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Before I travel to any new country, I always check for common scams and crimes that my family and I should watch out for. From taxis with overcharging meters, pickpockets, and overpriced bar scams, criminals use all sorts of ploys to grab some quick cash from unsuspecting victims. For this article, I’ll tell you about one time some people tried to scam me when I was way younger.
Looking back at it. there were so many things wrong with their attempt that I don’t know if they ever fooled anyone with it. It was still a very interesting experience, however, so I wanted to share it with you all.
The time some people tried to scam me…
I was a young and innocent college freshman when it happened, and I remember because I was still carrying that big green plastic duffel bag that I first used college. I was a sheltered scholar boy less than a year out of high school back then so although I knew there were scammers out there, I never thought any of them would try to target me. After all, I was just some poor financial aid scholar, not some rich tourist or businessman.
Anyway, I remember that on the day it happened, I got out of class very early on that hot and dry summer afternoon. I was already at the last section of my commute home, and I only needed to walk a few minutes to get to my home. It was around 1pm at that time so although I was walking along a busy highway near a mall, there weren’t a lot of people around.
Midway through crossing a concrete bridge on the way to my house, an old man wearing a baseball cap, a t-shirt, and denim shorts started walking alongside me and said…
“Hey, did you see the foreigner who dropped that gold ring?”
That was the start of the clumsiest scam attempt I have ever experienced.
Filipinos are often taught to respect their elders. Since I was still a 17 year old college freshman back then, I wasn’t as distrustful of strangers at the time. That’s why when an old man who looked to be around 50 called my attention, I had to stop and listen as a sign of respect.
I didn’t suspect a thing and I just thought he needed help or something.
According to the old man, he saw some rich foreigner drop a piece of jewelry, and some clueless street kid picked it up and he doesn’t know what to do with it (The old man implied that the kid he saw was mentally impaired).
It was strange since I didn’t notice any foreigners pass by, but who was I to doubt them.
After calling my attention, I decided to help them out or at least see what’s up. He then led me to a tall and lanky teenager walking aimlessly at the other end of the concrete bridge. He called out to the kid (who he allegedly doesn’t know personally) and asked if he could show the jewelry the “rich foreigner” dropped. The kid then pulled out a white ball of cloth from his shorts pocket and began unwrapping it.
It took a while to unwrap the long, thin piece of cloth as it was well over three feet long, and it didn’t help that we were standing out in the open under the summer afternoon sun. Although it took a while, seeing what’s inside was definitely worth the wait.
After finally unwrapping the bandage, there it was. A large, expensive-looking gold engagement ring glittering under the summer sunlight, and it had a huge diamond set on its center. The old man borrowed it from the kid, and handed it to me so I could take a closer look.
I’ve seen a lot of gold rings before, but I’ve never seen one so large and so beautiful.
…
Just kidding.
It was an ugly, spotty fake gold ring with a diamond-shaped piece of glass stuck on it.
The old man must have shown it to me for less than 5 seconds before he hurriedly wrapped it up again in the long cloth and tied it tight. He allegedly wanted to keep it from getting damaged. After tying up the ball of cloth with the ring inside, the old man then showed me a dirty gold-bordered price tag that he said belonged to the ring. It was the kind you see on actual jewelry, and written in blue pen it said “$10,000”.
Impressive, right?
Unfortunately for him, he didn’t know what I know…
I used to always play with my mom’s gold jewelry as a kid, and that I also used to collect cheap gemstones when I was younger. I only needed a two-second glance at their ring to know it was a fake.
- First, real gold almost NEVER stains or “rusts”.
- Second, a gold ring of that size and thickness would almost always have patterns and engravings (like my parent’s engagement rings).
- Finally, a real diamond would usually have a rainbow glitter (called “fire” or dispersion by jewelers) if you look at it under decent light.
The ring they showed me had a plain band, the metal was spotty and “rusty”-looking, and the fake diamond had a dull white glimmer. I’ve seen pieces of broken glass prettier than that thing.
The old man wanted to sell the ring…
Normally, if you find something as precious as a gold ring, you’d want to return it to the owner. However, since the old man said the owner was impossible to find and didn’t come back for it, he had no choice but to help the kid who found it pawn it off at a nearby pawnshop. He said he might split the profit.
Again, remember that I knew the ring was fake, but the 17 year old me just didn’t have the courage to say anything. I just thought that, being relatively poor (based on how they looked), they didn’t really know how to tell the difference between real and fake gold. I wanted to just help them get to a pawnshop and have THEM say that the ring was fake.
Anyway, as they asked for my help, the old man said I should hold on to the ball of cloth containing the “$10,000 gold ring”. He said it was safer with me than with the allegedly mentally impaired street kid.
