To Continue So the question I have do the police know or are they turning a blind eye? These same two con artists (who change their names) and their friends are doing nothing to enhance apparently numerous visitors stays in Beijing.
Changed names but game the same These con artists have changed names. One on left calls herself Summer, on right Corry. I was looking for two stores and Corry turned up practicing English. I thought maybe she can help me. Took me to stores I was looking for and others. Very helpful. Then suggested eating. Is it Ok my sister (Summer) comes. OK. 350 Yuan latter ...fine been nice . Have you had tea before. nice for stomach. How bad can it be I thought...I like tea. Oh yes you good English teacher. After several cups of tea and two glasses of wine (for them) I thought maybe 250 Yuan......and time to get .....but bill 2,500 Yuan! What the?!? Brick wall realization hits! You have been taken budy! I was mad! They played the innocent game, and stupidly I paid the bill and told them to get lost!
So, do the police know about these two? O
different people same scam We're two girls and were approached by a girl/boy team, we got pulled into the same thing, ended up paying 1100RMB for a bunch of tea. Garry, did you have to be very forceful in getting your money back? We are going to try the same thing as you.
same story here!!!! I think telling my story will work to dissipate my emotions. I cannnot tell how fun I have had reading these stories. I have to say I was scammed today too!!!! I had already know about this going on in Shanghai but I turned them down there... today while I was visiting Tienanmen two girls approached me, one of them was "japanese" so my scam radar was turned off. Anyway, they both lured me to a Tea House, which I thought it was OK because it was cold. After tasting 10 different teas (all very nice, won't complain about it, not about the ceremony... my hostess was quite hot by the way) they wanted to charge me 1270 RMB... are you f**** crazy? tea is not that expensive even in the US, I said. They asked me first to pay half and after that one third... I got only 85 RMB with me fortunately so I gave them to them... US$10 seemed reasonable for the fun but still, all the way to the hostel I felt so stupid and naive. After reading some stories I feel a bit better and actually laughing about it...
I can't believe I am reading this... I am from Spain and spent the last week in Beijing.. where I got cheated by the SAME girls.. although they had different names this time... I should have found this blog before, so I could have spotted them...
I was in Beijing just last weekend and the exact same thing happened to two of my friends in the exact same part of the city! My two girl friends and I went shopping at Silk Street and my two guy friends decided to hop on the subway and then got off to look around Tiananmen Square. I got sick of shopping and so I went to go find my guy friends. Then they told me about the scam. It literally cost them all of the money they had left for the entire trip, and this all happened within twelve hours of getting off the train from Xi'an to Beijing!
So any westerner, especially any English-speaking westerners, should never go to tea with random Chinese girls they've just met, ESPECIALLY around the Tiananmen Square area.
Hey Matt!
thanks so much for the heads up, today I was stopped twice by two smoking hot chinese girls at a central mall in Beijinghat wanted to practice their english!!
I don't want to think at what it could have been if you hadn't written this page! I am truly sorry for you but think it as your contribution to the end of a scam!!
thanks again and take care
Nico
Shanghai Even in Shanghai you can get that scam. I was approach 3 times in 1 hours by nice girls. They were always with one guy. Always the same way "Can you take a picture of us", the last guy ran after me to ask (which is ridiculous). I'm so glad to have read some forums before coming here. I'ts soo bad, why Chinesse are doing such bad things ? Do you think it's cultural ?
I just got scammed too I just got scammed too. Same deal, I wish I would have known before. This girl as all friendly and seemed normal about going for tea. I had no idea, but was still even cautioud and asked the priceof everything before ordering, which is why it was strange when I got my bill for 1300rmb. I complained and argued but both the waitress and the girl both told me it was fair. I then realised that it was a scam and like Matt, I got scared that they would do something and keep me there. I'm angry though and embarrassed that I got scammed. When I left the tea house I told the girl I was not happy with what she did and she gave me 200rmb.... big wooopy!! I'm here for two more days and I know where the house is, should I call the police?
Be cheap! this is why we should not be ashamed of being cheap and stingy, had the "victims" asked upfront what things cost, and said "I got no money" they couldn't pull it off.
