aboutshanghai.com » Scam Watch

Scam Watch – Jade for the Price of Plastic

Lisa Thompson — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:00:43 +0000

China has been known to the west (for as long as it’s been known to the west) for its silk, porcelain and jade. Ah, sweet, beautiful, valuable jade. It glints in varied hues of green and speaks of value far beyond whatever it’s crafted in to. If you are a lover of jade, China may be just the place for you, then again, it may not.

If you go in to a government owned or sanctioned store, such as any of the many Friendship Stores, you’ll find price tags on the jade sculptures that are frankly a bit daunting, almost as high as they are back home. The work is fantastic, but is it as fantastic as the price would suggest, or is it just a scam? What’s the catch?

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Then you go outside, wander the market, and find statues and sculptures of far greater detail, of much more vibrant stone and at a fraction of the price… That makes the question that much more difficult, whom should you trust?

The Friendship Stores all charge premium prices and make no qualms about it. Those are amongst the very, very few places in China where the price is steadfastly non-negotiable. Their jade is less lustrous and not as intricate, but what they are is real jade. If you find something for a fraction of the price, trust me, it ain’t jade.

Maybe that’s okay with you as it was with me. I bought my brother this beautiful dragon lion thing that looked like jade and I got it for a couple bucks. It was originally a pair of genuine, solid jade dragons, but the leg broke off of one on the way home and the silica poured out of it… wait, silica? Oh, I get it, it’s made of inexpensive, green glass. Okay, well that’s fine with me too.

But if you’re looking to buy jade, you need to recognize that it’s a world commodity and that prices will vary little from one country to another. Even though the exchange rate is favorable, you won’t find any discounts on negotiable gold or petroleum futures in China. They have to buy them on the world market just like you and I do, and even if it’s a resource they mine locally, it still bears the same international value.

With all that said, check out the markets and buy yourself some handsome glass statues or jewelry. Just be careful because the weight adds up very quickly and you will have to carry these things home with you under one arm or the other.

Scam Watch – Jade for the Price of Plastic

Lisa Thompson — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:00:04 +0000

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Scam Watch – The Guide You Didn’t Want and Just Can’t Stand

Lisa Thompson — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:00:41 +0000

If you’re a tourist or even just look like one, you may find your stroll through the market a little less comfortable than you’d hoped. It may be that you’ll take on an unrequested new “friend” who just wants to show you around — even if you already know your way around — even if you tell him to get the heck away from you. It may be nothing, but be on guard, this guide may be less friendly than you think.

There’s never a shortage of young and old men hanging out in popular tourist spots just itching for the chance to be your unsanctioned and uninvited tour guide for the day. Heck, they’ll even work for free if you let them, but pause right there a minute. Nothing is free in this world, right? Right, nothing is free; so what’s the catch?

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I’ve heard about this and I’ve experienced it myself so I feel I can safely speak with authority. These kindly tour guides who will work for you for absolutely no charge whatsoever, make all their money — and quite a bit of it I’d like to add — from the merchants who are about to make their own killing off of you.

My first such guide was Ben-Ben, a retired engineer I met near the famous Mid-Lake Pavilion Teahouse. He worked for me a whole day and asked nothing in return, though I paid him out of predictable guilt. I did not pay him, however, until after I had bought him lunch, purchased pearls in an out-of-the-way gem shop, bought tea I later learned cost far too much, paid triple for my bootleg DVDs and ten times what I should have for a knock-off watch… Yes, I realized after the fact that he made very good money that day by simply telling his merchant friends to kick him some of the difference.

If you have a decent guide book, save yourself the trouble, headache and outlandish premium pricing and wish your would-be tour guide well on his way. Tell him you live in town and work for General Motors and that you are actually a local. He’ll believe you and he’ll leave you alone.

I’m sure he’s a nice enough guy, but you just don’t need that sort of parasite hanging off of you. If you’re out on your own it’s because you wanted to be on your own, not to invite a rip off artist like him to make a king’s ransom off the one thing you don’t yet know about trusting strangers.

Scam Watch – Suspiciously Cheap, Identical Hotel Room

Mark Einhorn — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:00:16 +0000

I was an uncommonly frugal traveler on my first trip to China, so when I looked at hotel rates, I shopped, compared, chose the best one and booked it… only to find out I was using the lowest rated provider on the web and paying just as much as I would have to any of their competitors. I got suckered by an artificial exchange rate.

The exchange rate from US dollars to Yuan Renmimbi is remarkably constant. One might even suggest it is suspiciously constant or even a bit fixed, but that’s quite another matter and one that really doesn’t affect this debate.

