Welcome to Scam Central 2 - Those Affable Filipinos

This is the second post on the topic of the small industry that swirls around the tourist areas of Sai Gon existing solely for and because of the loose money jangling around in the pockets of ignorant and starry-eyed foreign tourists. The longer one sees how this industry operates the more one comes to realize that it's the tourists themselves as much or more as the parasitic individuals who stalk them that perpetuate this business. It's no news to anyone that the scammers simply want money, preferably in the form of a somewhat reliable income stream, i.e., the same thing 99% of us on the planet want. What may surprise some is how much many of the tourists want to give it to them.

"Hello, how are you? Where did you get that/those shirt/hat/bag/shoes/glasses (ad nauseum)?" After a few days walking around the parks and streets of district 1 in Sai Gon you'll quickly lose count of how many times you've heard these opening lines. Nowadays a new one is "Excuse me, can you tell me where the Ben Thanh market is?" Asking about the Ben Thanh market (Chợ Bến Thành) is the equivalent of asking someone in San Francisco about the Golden Gate Bridge. Initially you'll do a double-take of the speakers of these lines because while clearly Asian, they're not Vietnamese, and their English is noticeably better than that of the average Vietnamese. Most likely they'll be members of the league of affable Filipinos that roam the streets here looking to snare gullible tourists into one of their many scams. I've heard that Laos and Malays have now joined their ranks, but the ones I've encountered have all been from the Philippines. And my oh my, they're so friendly!

In normal circumstances, for example back home wherever that is, you'd immediately ask yourself, 'what does this schmuck want and why is he/she being so friendly to a complete stranger?'. But it's interesting, and I say this based on my own susceptibility to it, when you're traveling in a foreign country, especially if you're a little lonely, you don't question it as strongly if at all. At least not at first. After all, what's wrong with a friendly little chat?

Once they have your attention and you've told them what country you're from, the next line is usually along the lines of 'I have a sister/brother/aunt/uncle/cousin there working/going to university'. Followed at some point, often after a fairly long conversation, with an invitation to meet them on a later day to go to a house to meet the family member who resides in your country but happens to be visiting Sai Gon at the present or some other person who just wants to talk to an interesting person like you.

This is the point at which reasonable individuals think (sarcastically) to themselves "Sure, I'll get in a taxi with you and let you take me to some unknown location to meet some people I don't know". Recall the motorbike whores and their tactic to get you on the back of their speeding motorbike to drive you straight into their well-laid trap.

Being a somewhat reasonable person I always declined the invitation and said good-bye, but was always curious about exactly what would happen if I did accept. So, I'm now ready to make this confession since it's been over 1 1/2 years since it happened. Purely out of curiosity I once accepted the invitation and showed up in the park the next day to meet the Filipino and go to this house to meet these people. I know it wasn't a particularly smart thing to do, but at the time I was extremely bored, and I was at least smart enough not to bring any significant amount of money or anything of value or any important information or documents with me.

He was there on time and we proceeded to hail a taxi and head off into what was then unknown territory for me. Based on my memory, I believe we went to the Bình Thạnh district just north of district 1. It took 10-15 minutes to get there and the house we arrived at was quite nice, big and well-furnished.

We entered and I was greeted by another (friendly!) middle-aged Filipino and offered a seat in the living room area. My guide sat with us and a Filipina emerged from the back with tea cups and a pot of tea and poured each of us a cup. Of course the alarm bells were sounding in my head regarding the tea and the prospect that it was spiked with something that would render me unconscious. I waited to see that the others drank some before feeling comfortable enough to join them. The tea, it turned out, was fine.

After some casual chit-chat the topic turned to the fact that there were gambling casinos in Viet Nam and that only holders of foreign passports were allowed into them. I wasn't aware of the foreign passport rule and have never verified it, but I believe it because otherwise there would be too many stories of Vietnamese who lost their (likely meager) life savings in a matter of hours, seduced by the draw of easy money. It also fits with the general attitude of the government.

