Post: #26

Just looked at your profile, it's says white from UK. Jesus man, I wouldn't even entertain these bitches for 2 minutes of convo. If they came up to me I would be polite but try to swat them off as fast as possible.

Post: #27

Damn, i would not even talk to them...

Unfortunate you got scammed mate, but it's a lesson, two in one, don't fall for scams and two, increase your standards!

Post: #28

i am from shanghai. Yah, seem like its scam, but the girls seem quite fun according to what you are describing. Dont worry too much, you had a good time drinking tea and chatting to them i hope. I would probably have done the same... i got scammed really bad in cusco peru.

Post: #29

Start coughing on them and tell you have the bird flu! Then grab them by the hand and insist they walk into the tea house.

Post: #30

It's a classic in China. Don't bother going back unless you have your receipt, Chinese witnesses and a lawyer. It's not worth it. Don't get faked out by the "artist gallery" one either. I went to Beijing with some friends a few months ago and watched in horror as they got suckered into that. I flat out refused to look at shitacular art and explored tianamen square instead. They lost a couple hundred quai on a "gallery tour".

Also, you're a foreigner. Don't waste your time with anything less than an 8 in china. Be suspicious of anyone asking you to take their picture and not a picture with you in it.

Post: #31

I had a ton of fun fucking with the Chinese tea girls. I had no choice but to pass them pretty much everyday in Shanghai. And being that I'm over 6' tall, white and not dressed for business made me an easy target for them.

As noted earlier, I told them about hamburger ceremonies of how we blessed hamburgers before we ate them in America, and how the McDonald's hamburgers were not good to eat in China bad to eat because they weren't properly blessed. I told them I could get them into Harvard. I invited them to my apartment. I bench pressed one of them and took a photo of it. I pretended like I was going to run away with their camera.

Basically anything that made my hungover brain laugh in the morning. Have fun with it dude. I had my 15 minutes of fun everyday!

Post: #32

You guys should check out the show "Scam city*. Good show about the types of scams in different places. The guy goes undercover with cameras and allows himself to be scammed and then confronts them and asks them to explain the scam to him. They've done Rio, Buenos Aries, Bangkok, Prague and a few others. Pretty crazy stuff the guy gets attacked and extorted in a bar in Prague. At least the tea girls aren't violent.

Post: #33

Here is an english girl traveler who got scammed just the same way. They don't just get the guys it seems....

http://www.neverendingfootsteps.com/2011...y-revenge/

----------------------------

After spending seven hours walking around Shanghai and finding nothing but perverted old men who wanted to grope me while I wasn’t looking, I was pleased to run into two friendly Chinese girls who were around the same age as me.They started by excitedly asking to have their photo taken with me, something which I had got used to very quickly since arriving in China.

Whilst I like to believe that they are actually adoring fans of my site, the sad reality is that Chinese people seem to like collecting photos of themselves with small white girls who look like they’ve shoved their fingers into a light socket.

With nothing better to do and upon discovering that the two girls were very funny and had close to perfect English, we stood talking for over half an hour before deciding to part. As I said goodbye and started to walk off one of them quickly gasped and ran after me to tell me that they were actually just heading off to a traditional tea ceremony, and that I was free to accompany them if I wanted.

As spending another seven hours getting lost sounded about as appealing as piss flavoured lollipop, I excitedly agreed to go with them.

After a long walk during which the girls led me through a series of dimly lit, small alleyways, we finally arrived at our destination.

It was a nondescript building, which had no identifying sign out and held no indication that it housed any kind of tea ceremonies. I dismissed my growing sense of malaise and followed the girls inside.

We were quickly ushered into a small, dark room by our host for the next 30 minutes: a tiny Chinese lady wearing traditional robes, who quietly motioned for us to sit. The room was empty apart from a low wooden table and a few wooden stools. The walls were covered by yellow, slightly peeling wallpaper adorned with Chinese symbols and landscapes.

As we sat down one of the girls turned to me, “the host can only speak Chinese. Don’t worry, I will translate for you. I hope you don’t mind my Engrish” she grinned as the other girl burst out laughing.

A menu was quickly shown to us and one of the girls told me that we would be sampling six different teas today. I noticed that the prices were not listed but after seeing the size of the cups I assumed that it wouldn’t cost much at all.

The ceremony itself was uneventful. The girls told me the history and different ingredients in the teas, and we had a great time laughing and joking, whilst taking lots of photos.

