Scam Alert: Gangsters need travel money to escape

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
#1

We had an incident today, that was rather disturbing for my (female) boss.

  1. A guy calls, and inform her in “gangster Taiwanese” (her words) that there are 7 gangsters, who are chased by the police for murder they just have committed, outside our office (giving correct address), and that they will come in to collect money for their escape. She inform them that there is no money or valuables here, and hang up.

  2. 5 minutes later they call again, and tell her they are on the way. She hangs up very fast, and call the police.

  3. They call again, but this time I answer the phone, and speak only English to him. He tries to start converstation in English, but his English is so broken and bad, so I don’t understand what he is trying to tell me (really, it ws that bad). I repeatadly ask him to leave his phone number and name, so someone speaking Chinese can call him back later, but he only reply uh, Ohm and continue with his garbled attempts to speak English. Finally he say goodbye and hangs up.

  4. We called the police at 12:58, and they came to our ofice at 13:22, and I think that is pretty quick reaction. They had similar complaints from other in this area. It seems the “pretend to be gangsters” are following some kind of Company registration list, because they knew pretty much about our company, and the fact that other in the same area have had similar threats.

  5. I have no idea of how they were expecting to get any money…?? Walk us to the ATM or bank to withdraw, or show up in person in our office and take our pricate wallets at knife-/gun-point??

I have suggested to our female staff to tell them that they are busy in a meeting with the policeregarding a break-in, and will have to call the gangsters back - can I please have your phone number.

#2

Classic! :slight_smile:
I’ve had a few similiar encounters in restaurants late at night by lower tier runts who’ve had a few too many, and lose what little sense they had to begin with. Their story is always full of holes, and they almost give up the attempt half-way thru, unless of course they fall over first…

“Keep on Rocking in The Free World…”

#3

Um? Why wouldn’t you ask your secretary to tell them in a scared voice, that yes ok, you agree to their request, and that they’d already sent someone to collect the money and if they could come back in half an hour you would have it.

Meanwhile call police, and whalla!

#4

I suggested something along those lines as well, but they were actually too scared to engage in a set-up. You know, maybe the police wouldn’t be so quick to respond next time around, and then you sit there with 7 thugs in your office demanding money…

#5

My friend got a call like that two years ago.
She told him:I am scared to death.Please take the money.
I am just out of the jail for killing my husband and his lover.
And he screamed :Crazy ,freak! and hang up.

#6

[quote=“wisher”]My friend got a call like that two years ago.
She told him:I am scared to death.Please take the money.
I am just out of the jail for killing my husband and his lover.
And he screamed :Crazy ,freak! and hang up.[/quote]

I answer unwanted calls with "this is Taipei Funeral Parlor, how can I help you? you want to make a booking? "

this scares the thugs. they are very superstitious and its a “bad omen” to call the funeral parlor by mistake . so they never fone back.

#7

Yes,bad omen might work for stopping them to phone back.
We don’t know how to do and think it is true at first.
But now we are geeting to know how to deal with those scam phone calls.
Did you know the "林老背"story ? :smiley:

#8

What’s the story?