By: fallen angel

During the vacation, we encountered a con man; he doesn’t look like one, he sure doesn’t sound like one, but after analyzing what happened afterwards, we came to the conclusion that he’s a filthy con men, and a smooth one at that too.

We were heading somewhere for dinner – a place recommended by a friend, and we caught a cab to bring us there. When we got into the cab, the cab driver asked where we want to go, and proceeded to go there as usual – like a normal cab ride.

Or so we thought.

He started asking us where we came from, and what race are we. He was then surprised to know that we’re Chinese and mentioned that he’s Chinese too!

TACTIC #1 – Identifying with the victims to lower victim’s defenses, preparing them for more tactics to come; much like preparing meat before cooking. I’m not sure if “I’m human too!” works here, but hey, they’re going to find something that they can identify with, and use it.

He then asked where we’re going again, and tries to find out why we’re going there. He asked, “You going back hotel? You going dinner?” Of course, being the honest persons that we were, we said no, we’re going to have dinner in the area.

He then shook his head, and said, “That place dangerous”, and then paused for a while, as if to think.. and caught our attention. We then ask, “Why dangerous?”, and he mentioned about riots that’s happening around the area, and asked if we had read the news, and say “It’s very dangerous now, riots everywhere, that place not safe.. you want eat nearby got good restaurants.”

TACTIC #2 – Use current events to defuse the victim’s original intentions. The riots were true, but it wasn’t happening anywhere near our original destination, so he was using a mix of facts and untruths to divert our original route so that he can “nudge” us towards his intended destination. He’s not lying about the riots, but he’s lying about the location of the riots. For someone who knew about the riots, but didn’t know the exact location of it, would probably think he was speaking the truth since he’s a taxi driver and he knows the happenings around the area. Had he not used the current events, we may not have had fallen into his trap.

Naturally, we don’t know where else to eat, and we ask him to recommend a place. And he said, you heard of “Insert a name here” ? We said no, and he scoffed and said, it’s the most famous here! How can you have not heard of it? And he started saying that we walked into the right taxi at the right time.

TACTIC #3 – Make the victims think they are lucky, or extremely lucky to have met you.

He then said that we got the right person if we’re looking for food, since he’s the expert. He then patted his belly a bit.

TACTIC #4 – Portray yourself as the expert; the go-to person for that particular topic.

He then say “It’s very near, will only cost you 4.50 to go there.”

TACTIC #5 – Stress that it’s cheap to go there so that you don’t question the cost of going there.

We then ask, is it expensive? He stalled a little, (should’ve raised a red flag here! probably thinking of what to say since it’s going to be different than the real answer!) and then said “Like normal price, don’t worry.”

TACTIC #6 – Lie.

He then said that it’s the place locals go to, that by 7.30pm (it was about 6.30pm) nobody can get a place anymore.

TACTIC #7 – Lie again. Make the victims think it’s the go-to place, and make them think if they don’t hurry they will lose the opportunity.

After we agreed to go, he then prepares us for more cons to come. He first said that I was lucky to have a pretty girlfriend. Then when we used some local language, he proclaims surprise and compliments again and said we’re the best around.

TACTIC #8 – Compliment your victims. Lower their defenses again.

He then suggest that if we go to the restaurant, we MUST try a certain dish! It’s a local dish and you can never say you’ve been to that place until you’ve tried it.

TACTIC #9 – Suggest an expensive dish after you’ve finished lowering their defenses.

And then when we reached the destination, he said, oh… I said it’ll be 4.50 but it’s 4.80 now… then act very “paiseh” (embarassed).

TACTIC #10 – The ultimate tactic, appear embarassed that you have done disservice to your victims to remove any doubts that you’re a kind person and that you’re just trying to help. (When it’s otherwise!)

It’s like being cast in a spell. Once all those tactics are used, you won’t think twice about ordering the dishes he suggested.

And ends up with a RM 400 bill.

And staring at the bill in disbelief. “Like normal price” indeed.

Others would have claimed they were put under a spell, but I knew – we were prepared, sliced, diced, peppered and salted by a smooth operator. A super smooth con men. By the time he was done, we were so “prepared” that we were ready to order anything he suggested to us.

I had a bad feeling after I got off the cab – while the restaurant doesn’t seem to be “sprawling” with locals, it sure doesn’t seem to be “sprawling” with people either; there were about 3 groups of people there, and all of them foreigners. And taxis kept coming in with people – and I question this, if it’s so famous with locals, wouldn’t the locals come in their own vehicles? I shrugged it off, and although the bad feeling was present throughout dinner, I didn’t act on it.

You might scoff and say, this won’t happen to me! It didn’t occur to us that it would happen to us either, but it did. We thought we were quite “street smart” and savvy, having travelled to many places and experienced many things, but this proves to be a humbling experience. We knew about the cons out there, earlier we even avoided taking a cheaper cab ride because he has “sponsors” and all we have to do is just take a look at the sponsor’s shop and we don’t have to buy anything.

We can be smooth, but there will always be someone smoother than us. It didn’t occur to us that a restaurant can be a sponsor too.

It was an expensive lesson to us, and I hope by sharing this, it would help someone get out of such a situation in the future. Helping just one other person out there, would mean that our lesson is worthwhile.

You can say we learned our lesson – the next day another cab driver asked us if we were going to dinner (we wanted to head to the original destination recommended by our friend, and we were determined to get there, riots or not). We said, no, we’re going back to hotel, and no, we don’t want any dinner. And when we got there, we had the best meal ever, at the best price ever. And there were no riots, no hints of unrest, it was boisterous with travellers and locals alike.

It seems like even a seemingly kind person may have ulterior motives. We can’t, and we shouldn’t drop our guard, not even for a minute.

Expensive lesson learned.

Good luck!