And off we went to the pawnshop…
I found it odd how, even though there’s a mall nearby with multiple pawnshops inside, we were heading for a residential area on the opposite side of the highway. The old man said he knew a nearby pawnshop down the street, away from the mall. Being familiar with the area, I knew it was improbable, but not impossible.
I followed them because I still wanted to help, even though I knew they’ll be disappointed by the pawnshop’s appraisal for their fake gold ring.
Walking along the highway, the old man led our group and the kid followed close behind me. The streets were pretty empty as very few people wanted to be outside under that heat. Most people were inside, quietly watching TV or resting. Even though there were houses and trees to our right, the sidewalk was mostly uncovered and I was really starting to feel the heat of the sun. The weight of my textbooks and notebooks in my bag didn’t help either, but I could still keep going despite it all.
After about 20 minutes of walking, the old man suggested that since I was holding on to their expensive ring, it was only fair that they hold on to my bag. It was a sort of trade, to try and prevent me from running off with their ring. All I had were textbooks, notebooks, school supplies, and lots of homework in my bag so it wasn’t really valuable, but I didn’t want complete strangers touching my stuff so I refused.
After that, for some reason the kid said he wanted to play with the “toy” I had in my bag. I had no idea what he was talking about until the old man said the kid was referring to my cellphone.
That was when I FIRST sensed something was wrong…
It was the mid-2000s already back then, and cellphones were extremely popular. Most of the working class owned one and EVERYBODY knew what a cellphone was. The old man said the street kid was mentally impaired, but to refer to a cellphone as a “toy” and just ask for it without understanding how much each one of those cost?
Nobody could be THAT ignorant… …right?
That was when things started to click…
Remember that I was a sheltered little financial aid “scholar boy” and I had next to no experience on the harsh realities of the street. I only wanted to be helpful and do what I can, but when the old man asked to hold my bag and the street kid wanted to hold my “toy” (cellphone) in exchange for letting me carry their (obviously fake) “precious gold ring”? All the red flags, warning signs, and anomalies started to make sense.
It was obviously a scam.
- The reason they wrapped the ring in a tight ball of cloth was so that potential victims would not inspect it further and realize that it was fake.
- The moment I hand over my bag and cellphone, they were going to run away with everything I had, and all I’ll have left was their worthless toy ring.
- They were also moving me to a residential area with lots of alleyways, so things could have gotten MUCH worse if I followed them further.
In the middle of the deserted road between the highway and the residential area, they kept pestering me to let them carry my bag. I kept refusing. Alarm bells were ringing in my head by then, and I gripped my bag strap tighter as I kept some distance from them. I was scared, but I was prepared to fight for my life.
After about five tense minutes, the old man finally got mad. He knew his scam wasn’t going anywhere, so he asked for the ring back and angrily walked away. The (pretending to be) “mentally impaired” street kid who was supposed to NOT know the old man followed him further down the street. That dispelled all my doubts, and I felt a wave of disgust against those two. They weren’t people who needed help. They were accomplices.
It was finally over.
I walked back the other way, occasionally looking behind me to see if I was being followed. There was nobody else on the street that hot summer afternoon. Even though I would pass by my house on the way back, I decided to take a jeepney to another place, and then I took ANOTHER jeepney to return in order to make sure that I really wasn’t being followed.
I got back to the highway and residential area near my house and got home safely.
There will always be bad guys…
One of the most annoying realities of life is that there will always be criminals out there who would want to take advantage of us. Instead of doing honest work that helps society, they would rather take a “shortcut” and lie, cheat, and steal to get money. Aside from avoiding them, defending ourselves if they try to harm us, and reporting them to the police, there’s not much else that we can do, so we must always remain vigilant.
For these times, the most important tip that I’ve read (from several books) is that you must always trust your gut. Our subconscious mind can sense danger from the subtle body language hints of people who want to do us harm, as well as anomalies around us.
Anomalies are those “wrong” details in the situation you’re in. In my case, think of how I remembered there was no “rich foreigner” who passed by on that bridge, how the “perfect” $10,000 price tag is unusual for anything, how the old man chose a “pawnshop” in a residential area instead of the nearby mall, how the ring was wrapped tightly in a long piece of cloth, how the kid called the cellphone a “toy” even though everyone knew what a cellphone was, and many more.
Remember to trust your gut. If you sense that something isn’t right, if you get that sickening feeling deep within your body that a situation is potentially dangerous, you have to get away immediately. Don’t forget the old adage: “it’s better to be safe than sorry”.
Lost opportunities can always be replaced, but the loss of life and limbs simply CAN’T.
I hope you enjoyed reading that little story of mine. There’s another notable and very short failed attempt against our family when we went to Thailand, but that’s a story for another time. Anyway, thank you for reading, and remember to bookmark our website and visit us again!
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