Anyone know this bali scam?

[theblank]

when I first went to bali all those years ago, they had those time share scams, where they give you a lottery card or scratchie which you always won,

Still doing it as of last month. Its not really a scam as such, just a cunning way to lure you to the presentation.

They do the same thing here, except instead give you a free DVD player or one nigghts holiday. I have been to a few and taken the free night. Its worth it for the pain of a 2hr sales pitch.

 

[SOPOOR]

Still doing it as of last month. Its not really a scam as such, just a cunning way to lure you to the presentation.

They do the same thing here, except instead give you a free DVD player or one nigghts holiday. I have been to a few and taken the free night. Its worth it for the pain of a 2hr sales pitch.

i did read a few reports in hte past that if you didnt sign up at the presentation, they will simply either get aggressive or just leave you in front of the resort in the middle of nowhere

 

[oobi doobi]

i did read a few reports in hte past that if you didnt sign up at the presentation, they will simply either get aggressive or just leave you in front of the resort in the middle of nowhere

Correct. This happened to my wife & I several years ago. We were approached by an Aussie bloke and we went to a room where there were about a dozen other victims listening to a speil about the advantages of time share although they called it something else.

After politely listening for at least an hour, we looked at each other & said to the time share rep, No Thanks. He was shocked as others were buying in this boiler room, signified by a bell ringing and clapping every 15 minutes or so. The rep said he would have to get his boss & so a bloke that looked & sounded like a spiv from East London again tried to give us the speil.
We got up & were shown the door & found our own way back. It was a very good lesson not to engage with anyone who comes up to you in the street and we have practised that ever since.

cheers

 

[SOPOOR]

Correct. This happened to my wife & I several years ago. We were approached by an Aussie bloke and we went to a room where there were about a dozen other victims listening to a speil about the advantages of time share although they called it something else.

After politely listening for at least an hour, we looked at each other & said to the time share rep, No Thanks. He was shocked as others were buying in this boiler room, signified by a bell ringing and clapping every 15 minutes or so. The rep said he would have to get his boss & so a bloke that looked & sounded like a spiv from East London again tried to give us the speil.
We got up & were shown the door & found our own way back. It was a very good lesson not to engage with anyone who comes up to you in the street and we have practised that ever since.

cheers

that would seriously suck!

oh and that reminded me of another one that happened to me years ago, I only remembered it because I saw a woman with a clipboard taking details down, the piece of paper had "Tourist Survey" written on it in big visible letters

they say that they are just taking surveys, ask for your name, hotel, room etc.

and then a day later, they call you, and offer time share
you probably have to go to the same resort to listen to it as well

 

[theblank]

front of the resort in the middle of nowhere

there is no nowhere in Indonesia let alone bali !

 

[daft009]

What about the Sydney scam?

Fake monks walking around darling Harbour etc, asking for a petition to be signed . Then asking for a donation!

 

[Ausbt]

Not quite scams, but walking through the Sydney CBD yesterday I really noticed an amazing arrays of chuggers and thought "can't you get any peace anymore?". "Have you got a moment?" "Hi, how's your daaaaaay?" "Excuse me sir!" "Helloooooooo".

I'm of the type to generally smile, make even more saccharine comments back and not slow my pace one little bit, but really it's getting pretty out of control. I really do pine for the days of just one green-haired doc-martin-wearing girl selling copies of the Green Left outside Town Hall Woollies.

 

[opusman]

Speaking of scams, have you seen the price of electricity lately?!!

 

[moa999]

I really noticed an amazing arrays of chuggers and thought "can't you get any peace anymore?"

Fake monks walking around darling Harbour etc, asking for a petition to be signed . Then asking for a donation!

Both are (unfortunately) global.
Chuggers in particular are far worse in the UK

 

[SOPOOR]

What about the Sydney scam?