I too got scammed I got scammed only yesterday, that is 21/03/2009, but the worst part is I got taken by a guy by the name of Tony. For the past 3 days girls had been hitting on me, but I had kept my guard up, because girls can be extremely mischievous, but yesterday I let my guard down because the guy spoke very good english and he was interesting to talk to. The rest follows the same story line, nice tea house etc.... my damage was 400 Yuan. Not to0 bad considering others have lost a lot more.
Tiananmen tea scam Damn chinas! Same shit, different day and different girls. 1636RMB was my slash. When I called my friend to tell him about my wonderful meeting he said "no! where are you?! and, are the girls still with you? im calling the police!" Hell...hopefully visa is understanding of all our fools' mistakes... I really felt like dishing out some "pain cake".
Me too Same happened to me dammit! I too are incredibly cautious to anyone that approaches me but this scam is unbelievably good. Even looking back, unless i was aware of this scam prior, how I could have picked up on it. Also it was the same girl on the right but with another girl
Same scam / same girls!! Yep, got done myself by the SAME GILRS (+ one other called Lilly) not in the photo. My bill was over 2000RMB for a few cups. I refused to pay all, the girls offered to pay their portion so I shelled out some 500RMB...
They have excellent English and seemed natural. Just practiced obviously!
Can't believe the same girls are photographed here!! Thx Matt!
Same girls / same trick!!! I can't believe this blog from Matt.
I got done exactly the same way BY the same GIRLS in your photo. There was one other called Lilly that is not in the photo. This was May 2008, just a few days ago near Tiananmen.
My bill was 2100RMB! I freaked, refused to pay all though paid 500RMB, still $80+ for some shit tea!
The girls speak very good English.
I feel like reporting them to the police now that I have read this...
A clever scam indeed, they were very convincing though as I can't see just very well practiced!
Thanks for your post Matt.
I got out scott free My friend and I were wondering if these things were scams, so when he left Beijing early, i had some time to kill so I went for the tea, refused to eat the fruit (i saw a sign at 100rmb a plate), then when one girl got up to get the server i got up as well (against the wishes of the other girl) stood by the door, didn't even bother looking at the bill luckly had exact change for the tea (30rmb) stuffed it in the hands of the girl and walked out the door! As i walked out i heard the girls complaining that I wasn't paying for the 150rmb room fee. It was well worth the 30rmb. I was going to pick up a Starbucks Latte anyways so i probably saved myself a couple RMB! And i had about 5 cups of tea (they were probably going to try to charge me 30 per glass too right?)
tea scam we showed up, they showed up. At first when we confronted them they tried to act as if we didn't know what we were talking about. However as time went on and we threatened to go to the police, they had us wait with one of the girls while the other went and got our money back. Since we have now learnt of this scam its absolutely amazing how many times we've been approached since, with basically the same line. Hello, how are you, where are you from, we are learning english do you mind if we walk with you. My standard answer is No thanks I've already had my tea.
us too yes we got snookered by the scam last evening in Beijing. Very nice girls said they were english teachers. Even after I knew this was a scam I couldn't believe these nice girls were part of it, so I offered to buy dinner for them tonight. I wonder if they will show up? 2nd question is what should I do if they do?
You learn something new every day That's actually very interesting - I knew the cold weather caused problems but it could have been a lot different if the Germans could have used their trains.
Americans Yes, we Americans get excited at just about anything; hooting and hollaring so everyone can hear. It's pretty embarrassing! Although I think the rocket launch is pretty spectacular. The Universal Studios you went to is in Orlando. And I will read anything you post cuz I am a bored mommy on my days off so blog away about chicken wings or any interesting places you may have scratched.
WWII The different gauge of train track was also a very important factor in the defeat of the German Army when they invaded Russia in WWII. With Hitler's boys having to leave their trains at the border they had to rely upon horse, mule and man to carry their supplies to the front line and with the Russian winter being in full swing ... they didn't do so well with horse, mule and man ...
Conspiracy theory That's probably why we weren't allowed to cross the line - we could have ended up stepping on the rocket. Either that or it was a massive projector screen and they didn't want us stepping in front of the projector and causing a sillouhette on the toy rocket and causing everybody to tut and say "down in front". My blog is probably going to be taken offline now Mike's discovered the secret.
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To Continue
So the question I have do the police know or are they turning a blind eye? These same two con artists (who change their names) and their friends are doing nothing to enhance apparently numerous visitors stays in Beijing.