The scam goes like this: they know what the room costs in RMB, but they wiggle the exchange rate to something more favorable (that is untrue) and quote you an estimate in dollars, assuming you can get that exchange rate, which you can’t.

One case I personally saw was a traveler in 2001 who was quoted a rate of $32 per night from an online provider, based on an exchange rate of 10:1. The exchange rate is not 10:1, nor could this mistake have easily been understood. The room really cost 320 RMB per night, so with the exchange rate the room came out to almost $40 per night, not even counting taxes.

These companies are not working under the permission of the Chinese government, these are travel brokers working in any number of other countries, so be on the lookout. It’s not that he wasn’t willing to pay $40 per night, it’s that he was tricked in to using this company because they took advantage of his ignorance about how the exchange rate worked.

Scam Watch – Pearls or Plastic, Price is Same-Same

Will Flaus — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:00:52 +0000

Pearls have long been regarded as a beautiful if not truly precious item of decadent luxury, so what better place to buy them than in the Pearl of the Orient itself, the city of Shanghai. You can find discounts on pearls and pearl jewelry in Shanghai, but not substantial discounts, and you have to keep your wits and caution about you.

If you want to buy pearls in China don’t buy them from the guy on the corner or from some dark, back alley merchant who is likely as shady as their lackluster lighting. If you want pearls, stick to the chain stores or other prestigious and reputable markets. If you get suckered into buying false pearls — no matter how convincing they may be — by a small merchant, you can be assured that by the time your complaint may come to light, they will be long gone and impossible to find.

Here’s the “beware” list when it comes to pearl vendors:

- Don’t buy pearls in a shop you were brought to by a local tour guide.
This is a common trap; a local guide either brings you in to a shop that charges premium prices for legitimate pearls so that he can have a cut from the sale or you’ll be taken to a shop that sells fake pearls, in which case all of your money is out the window.

- Don’t buy pearls from a small, suspiciously cheap looking shop.
They have no commitment to their own business and they have no commitment to your satisfaction as a client.

- Insist upon authenticity verification while you watch.
It’s an easy matter to verify a pearl is real. Just take a blade and scrape the surface of the pearl. If it’s plastic, the pearlescent coating will scrape off and what you’ll find beneath will be a blanched looking piece of plastic. A real pearl (which you can choose at random along a strand of pearls) can be scratched down through layer after layer with each being as pearlescent as the one above it.

- Don’t pay too much.

Seriously, if you’re going to pay full retail, buy your pearls from a known merchant back home. I once looked at a nine-pack of socks and the guy wanted 100RMB for it. I said, “That’s like twelve bucks, I could buy it for ten (80RMB) back home,” and he said, “Okay, 80RMB!” Nice try pal, but I’m not going to buy something for full retail price just so I can carry it 6,000 miles in my luggage.

Scam Watch – Crazy Guy With Unsolicited Hinder

Jerry Hu — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:19:07 +0000

Pedestrians beware of the craziest of all attempts to swindle you from your hard earned money. It’s not the worst because it tries to sell you goods of little value or even take much of your money. No, it’s the craziest of all because it will come in the form of an old guy who will stop you, waste what time you’re kind enough to patronize, vandalize what goods you have on hand, and then still have the gall to ask for money in trade for it.

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It sounds like a strange one, I know, but it’s very real. I never read of it before I experienced it myself, but I did later. I was in Beijing when I met this guy. I was in a mall and searching frantically for a public bathroom when he intercepted me. I mistook him for a kindly old man in a market, the sort who want to share wisdom and learn from you alike, but he wasn’t this kind. No, he was something much worse than that.

He told me a bunch of useless facts about China, any of which could be learned in a single page of text online that you still wouldn’t read. He asked me some questions that he didn’t listen for the answer to, and then he stole my pen, scratched it up with some Chinese characters, and asked me for money for the luxury of my time and attention having thusly been stolen.

If you encounter a crazy old man who wants money for his unsolicited information about China and some illegible scratches he puts on your pen or other personal property without your desire, rebuke him. Once you figure out what he’s all about, just walk away. Your job is not to provide a living for such leeches and the only way to convince them that they need a more legitimate job is to ignore them as soon as you’re able.

These people are not sanctioned by the government, and if you called the police they would likely be in trouble. I don’t suggest you get them in trouble, what I suggest is that you send them on their way. You don’t need to pay someone for wasting your time and vandalizing your property. Your wasted time alone is worth more than he hopes to get, so you should hold out your hand and beg him give you some money instead.

This is the weakest of all scams, as it seems quite passive, but it’s no less your responsibility to aid this profession to a swift death.