Fake monks walking around darling Harbour etc, asking for a petition to be signed . Then asking for a donation!

ive become paranoid about virtually every donation soliciotr,

even the ones at the traffic lights,

I always ask myself, "could they be scammers who put up fake posters and wear certain clothes"

aparently those donation solicitors that walk around to local businesses in single or pairs with some worthwhile cause (eg kids, homeless, the mentally handicapped etc) who sell raffle tickets for $5ish each, that have tablets and glossy laminated brochures, but when you offer to buy 1 ticket, they say the minium is 10 tickets, and they can only issue an invoice if you 10+, are all scams

 

[daft009]

yeah I've stopped donating to door knockers as well.

we started our own charity, a school for poor kids. with ~170 kids now who would just be working as child labour otherwise.
we actually had a door knocker come see us trying to raise money...and I told her about our charity, she donated $2 of her money and left

 

[travelnutjohn]

yeah I've stopped donating to door knockers as well.

we started our own charity, a school for poor kids. with ~170 kids now who would just be working as child labour otherwise.
we actually had a door knocker come see us trying to raise money...and I told her about our charity, she donated $2 of her money and left

i hope you dont say, "minimum donation is $50 or else you dont issue invoices"

 

[daft009]

i hope you dont say, "minimum donation is $50 or else you dont issue invoices"

sorry, going off topic now

ours is more a "project of love" so the only people donating are family & friends. there are no tax deductions. 100% goes to the school, there are no admin fees, salaries for us etc. the only people getting paid are the teachers at the school

 

[stm1sydney]

From the "Latest scams in Europe" thread:

Latest Scams in Europe 2018 please

Thought I was fairly immune to scams after some previous experiences but got caught in Istanbul in June. Faced with long queue to visit a palace I asked an 'official' - or someone with an official badge - how long it took to get in. An hour he said. But if you want to do a tour you can buy the...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

"Someone also tried the money swap scam in Istanbul - a so called money collector in a quiet tourist spot starts a conversation about something reasonable and then asks to see what Australian money looks like. "

 

[Limewood]

No matter where is if approached do not engage them or even look at them act like they're invisible.

 

[SOPOOR]

slightly off topic, but my first trip to BKK about 2002, me and gf at the time, were looking for the boat terminal literally around the corner

we ask a middle aged woman with her 20ish daughter , where the boat terminal is, we get into conversation, we then get onto where we are from, me from Aus, GF from OS background
next minute, she says "oh my husband is in australia at the moment, he is a diving instructor in perth, oh and my daughter is going to your Gfs country on exchange next year"
a few more toings and froings, we then get invited for lunch at her place today

being a first time to this country and trying to be careful, we politely declined saying we had a flight to catch

still dont know to this day whether they were nice people, or some scam, as the coincidences were simply too high

 

[fresherbill]

A couple of weeks ago, I negotiated a 100k rupiah fare to Seminyak and when I got there and gave the driver the cash, he came back 2 seconds later and said that I only gave him 10k and gave me back a 10k note. I had definitely given him 100k as that's all I had in my wallet, but what can you do?

 

[Black Duck]

I have read about the money scam on other forums - Bali and Thailand. Usually ends up with them somehow pocketing your dollars. It always seems to be done each time by a "foreigner" with wife and baby and always good English. It's never the locals.

 

[Stef]

Walking down in a shopping centre, this guy comes up to me and asks where Im from

This is the point you know by stopping, engaging, making eye contact or even acknowledging the slime ball irrespective of what country you’re in that you are about to be screwed.

 

[Popeye]

so ive been to bali a few times and thought I knew all of them,
but this happened to me on my latest trip

Walking down in a shopping centre, this guy comes up to me and asks where Im from,
he was with his wife and baby, he looked indian/pakistani background, didnt have that sort of accent,

said he was from dubai, and after I told him I was from australia, he said oh he is going to australia in a few months time
then proceeded to ask if they use USD in australia, I replied, no they use AUD,

next minute he pulls out his phone in a flip case, and he had a $100 USD note in the phone case, and asked me to show him some AUD

I simply replied that I didnt have any AUD on me.

so what was the scam?

I could only think of him grabbing my AUD and running away, but since he was with his wife, unlikely,
maybe the USD was fake and he would say that he needs some AUD for his trip and do you want to swap?

I dont think so. I have been a regular visitorto Bali for the last 35 years and have just returned from my most recent trip. What I did notice is that there seems to a lot more Indian tourists. They are for the most rude, arrogant, impolite . Most of them are traveling as families and that includes Grandma and Grandpa but there are also a lot of young couples. No doubt there are going to be traveling newbies that don't know much and will be asking dopey questions. Dont see anything sinister here just naive questions.