HELP! FACIAL SCAM.

[Confusion25]

I just wanted to warn ladies, especially those who look innocent and likes to walk alone in Tsim Sha Tsui area (Granville area). This happened to me today, and would like to share my experience with you so that you know what to do if this happens to you. ( This is in cantonese, I am not really good in cantonese so I spoke in English the whole time, and they spoke to me in cantonese cus I am able to understand.)

I was on my way to meet my family for dinner when suddenly this lady, who looked sincere and nice approached me. She asked me if I wore M-L clothings and asked if I would like to help her company to do a fitting. She then led me a building (the building where the korean bbq in tst) on the 8th floor. For further details her name was May Chan, she gave me her business card. She took my measurements, and said her manager will speak to me thoroughly about the time and stuff. The manager came, her name was Eva, she told me if I do any makeup, and that if I am not so good that it, she knows someone who can give me a discount. She then brought me to an opposite building. The beauty parlor was on the 17/F, Hang Shun Building... We entered and the lady, explained to me about the packages. The sessions can run up to 100, which costs about almost $30,000. And the cheapest, 10 sessions, for about $5,000. I knew something was fishy but I wasn't able to go, she kept convincing me, asking me if I had a credit card or... cash.. or whatsoever. I said I don't earn much and I only have $1,000 with me (I lied) So she said ok, then you can give me the $1,000 first.. but then I lied further and said I need the $1,000 for transportation, food to get to work, and she said 'alright alright, just give me $500, the rest you can pay me later'... I really just wanted to get out of there so I just said ok, whatever... her colleague followed me to the ATM machine to make sure I withdrew the money. I was given a receipt to prove I have paid the 500 but just found out that it is NON-REFUNDABLE, written in chinese, which they knew I didn't know chinese.

I was just trying to help but in the end, it turns out I was the one in need of help. Has anyone had any of this experience before? Please share. Any ideas on what I should do next?

[BryanL]

Probably a life lesson and know when to say no and walk away. I don't understand why you would follow a random person to do fittings, then get dragged into some other place to look at some make up sessions, then proceed to give $500.

[virago]

They saw you coming from a mile away and play on virtue and rip off the innocent. I never take any notice to people whom approach me on the street in TST. Unless they are a tourist, which you can tell straight away as the generally ask for directions all others are treated with distrust. Most likely this place beauty parlor is not real or they don't work for them.

There is a 7-day cooling off period put into place in HK a few years ago for any contract commitment like you have entered into. You have rights but you will have a hard time trying get this money back. Go to the police, make a statement about what happened.

[LC340]

Sorry, but thats pretty much your own fault, no logical person would do what you did since its well known that there are tonnes of scams like this. its more difficult to refuse when you're in a hairdresser or in an actual shop, but when you're hassled on the street it is much easier to refuse. doesn't just happen in hong kong, happens in most places.

police may be able to help you if you can find the same woman again though, but logically speaking you had plenty of chances to say no, i don't think they would look favourly on your side - sorry!

either way hope you manage to do something about it

[Creative83]

Yah, had similar experience when i got here first month of last year's April/May.
Incident $1
A couple of 18 year old looking local guys requested to help them write a few question survey. They then followed up by saying there are just some quick details they have to follow up on and led me inside the underground floor of the building. An extremely attractive young woman came up to me and led me to take a seat in an office where there were seemingly very professional looking and chat me up on my background, occupation, etc. Following the conversation, they redirected the conversation to giving me a solution how I should handle my money given that I'm new to Hong Kong.

Up until now I'm not sure whether they're legit still, but apparently, AIA was behind it and the whole deal was to attract new customers into putting money into mutual funds.

Interestingly, when I pretty much directly busted them (I'm not interested in being polite when someone redirected me from a survey to a conversation to investing into mutual funds), their excuse was "I'm just trying to make a living"

Incident #2
Shortly after this incident (2 weeks later), I've encountered a second, less time consuming one-of-those.
You know those people who gives you flyers on the street? Apparently, there was one who was promoting a nutritionally focused restaurant and got me interested in trying (since I couldn't exactly find a healthy restaurant in Hong Kong.) They led me to floor 2 of a building, and again, sat me down. There were a bunch of people there passionately greeting you as though you just won the lottery (it was very ridiculous behavior). There was no menu on the table, in fact, everyone was dressed in suits and filling in forms on other tables. One lady came up to me and pretty much laid out how I can become a member of a supplement company called Herbal Life. Before they even had a chance to get into it, we just told them we're not interested and left.

It really explains why when I ask for directions here in Hong Kong, a lot of whom reacts by literally running away from you. The local news here also paranoids you by giving you all the details of the new scams out there.

Incident #3
I wanted to learn 2 things here in HK, and I resorted to the locals. After giving them... oh... $1000HKD for around 3-4hrs of lesson in an instrument, I asked them to play a 5th Grade song for me with her songbook. She was unable to do so without messing up millions of times.

Incident #4
The other thing I learned was a sport. Basically, other teachers gave me the signal that the current teacher I had was unable to do the sport at all. All she know is how to scream at you... without being able to do so herself...

I've had expats tell me dentist here drilled the wrong tooth.

To be fair, I did get injured one time and had a very good stitching done in a hospital. So you do sometimes encounter people who knows what they're doing, but good luck with that.

I can list a couple more... but u get the idea.

Probably a life lesson and know when to say no and walk away. I don't understand why you would follow a random person to do fittings, then get dragged into some other place to look at some make up sessions, then proceed to give $500.

Ohh, they have a way to lead you into doing things. Obviously, in retrospect, it's a stupid action. You don't get why because you're expecting them to behave this way at the very beginning. We newcomers don't expect such morally compromised people exist. So we do get led, attempting to be helpful and polite.

[BOSS]

sorry to read all these
I stop for nobody in the street, except for lost tourists or lost locals asking for directions

[MovingIn07]

It's not just HK. In western countries, it's the timeshare scams that use this kind of tactics.

[TigerSun]

I suspect the pickings are way better in HK.

Where else would a wealthy head of a bank's private banking business (advising the bank's richest customers on how to invest), sign up for $120,000,000 in cha-cha lessons?

Then there's Little Sweety...

[bak875]

her colleague followed me to the ATM machine to make sure I withdrew the money.

this is the time when u should have walked away or pretended to look for a Police officer - just to see the colleague's reaction.

[jimbo]

I suspect the pickings are way better in HK.

Where else would a wealthy head of a bank's private banking business (advising the bank's richest customers on how to invest), sign up for $120,000,000 in cha-cha lessons?

Then there's Little Sweety...

Wealthy lonely women are easy pickings out here.