Common Scams Victims

Mike

At a Starbucks in a tourist city (Xi'an), a young man dressed as an airline pilot struck up a conversation with my wife, who is Chinese. Apparently, he was from her home town, and had come to see exactly the same tourist sites we did. Then he offered to pick us up at our hotel the next day and drive us to some of the local tourist locations. She agreed, but when the plan finally got translated into English some time later, the scam possibilities were discussed and the plan was aborted.



Victim#1 Jack

Based on my experience there are 3 scams i had encountered when visiting Beijing. 1. There will be people selling you maps when they know you're tourist. In fact, the map is actually free. 2. There are people that will help you to find/ promote hotels to stay & when you agree to him, he will ask you for money for his service. 3. There will be freelance tourist guide in Tianmen Square but they are actually scammers as they don't have valid license.

Victim#2 

These scams are not that common. I mean, only people who have never travelled, religious people, or people with some kind of mental illness would be tricked into getting scammed. The only scam you need to be careful about is the fake money. It's pretty simple to tell the real notes from the fake...but honestly, most expats leave China when it comes time for a holiday...China is just not a good place for travelling...especially when Thailand and other SE Asian countries are so close...

Victim#1 Don

You may want to visit Japan..the only Asian country I have visited that people que up, take their sanitation amazingly seriously, and our polite to Westerners and fellow Japanese. Now, if you go off the tourist track they may stare at you alot, but just because it is so unusual to see a Westerner do that. I was in shock visiting Japan after visiting every mainland Asian country from Thailand to Siberia.

Victim#5 Lisa

Awhh we didn't get scammed when we went on the rickshaws in Beijing but the tea ceremony one is a really popular one! One thing I really didn't expect is for kids under the age of 10 sitting in streets and as soon as they see you, the tourist, they will literally come chasing you for money - it was so sad ):



Victim#5 Steven

In Houhai, Beijing near the bridge there we met some girls who told us of some hostess bar near by. I'd never been to one before, but my friend had in SE Asia and he said I would enjoy it. Were lead to some seedy bar off the canal. We pick some girls and order drinks. One girl starts bringing things we never ordered and tell us to pay for the drinks and the room before we even drank half. She throws a hissyfit cause we're not showering her with money and calls the manager.



Victim#6 Johnny
One time I was in ShaoLin with a few friends and we were shopping around some of the stores.One of my friends and I were standing outside a shop when a local Chinese person approached us. She seemed friendly, said "Welcome to ShaoLin" and "We are happy to have you" she hugged me, and I didn't think it was that odd, but when she went to hug my friend I saw her dig into his back pocket. Luckily he was holding on to his wallet, and my purse was hanging in front of me so it was too obvious to steal.