Care to share experiences or run-ins you’ve had with them?
Here’s mine: Today a girl called me- and thinking it was from my tutor ad I answered all her questions including my name, which are I lived in, etc.
Then she said something weird about going to a bank and transferring money to her, so I hung up on her (FYI scammers abound in Taiwan).
Next thing a guy calls and asks me for my name and calls me “xiao didi” and says how it’s not nice to hang up on his little sister. I hung up again.
Finally I get this text message cursing my family and saying that the phone better not be under my name or my parents will be killed in front of me with no mercy - and a flurry of calls which I of course ignore.
I’d say ignore it. They just want to scare you for money. In future, if you are a foreigner-- and even if you speak marvelous Chinese, always answer your phone in English. Locals who know you won’t be scared off by it, but idiots, salespeople and the like will be shut down before they can get started.
Something makes me think I offended them because they kept calling all day using anonymous numbers, numbers from China or this Taiwanese number.
I should be small fry for these people, yet they persist which leaves me uneasy. Also, they said they were Zu Lian Bang in the text message. Posers or the real deal :/?
Each time I get a call from an unknown number (I don’t even answer those without number anymore), I answer in Japanese. While most people here know a word or two in Japanese, they are usually not up to real conversation and give up pretty quickly.
So, just answer in anything but Chinese and English and they should soon give up. (Has been silent recently…)
[quote=“dl7und”]Each time I get a call from an unknown number (I don’t even answer those without number anymore), I answer in Japanese. While most people here know a word or two in Japanese, they are usually not up to real conversation and give up pretty quickly.
So, just answer in anything but Chinese and English and they should soon give up. (Has been silent recently…)[/quote]
A few years ago, in Kathmandu, a friend of mine got sick of all the Nepali people who, speaking English, offered him carpets, hash, trekking guides, opium, sisters etc. So he decided to answer them in German, telling them (in German) that he didn’t speak English. I was with him the first time he tried it - he told a street kid (in German) that he didn’t speak English. As it happens, the street kid spoke a bit of German. The problem was, my friend didn’t. All he knew to say was “I don’t speak English”. Plan backfired.
Back on topic. I don’t answer private numbers. Numbers that display, but I don’t recognise, I answer with “Hello”. If the person then speaks to me in Chinese, I hang up.
For clients to get my number, that have to be able to read/speak English. My Chinese is crap, so I don’t advertise in it. My business cards are in English only, my website in English only (expect for place names and names of Chinese people which I usually write in Chinese and English). If I answer in English, and they are a potential client, they should know enough to speak English to me. If not, I figure they are telemarketers, scammers etc. And I hang up. Often the phone immediately rings again from the same number. I don’t answer. I figure they’ve just hit redial. Usually that’s enough. Occasionally, it’ll ring a third time and if I answer, it’s always an old person, speaking to me in Taiwanese who’s dialed the wrong number.
[quote=“Aether”]Something makes me think I offended them because they kept calling all day using anonymous numbers, numbers from China or this Taiwanese number.
I should be small fry for these people, yet they persist which leaves me uneasy. Also, they said they were Zu Lian Bang in the text message. Posers or the real deal :/?[/quote]
I wouldn’t worry to much about it. If you did talk to them in chinese and then you sounded scared of them they will keep calling you until you give in… or thats how they see it.
Unless you are expecting some phone calls I would just close the phone for the night and they should get tired of your phone not being on.
[quote=“cire1184”][quote=“Aether”]Something makes me think I offended them because they kept calling all day using anonymous numbers, numbers from China or this Taiwanese number.
I should be small fry for these people, yet they persist which leaves me uneasy. Also, they said they were Zu Lian Bang in the text message. Posers or the real deal :/?[/quote]
I wouldn’t worry to much about it. If you did talk to them in Chinese and then you sounded scared of them they will keep calling you until you give in… or thats how they see it.
Unless you are expecting some phone calls I would just close the phone for the night and they should get tired of your phone not being on.[/quote]
In Vancouver when this sort of thing happened I would taunt them until they were in a full on rage, just kept talking shit and then told them to meet me in 20 mins so I could kick their ass I would then tell them to meet me at (insert address) of the local police station.
Try blowing a whistle into the phone, full blast, next time they call. Then see about getting your number changed. Maybe record a conversation or two; I’m not sure what, if anything the police would do, but it might be worth a try…
When I still answered “mysterious” calls in Chinese, I have made one man slightly upset - though without intention. (Honestly!) He said something in Taiwanese and I asked him (politely) to repeat that in Mandarin, and when he did and it was not very clear, I asked him to repeat again…
I’m afraid the poor man thought I was having fun with him, while I really only wanted to understand what he said. But he got more and more upset and instead of telling me calmly and clearly what I asked for, suddenly he hung up…
But although it’s fun to make fun of them, these days I just pretend to be a Japanese. In case they got my name (happens sometimes, probably someone at FarEastone is underpaid), the first character of my “Chinese” name appears also as surname in Japan, so that supports my story. In most cases, they would not even want to target foreigners, they quickly hang up as soon as they are convinced their potential prey is not a local one…
And if they can’t even let you know that “you are in trouble” now, why all the hassle when there are millions of people who understand them…
- and a flurry of calls which I of course ignore.