By playing on the average person's lack of knowledge about the system and the way that the system uses technology, some savvy con-artists have taken to the telephone lines in Western China to bilk people out of their money. I suppose it is not substantially different from scammers using email accounts in most parts of the world, but these opportunists realize that there are still many people in this area who do not yet have consistent internet access, and the best way to make some money off of these people is to stick to the somewhat older technology of the hardline telephone.
Such scammers have called my home four times in the last two weeks. They only call home phones, not mobiles. The phone calls general take one of two forms. In the first, they say that they are the local police and that you owe money, and you should transfer it to an account. If you go to the local police station, they will have no record of this. In the second kind of phone call, the kind which we received this morning, the recipient is told that they have a document from a lawyer. We were in a hurry this morning, so we didn't pull this thread to its (most likely) inevitable conclusion, but I'm sure that, if you wanted to receive said document (and we don't have a lawyer here... so how could we be awaiting a document?) you would have to put some money in an account. Only a nominal fee, maybe 2,000 RMB. (in case the voice didn't come across there, I was being sarcastic).
1 Comment
8/1/2016 11:57:42 pm
Friend, this web site might be fabolous, i just like it.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
About TimAs you can see elsewhere on this webpage, I conduct research on ethnic minorities in western China. This blog offers semi-academic musings on the minutiae of daily life out here--the sort of information otherwise destined for footnotes. Categories |