As the ceremony ended, the more talkative of the pair pointed towards the second container of tea. “This was my favourite tea, which was yours?” she asked. I indicated that I liked the fourth tea that we had tried and she excitedly told me I could buy some to take home for my family.

After seeing how ridiculously expensive the prices were, I politely declined. The two girls, however, both chose two bags of tea each.

Then the bill arrived.

The prices, scrawled out grey pencil, tell me my share of the price, including their gifts for their family, comes to 742 yuan (£75)…

I sat there in shock for a while before I remembered the signs plastered all over my hostel. The signs which I spent hours joking about with friends just the day before. The signs which read: “Caution: You may be approached by several young student-type locals with very good English who will offer to take you to a tea ceremony. Do not go with them. This is part of an elaborate scam to trick westerners into paying extortionate amounts of money”

Shit.

Thinking quickly, I immediately refused to pay for part of their tea that they had bought. “But it is tradition”, they giggled, “in China we must always split the bill equally. This is what friends do. Are you not our friend?”

I stood firm, refused to pay the money, and asked the host to recalculate the bill without the tea. The new price came in at 500 yuan (£50).

To put that into perspective, £50 is roughly the cost of two weeks accommodation in China.

Feeling only slightly better with this price I handed over the money and watched one of the girls leave with the host so that she could “pay via credit card”.


The "Lucky Money Toad" they placed on the table in front of me...
As I sat silently cursing myself and my naivety, the remaining girl in the room quickly pulled out an advert for an acrobatic show that evening and asked if I wanted to buy a ticket from her so that we could go together. Thoroughly pissed off by this point, I glared at her and didn’t bother to respond, leaving us both sitting in silence while she stared at me awkwardly.

When the girl returned we left through a different door than we came in through and they led me down a completely different set of backstreets as before, as I focused on how I could get rid of them as quickly as possible.

Suddenly we’re back among the tourists and bright lights and one of the girls tells me they have to meet some other friends now. Relief.

They asked me what my plans were for the rest of the day and as I started to tell them I noticed one of the girls with her arm outstretched behind my back. I swiftly turned around and caught her hand in my bag pulling out my purse.

It was at this point that I lost it.

With adrenaline pumping through my veins I pulled back my fist and with all my strength, I flung it forward and hit her square in the face. I grinned with satisfaction as I saw her stumbling backwards, staring at me in horror.

I gave her a small wink and a smirk before quickly disappearing into the crowd of tourists across the street.

I punched the one to my right...
Upon arriving back in my hostel, I sat down and spent my evening searching online for more information on the Shanghai Tea Scam. The amount of people that had been caught out by the trap was overwhelming. After reading about people losing hundreds and hundreds of pounds through the same scam I realised that it could have been much, much worse, and felt glad to have only lost £50.

The good, and bad, thing to come out of this whole ordeal was that from that moment onwards, if anyone tried to approach me on the street in China I wouldn’t even react and would completely ignore them. Whilst that therefore prevented me from being scammed anymore, it also made me feel a bit sad that I felt that I could no longer trust anyone else.

Post: #34

No offense man, but I dont think those chicks even reach 2 on the 'scale'

Post: #35

I was alerted to the possibility of this scam from Neil's book actually. After that I did my google searching. So when I was in Beijing I was dying for someone to try and scam me, but none of them did.

Anyway you should know that if anyone, especially a female that you don't know, is being extra friendly to you it's because she wants something. Is this your first time traveling to Asia?

Post: #36

(12-20-2012 12:04 PM)Menace Wrote:  Anyway you should know that if anyone, especially a human being that you don't know, is being extra friendly to you it's because they want something. Is this your first time traveling to Earth?

Been a resident for a while now, fixed that error for you.

Post: #37

Those women look pretty beastly. 2/10 would not bang.

Post: #38

I am fully aware that these girls are gross. Banging them was not the first thing on my mind. This happened at 4 in the afternoon on a miserable cold day. I was just killing time. I had wanted to go to a tea house. That is what drew me in more than these skanks.

Post: #39

(12-20-2012 11:44 AM)DirectDanger Wrote:  Here is an english girl traveler who got scammed just the same way. They don't just get the guys it seems....

http://www.neverendingfootsteps.com/2011...y-revenge/

----------------------------

I read that story a while ago. She quite nice to look at. That's the reason Me and a million other dudes left a reaction. Well, I left a reaction for others to see my link actually.

Post: #40

Well I will admit I would not have minded banging one of them. I do have low standards and a thing for Asians. But yes, this is a lesson learned in more ways than one.

