for us a special rate to bring us to this Lucky Buddha temple. Now, here comes the most brilliant part… We met a CAUCASIAN foreigners in this temple. He claimed himself from Belgium. (I really have to salute them for recruiting a Caucasian in part of the scam!!! Heck, they really invested a lot of man power and efforts!!) So this Belgian guy start chit chating with us with his story, he purposely come to Thailand to buy the jewellery to resell it back in Belgian… how he makes profit.. blah blah. Yep… We felt into the trap! Paid RM4000 for piece of crab! Greedy me! Stupid me! =(
When we came back to Malaysia, I googled, then only realized this horrible thing. But, thanks to google and some forum, I managed to find a way to cover the lost. I bought an air ticket back to Bangkok after 1 week, went to this Ministry of trading and see the person-in-charge, ?Mr. Suk Chat (not sure correct or not, forgotten his actual name.) He is the one and only person experienced in manage this jewellery scam. He called up the shop manager, negotiated with him, and manage to get 90% refund for me. At the end of the day, I pay for the price of RM400(90% refunded, 10% can’t)+RM200 (air ticket) to learn a lesson. Considering myself being lucky coz i’m from Malaysia, those tourists from States, Europes etc, they don’t even have the chance to go back and refund.
Until now, I never revealed my story of stupidity to family or friends. It was buried deeply in my memory, but with the tomb written on the ground, that I never overestimate my intellectual level and of course, not to be greedy. =)
Jess
Ouch! Thanks for sharing your experience Jess. I’m glad you got something back and yes, we shouldn’t be greedy. It sounds exactly like my own experience except there were no caucasians involved in mine and I opted to treat it as an expensive lesson to learn instead of going back.
Thanks for your info. The same scam just happens to me last Merdeka Day. I am going to report to DIT and Malaysian Embassy in Thailand. Hope that I can do it in Malaysia without flying to Bangkok.
Thanks Paris for sharing your experience. I think I got scammed at least 3 times.
1st time – bought a stupid water filter for RM350 which actually cost RM50 maybe. I used it for 3 months and it spoilt. it happened at my door step (10 yrs ago)
2nd time – bought a seaweed mask to remove scar for RM150 but its actually some stupid herbs that doesn’t work. This woman approach me when I was drying my clothes outside the apartment and she started by telling me that she is looking for food catering opportunity. Later she brought out the “mask” and showed me. She even gave me he fake hp number. (4 years ago also at my door step)
3rd time – last year in China. I bought a massage oil for RM100. I was told that it can relieved me of my neck pain (as I have slipped disk, I thought no harm trying). But its a useless product.
I felt so stupid after being scammed. I hope I will not be scammed ever again.
Thanks for sharing Lavender. I guess these conmen know to target people who they can see have problems or need help. Preying on others’ weaknesses as it were. Lucky for you the amounts weren’t too large but its certainly a painful lesson to learn.
fell for the classic “the Grand Palace is closed today” scam in BKK the first time I was there. Then of course the helpful “officer” found a cheap tuk-tuk for us to take us to another interesting temple haha. Which of course took us to jewelry shops, silk shops etc.
When we realised it, we played along and even asked the tuk-tuk man what the outlets give him – petrol vouchers if we stay a certain length of time. So we negotiated with him, we will go and look around for specified time but after that he is to take us to a few places we wanted to go anyway. He agreed so it was not all bad.
At the end of the day, he sent us back to the Grand Palace area which was closed (for real) by then of course but we visited the next day!
I’m glad you weren’t all out scammed and did not lose money in the process or the chance to view the Grand Palace! 😀 Pays to keep our wits about us in a foreign land.
OMG! The same thing happened to me in Bangkok!!! We were at a temple and then some English speaking Thai said that there was a 3 day jewellery sale. So we went there and they were really trying to sell us sapphires. When I asked to see their diamonds (cos I know a lot about diamonds – hello, engagement ring! LOL) – they only came up with mediocre diamonds…and I got so suspicious. They insisted on selling sapphires…and then I said that we were off to Chiang Mai the next day and wouldnt return to Bangkok till the week after – and they said they would continue the special sale just for us! Aye, right!!! SCAMMERS! Good thing I never bought anything
Glad to hear you didn’t fall into their trap!
i remember the first time i visited bkk, my cousins warned me about those scams. so thankfully we were mentally prepared for the incessant attempts at distracting us.
i just got back from delhi & experienced another attempt. this young, nicely dressed guy was very polished, finagling his way into our morning walk without our realising it. he started by first making comments about us being harrassed by delhi’s version of tuk-tuk drivers. he gave the impression that he happened to pass by & witnessed the hassling; then he continued walking ahead of us. when we stopped to look at some buildings or other, he was there, telling us a little of the history of the building. then he tried to start a conversation with us by asking where we were from & telling us he worked for ramada hotel (i guess this is supposed to add an element of credibility!). we didnt really talk to him but just continued with our walk. when we arrived at a fork in the road, he told us we should take a particular turn-off as there was a rally along the route we were taking. so to avoid problems, we should take this new way. we ignored him & continued. needless to say, there was no such rally la. but what really made me laugh was during our walk back to the hotel. we saw the same guy at the same route, chatting up a mat salleh couple this time. wonder what excuse he gave them 🙂
Thanks for the warning! Looks like this is a worldwide scam. Will be sure to be more careful wherever I go and not listen to strangers 🙂