An attempt to scam me in the Forbidden City ended with a slap in my face

The ticket office was still open and I was busy buying a ticket when the ladies suddenly popped up next to me. They thanked me for noticing that it was still possible to enter the Forbidden City, bought their tickets too and together we entered the palace. I’m a hobby photographer and had brought my equipment to take pictures. My wife always complains that I take way too long, but the ladies I was with wanted to both see the palace and practise their English, so I took my time. Someone mowing the paved main square makes a great picture, doesn’t it? I noticed that the smaller of the two lost interest after about an hour or so. She obviously didn’t need much time to admire the grandeur of the palace, but the other one kept on talking.

After another hour we were nearing the exit and the little lady came to life. She almost dragged me through the last bit, because now we could have tea! I had also planned to visit a shopping mall, so I suggested we take a taxi at my expense and have tea there. That was a bad idea, they just knew the place to go. As we walked, I realised we were going in the same direction they had subtly tried to lead me to before. I started to wonder if it was a scam after all. I decided not to enter any club in an obscure area or with intimidating security.

We ended up at a teahouse on the main road along the Forbidden City with a nice presence of plenty of police and military. The teahouse looked excellent, by Chinese standards, with only one window boarded up. We entered. No security, only a somewhat older landlady. In the main room, two Western tourists were sitting in front of the large window, enjoying their tea. I was shown into the room adjacent. It was the room with the boarded-up window. I declined as it felt just a little too private to me, so we sat down in the main room. The ladies enthusiastically started to order tea, soft drinks and snacks and asked me what I would enjoy. I accepted some tea and declined all but a few of the snacks frequently offered. A rather awkward conversation ensued with painfully clumsy attempts to feign interest in me, like asking for my favorite colour and then saying that it was exactly the same as theirs. I didn’t last long and I told them that I would leave for the shopping mall. As I stood up the landlady was quickly called, who, due to her lack of English, produced a calculator with an exorbitant amount, considering what had been delivered. I couldn’t help laughing and said that I had been invited by the two ladies. Apparently something snapped in the smaller lady and before I knew it she had slapped me in the face. The landlady immediately intervened and kicked me out of her establishment. I was still standing outside, a bit dazed, planning my route to the shopping mall, when the two ladies came out. The smaller of the two clearly had not calmed down and tried to kick me, but was held back by her resigned companion who also made clear to both of us that it was time for paths to part.

I felt a little sorry for wasting two and a half hours of the ladies’ time, having them buy entrance tickets to the palace, which are quite expensive by Chinese standards, and on top of that, having to pay the steep bill for the teahouse. After all, they were clearly novice scammers with still a lot to learn.

Nowadays, scams are mainly online and therefore scalable. Figures of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) show that annually $1T is stolen. The scam they tried to pull on me was nothing compared to that. Online scams are scalable and can use harvested or synthetic identities, making them a way bigger threat. All means available to counter this should be used. The standard Verification of Payee (VOP) is a good one, and a better one if extended with SurePay’s Fraud Risk Indicators.