Getting Conned in the Big Apple

This incident actually happened to my friend during the first few weeks of our stay. I could have been a victim if I had joined my friend to take a walk around the city before lesson on that fateful day.

My friend Ray, was taking a walk on Broadway when he was approached by an African-looking guy. He was dressed in tattered clothes and looked like a beggar. He spoke to Ray in broken English saying that he had come to America to see a lawyer. His brother had passed away in an accident but he had some insurance coverage. This guy had travelled here to collect money from the insurance company. He said that he had to see a lawyer at an address which was scribbled on a crumpled piece of paper. He shoved it to Ray and asked for directions.




Ray was caught in a fix as he himself just arrived and did not know the city well. He pitied the man and said that he did not know the place. At this point, a woman who had been observing the duo intervened and offered to give directions for the poor man. After looking at the addressed, she said, " This building is no longer around! Who gave you this address?" The man was lost, he had wanted to speak to a lawyer about his brother's death. The helpful lady suggested that he should find accommodation first. She told him that YMCA offered cheap hostels and he could stay there. She pointed the direction where YMCA was.

The man thanked Ray and the lady and walked off. As he strolled away, stacks of US dollar notes fell out of his pocket onto the floor. Ray and the lady noticed and quickly ran after him to pick it up and gave it to him. She even told him that New York is a dangerous city and he shouldn't be walking around with such big amount of cash. He squatted down and picked up a brown paper bag that was lying on the floor and stuffed his notes inside.

At this juncture, the woman suggested that he should deposit the money into a bank. "A bank? No, no, no, me dun wanna bury my money by the river...no, no, no...there is also no river here!" Both Ray and the lady smiled and explained that it was not the riverbank they were referring to. They tried to explain what a bank is a place to safekeep the money and he could withdraw the money from an ATM when he needed money. The man looked puzzled.




Just round the corner of the street, there was a Citibank ATM. The lady pointed that as an example. She walked the man closer to show people could actually take money out of those machines. He was still doubtful and he asked them to show him by withdrawing money. The lady said that she did not bank with Citibank and asked Ray if he had a Citibank ATM card. Thinking that it was good to convince the man to deposit the money in a bank, Ray agreed to withdraw $20 just to demonstrate to the man how it could be done.

At that point the woman stopped them and whispered to Ray that it might not be safe for him to withdraw in front of the man, as the pin number may be leaked. However she also guessed that the man could be illiterate and so he may not know what was the pin anyway. They decided to test if the man was illiterate. They pointed to a car licence plate and asked the man to read out the numbers and letters. The man just said, "American words."

Having established that the man was illiterate, Ray showed him how he actually withdrew $20 from his bank account. Having seen the machine spitting out dollar notes, the man seemed convinced. He wanted to open an account at the bank. The lady asked him if he had his passport with him as he was a foreigner. He said that he left his baggage in the lockers at the train station. She offered to walk him there and help him open an account.




At this point, Ray felt that it was about time to head back for school. He bade farewell to the man and wished him luck. The lady looked rather apprehensive at this point. She told Ray that there were likely to be hooligans hanging out at the train station and it would be very unsafe for them to have so much money with them. She suggested that Ray to safekeep the money for the man and they would meet up later to get the money. Ray felt that there was little to lose for him and he agreed.

The man passed Ray the brown bag containing the money. The man seemed unhappy when he saw Ray stuff the bag into his backpack. He asked Ray to take out his wallet and put it together with his stack of notes in the brown paper bag before keeping in the bag, just to ensure that Ray took good care of the money. When all is done, the man and woman set off for the railway station and Ray walked back to campus.

As Ray continued his way to school, he felt uneasy with so much money with him. When he reached school, he decided to check if the money is still in his bag. When he opened the paper bag, he had a shock of his life. The stack of notes in the back is merely a stack of white paper and his wallet is gone! Feeling that something had gone horribly wrong, Ray quickly called up the Citibank hotline to report loss of his ATM card to cancel it. Coincidentally the call station was down and he did not managed to get help until much later. By then, he realised that there were withdrawals of US$3000 from his bank account (which was the max withdrawal limit).
Ray then realised that the African man and the helpful lady were actually in cahoots to con him.





I accompanied Ray to make a police report. While I was waiting for him to have his statements taken, I browsed through the brochures displayed at the reception. I picked up a pamphlet on scams by conmen. Ironically, one of the scam called "The brown bag swap" caught my eye as it described exactly what had happened to Ray. This team of conmen target travellers using the same exact script and Ray had just fallen prey to their scam.