So the pitch went basically like this: they had an accomplice who was a black jack dealer at a casino who could cheat the casino by tipping off his hand to players at the table, allowing players to increase their bets at the right times and win big. What my new-found friends said they wanted me to do was agree to be an informed player at their friend's table, win big, and then share the winnings. My response was non-committal (there's no way in hell I would ever get involved with something like that), but nevertheless the middle-aged man wanted to teach me how to read the tip-offs and use them to win.

He pulled up a small table and had me sit at one end while he began dealing black jack. At this point I was ready to get out of there and I think my general lack of enthusiasm registered with him and after a few minutes he called it off. I have a feeling he would have asked me to start placing actual money bets with him at some point. Or quite possibly the story about the unscrupulous dealer was true. It sounded plausible enough.

In any case, both Filipinos accompanied me back out and into a taxi and they took me directly back to district 1 and dropped me off. That was it. I was unscathed and hadn't spent a single Vietnam dong! I imagine they were looking for certain characteristics that I didn't exhibit that would have led them to continue investing their time in the scam.

Another individual, someone a bit more gullible than myself, that I knew from my English teaching certificate course, had a different story involving the affable Filipinos. This bloke actually began informing his classmates one day that he had won some ridiculous amount of money (I believe it was $30,000) playing poker the day before. After some grilling, it was discovered that he had followed in the same general path I had, but had been invited to join a poker game at the house. They told him about a certain person they had a grudge against for cheating them (ha ha!) and in an incredible turn of events, the person in question showed up at the house and wanted to play poker! They quickly informed our bloke that they were going to conspire against this person and take his money and our bloke only had to play along and he would get a share of the winnings. This was how he came to be on the receiving end of a $30,000 participation bonus. Oh the good fortune. Good things happen to good people.

My first question to the bloke was 'So, do you actually have this money in your possession?' and of course the answer was negative. The money was in a safe back at the house and he had to go back the next day with some sort of goodwill deposit of a few thousand dollars in order to secure it. I told him not to do it, not to go back, or if he did, not to give anyone a single dime. The problem was that he really wanted to believe he had actually won this money and I detected a little anger and disappointment on his part that I wasn't patting him on the back telling what a smart fortunate fellow he was. But this is what scammers prey on, the characteristic they're looking for, people who want so badly to believe that they're doing something good or that something good will happen to them that they're willing to suspend any good judgment and rationality in the hope of getting it. As is the case with most scam stories, we never heard the outcome. He said he went back but didn't pay any money. We know he didn't get the 'winnings' because we never would have heard the end of it. I imagine they took him for something and he's too embarrassed to ever admit the truth.

Most people who get scammed never say a word about it out of shame and embarrassment and this is one of the important aspects of it that keeps the scammers in business. I know a lot of people must fall for the Filipino scams simply because of their constant presence and never-ending gambits. If it didn't pay, they would have given it up a long time ago.

The one important thing to always keep in mind is that the same principles of human behavior apply in Viet Nam and everywhere else as do in your own home country. The fact that so many tourists want to believe otherwise is one of the main 'business drivers' of the scammers and keeps them going year after year.

So much for the affable Filipinos. My tactic with them now when they ask me where I'm from, etc. is to simply fire the same questions back at them. The fact that I'm on to them usually hits them fairly quickly and they move on. Or if I'm bored and have time to waste I'll play along for a while. If they ask where the Ben Thanh market is I tell them in a very authoritarian tone that there is no Ben Thanh market in Sai Gon. I've really grown to love the perplexed silence that follows.

Last month I attended my first Vietnamese wedding in the Mekong Delta area south of Sai Gon. We had to walk a long way down a pretty path from the road to the house of the bride's parents and, as always , make way for motorbike traffic.

The ceremony took place in the main room of the house. Symbols and messages of good luck and fortune were plentiful and the ceremony was short and interesting.