Asking for help - claims cheated by friend who stole all his cash/docs, stranded in KL.

by Theo
(KL)

Another of those confidence tricks.

Stopped by a young chinese man at Bandar Tasik Selatan LRT after seeing my friend off at the bus terminal, around 7am.

Claimed to be working as a cook in Singapore, but cheated by a friend who ran off with all his money /identification. Needs some money to settle hotel bills, and bus ticket back to Singapore.

Like an idiot, i fell for this and parted with some good money.

Be very careful of this. You might think you are streetwise enough not to fall for something this stupid, (i did) but the way it is done is very subtle psychologically. The plea for help starts out asking to help a fellow chinese in trouble, and he would not cheat for a something this small (the bus ticket).

He looks genuinely like a good person in trouble. When you have committed to help him, he will tell you about the hotel bill he is unable to pay, a couple hundred ringgit. He will offer as proof of his story that you accompany him to the hotel he supposedly stayed at.

He will even show you his arms and stomach to prove he is not a drug addict or something of the sort. He gets your phone number and bank account, and promises to bank in the money he 'borrowed' the very next day.

If you meet such a situation, just ask why the 'stranded' person if he has made a police report, and offer to bring him to the nearest police station. If he persists in asking for cash, persist even more strongly in wanting to 'help' bring him to make a police report.

That alone will be sufficient to scare him off.