4 ms·

To be fair to China that scam has targeted me at least 15 years ago via email and so common in the USA that the FTC warns people about it. https://www.consumer.

To be fair to China that scam has targeted me at least 15 years ago via email and so common in the USA that the FTC warns people about it. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0204-family-emergency-scams https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0204-family-emergency-... Fraud is everywhere including the USA but not in the same way as China I imagine. There are some industries rife with fraud in the USA, how do you explain the following to people in China - auto repair (can't trust anybody until proven fair and have to get multiple estimates)/short term payday loans/that recent posting about elder guardianship abuse/multi level marketing systems/furniture rental. OTOH I don't worry about the food in the USA being tampered with in the infamous ways Chinese industries put poison in pet food or put plastic toxins in milk to cut costs.

superjambo 9y ago
Or opium in the noodles... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/26/chinese-noodle-shop-laces-noodles-with-opium-to-keep-customers-coming-back/?utm_term=.134760979444 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/2...
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
You don’t get scammed on the street like you do in china or Italy tourist areas. Ya, instead you have to believe a Nigerian prince really is contacting you by email or that Microsoft is really calling you about your windows PC.l, or there are really single girls in your area who are interested in you in the Internet. But really scams all over the world prey on people who don’t get “too good to be true.” That fancy shampoo you bought cheaply at the whole in the wall store below your apartment? Ya, it will definitely be fake!
- anontoday126 9y ago
  > You don’t get scammed on the street like you do in china or Italy tourist areas. Yes you do. When I was in New York, Baltimore, New Orleans, Chicago, and other cities, I constantly had people come up to me and "ask for help." They would give some sob story about how they were tricked to come to the city and they are just trying to get some money to go back home. Or people would approach me at gas stations, saying they forgot their wallet and just needed to borrow some money for gas.
  - IntronExon 9y ago
    That’s not scamming, that’s begging.
- aeriklawson 9y ago
  Have you spent time in NYC? I get scammed regularly here, it's not a Chinese or American thing. It's possible the rates are higher there in general, but I wouldn't say you "don't get scammed in the streets" in the USA.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    I haven't, but I've spent plenty of time in Beijing. I think Italy is worse though, especially Milan.
- stevenwoo 9y ago
  Anecdotally in the Bay Area have been approached by strangers for both the three card Monte and the shell game. I think that if I did not have prior knowledge of these I would have been vulnerable to them as well.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    I don't know. Gambling on the street doesn't seem like a very American thing. Are you sure you weren't targeted because you looked Chinese? (for the same reason white people get targeted for specific scams in China...)
    - stevenwoo 9y ago
      I don't know, either, not enough data/investigation to judge. Off the top of my head I was in San Francisco and a homeless person approached me and several Asian friends for a game in the street and once in a BART station and another time I was with some caucasian co workers in Redwood City at a fast food place.
      - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
        Strange. I've been to the Bay Area many times, lived there for a couple of years even, and I never saw anything like that, especially in Redwood City. I'm pretty versed in the foreigner scams in China, but, they aren't applied to Chinese people. The main ones that apply to Chinese are fake goods at the small stores (very common, almost universal), a farmer in the middle of the street at night pretending to get hit or waiting to pretend to get hit, and the money on the ground scam.
    - dragonwriter 9y ago
      > Gambling on the street doesn't seem like a very American thing. I've seen it occur a few times personally, usually with no Asian participants, and its been regularly depicted as a thing in US entertainment media with non-Asian participants in a manner which suggests that the audience was not expected to see it as unusual as a practice.

superjambo 9y ago

Or opium in the noodles... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/26/chinese-noodle-shop-laces-noodles-with-opium-to-keep-customers-coming-back/?utm_term=.134760979444 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/2...

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

You don’t get scammed on the street like you do in china or Italy tourist areas. Ya, instead you have to believe a Nigerian prince really is contacting you by email or that Microsoft is really calling you about your windows PC.l, or there are really single girls in your area who are interested in you in the Internet. But really scams all over the world prey on people who don’t get “too good to be true.” That fancy shampoo you bought cheaply at the whole in the wall store below your apartment? Ya, it will definitely be fake!

anontoday126 9y ago
> You don’t get scammed on the street like you do in china or Italy tourist areas. Yes you do. When I was in New York, Baltimore, New Orleans, Chicago, and other cities, I constantly had people come up to me and "ask for help." They would give some sob story about how they were tricked to come to the city and they are just trying to get some money to go back home. Or people would approach me at gas stations, saying they forgot their wallet and just needed to borrow some money for gas.
- IntronExon 9y ago
  That’s not scamming, that’s begging.
aeriklawson 9y ago
Have you spent time in NYC? I get scammed regularly here, it's not a Chinese or American thing. It's possible the rates are higher there in general, but I wouldn't say you "don't get scammed in the streets" in the USA.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  I haven't, but I've spent plenty of time in Beijing. I think Italy is worse though, especially Milan.
stevenwoo 9y ago
Anecdotally in the Bay Area have been approached by strangers for both the three card Monte and the shell game. I think that if I did not have prior knowledge of these I would have been vulnerable to them as well.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  I don't know. Gambling on the street doesn't seem like a very American thing. Are you sure you weren't targeted because you looked Chinese? (for the same reason white people get targeted for specific scams in China...)
  - stevenwoo 9y ago
    I don't know, either, not enough data/investigation to judge. Off the top of my head I was in San Francisco and a homeless person approached me and several Asian friends for a game in the street and once in a BART station and another time I was with some caucasian co workers in Redwood City at a fast food place.
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      Strange. I've been to the Bay Area many times, lived there for a couple of years even, and I never saw anything like that, especially in Redwood City. I'm pretty versed in the foreigner scams in China, but, they aren't applied to Chinese people. The main ones that apply to Chinese are fake goods at the small stores (very common, almost universal), a farmer in the middle of the street at night pretending to get hit or waiting to pretend to get hit, and the money on the ground scam.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    > Gambling on the street doesn't seem like a very American thing. I've seen it occur a few times personally, usually with no Asian participants, and its been regularly depicted as a thing in US entertainment media with non-Asian participants in a manner which suggests that the audience was not expected to see it as unusual as a practice.