Post: #41

(12-20-2012 12:04 PM)Menace Wrote:  I was alerted to the possibility of this scam from Neil's book actually. After that I did my google searching. So when I was in Beijing I was dying for someone to try and scam me, but none of them did.

Anyway you should know that if anyone, especially a female that you don't know, is being extra friendly to you it's because she wants something. Is this your first time traveling to Asia?

Were you wearing shorts and flip flops like me? That's like holding a sign saying "I'm a tourist" hahaha.

Too bad you didn't see them, It's fun to joke around with them.

Post: #42

Boner test man. OK I will stop trying to justify myself now.

Post: #43

I can gladly say I've never gotten scammed. I almost don't understand how anyone could. I'm not a safe player, but every scam I've gotten picked for has just seemed way to obvious.

for you, it sucks, but now your know what to look for I guess.

stick around this forum. it's worth your time

Post: #44

Another reason why I started this thread

/thread-18748.html

Post: #45

(12-20-2012 11:44 AM)DirectDanger Wrote:  With adrenaline pumping through my veins I pulled back my fist and with all my strength, I flung it forward and hit her square in the face. I grinned with satisfaction as I saw her stumbling backwards, staring at me in horror.

Them English chicks are feisty. I like that. Her scammer literally lost face!

Post: #46

(12-20-2012 01:20 PM)Expert Commander Wrote:  Boner test man. OK I will stop trying to justify myself now.

Please. I am a yellow fever addict myself.

Post: #47

I would have followed with some punches and kicks

Post: #48

(12-20-2012 07:05 AM)Expert Commander Wrote:  

(12-20-2012 06:59 AM)MaleDefined Wrote:  People's square, asking for a photo, English speaking students, yes you did get scammed. Chalk it up to experience.

And to think I almost posted about this in a China thread the other day.

Yea I knew it. I would have rather not been scammed but 160 dollars for tea and dinner (not to mention this story and the experience) is far from the worst thing to happen to me.

My friends in Thailand had warned me about Chinese girls. I will have my guard up from now on.

I really don't know what to say to this. First off, you should always read up on the scams before heading to a new country - basic research would have alerted you to this, and even if you completely avoid every other section of Lonely Planet, that section is always a must.

Not to mention that this scam is so common it's posted about in guesthouses?!

I'd really just say shit happens, but three things are pretty alarming about your experience:

1) You have previous experience in Asia (Thailand).
2) They got you not once (shame on them) but twice (shame on you). Going to dinner with them was a huge mistake. And even bigger mistake was not demanding to see the bill when they tried to cheat you a second time.
3) You mentioned above it isn't the worst thing that's happened to you, and I'm assuming you mean it's not the worst you've been scammed. If I'm right, your radar should have been blasting off from the beginning on this...

In any event, you really need to find a way to translate your bad experiences into street smarts when traveling. This whole day not only could have been avoided but should have been avoided.

(12-20-2012 08:20 AM)Expert Commander Wrote:  Photos attached

Actually they are all ugly. I cant believe I let my johnson overrule my brain to such a degree this time.

Let no man be fooled by these skanks in the future.

OH SNAP!!! Based on those pics, I can't believe it either!!!

(12-20-2012 08:59 AM)Tenerife Wrote:  This scam is notorious, and is one of the most well known scams in china. Tim Ferriss was in a video once talking about it with Kevin Rose. Tim apparently tried to find out where their headquarters was and figure out more about it, but the people quickly got scared and ran away.

I saw that one. I think it was the art gallery scam.

(12-20-2012 11:44 AM)DirectDanger Wrote:  With adrenaline pumping through my veins I pulled back my fist and with all my strength, I flung it forward and hit her square in the face. I grinned with satisfaction as I saw her stumbling backwards, staring at me in horror.

lol homegirl threw down!

Guys, we don't need a separate thread on the forum about this stuff (other than for our own entertainment). Let's face it, location-specific scams are well-documented online and in books and can and should be researched by anyone entering a new country. We have the ability to avoid the pitfalls of any given destination like no other world travelers in history. Take advantage of that fact.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #49

Heres a good note,

I have been around Asia a lot. Lived in Beijing, Taipei, Tainan etc etc. ANYTIME it has even a hint of a smile of a scam...its time to walk especially if these girls are taking you somewhere. Oh, and always ask for a menu WITH prices. lol.

Most chinese will FIGHT to pay for you if they take you somewhere. Just my 2c.

Keep your big head up, and little head down when you are not in the bedroom.

Post: #50

Man, you got scammed , for sure.

But it's part of the experience. And not a shame considering that many local guys or Chinese got scammed too.