In Reply to: Card scam details posted by nomadmac on Tuesday, 21. June 2005 at 11:11 Bali Time:
A young guy got into conversation with me in Matahari Kuta. He said he was on holiday from Singapore with his sister and her friend, who he then introduced me to. They said that their cousin was going to work as a hospital nurse in Perth, but the family was worried about possible racial discrimination. They asked me to come and have a coffee with them, meet their cousin and give her some reassurance.
I walked out with them to their waiting transport, a dark van with [presumably] Balinese driver, complete with offerings on the dash. I memorised the van details and rego and then made my excuses.
I told my story to the hotel manager, who told me that the rego indicated a private owner. He urged me to go to the police, phoned and made an appointment and arranged free return transport from the hotel. I made a police report. The interviewing officer told me that they would have involved me in a gambling game and cheated me.
This happened in August 2003. If my report had been properly followed up, the gang would have been traced by the vehicle rego and hopefully would have been put out of business.
I sometimes wonder how they would have got anything out of me. I am a total lifetime non-gambler, I don't carry much unnecessary cash and I don't carry credit cards.
In regard to other suggestions that the majority of Balinese people are out to rip us all off, well that has not been my experience at all. Yes, the initial asking price [of just about anything] is usually ridiculously high, but this is just the opening gambit in the game of bargaining.
A while ago, there was a thread asking us to give stories of trust and honesty in Bali and there were plenty of responses. My story then was about a one man jewelry store owner in Kuta who left us, two people totally unknown to him, to mind his store, complete with plenty of unlocked stock, whilst he went to get some change so that we could complete our purchase. He trusted us, don't you think that he would be trustworthy?