Money has two faces. So do people who want it badly.
Let’s set the record straight. Money isn’t a dirty word. Who doesn’t like money? If you don’t, my next question is: What’s wrong with you?
Money is only dirty if we “make” it dirty.
Look around, people are more exposed than ever. If we don’t watch our back, we can easily become a soft target for scammers out there.
Where do those scammers come from? They can be someone who sends you an unsolicited SMS message or email, a stranger who calls you up for personal/company financial information or simply a random person on a street stopping you for cash. As their tactics are getting more and more sophisticated, it’s hard to pin down exactly their true motives. But a good rule of thumb is, anything that requires you to open your wallet, think twice!
Among all suspicious people I’ve come across and dealt with, I must say below is one of the standouts.
When I was walking on my way back to the office today 4 years ago, then coming from an opposite direction, this stranger, speaking with a foreign accent and wearing an ethnic-looking costume stopped me right in a middle of the street. He quickly pointed his finger at me and to my forehead and said “Good luck will come to you next month”.
I was a bit stunned by his action, thinking what the hell… I forced a smile but remained very cautious. Not letting me go, he carried himself like a sales person. I could tell he must’ve done this many times. Quite oddly, he claimed himself a holy man and a fortune teller. “Show me your palm” he said, I did but kept a safe distance and ensured no hand touching. In a matter of few seconds he wrote something down in a tiny piece of paper, squashed it and made it into a pea sized ball then passed it on to me. “Hold it but don’t open it” he insisted. I found myself becoming more intrigued and my curiosity taking over my initial resistance.
In the midst of confusion, he asked me 2 questions: what my favourite colour is and what my favourite number is. Feeling somewhat skeptical, I kept the answers to myself while holding this small squashed paper in my hand. “Now blow it and open it” he said. I thought this is getting a bit bizarre… Don’t know why but I did what I was told. Then I saw the right answers in front of my face. Admittedly, I was impressed but not overly so.
He went on to analyse my life saying that I have a smiley face outside, but inside I’m an unhappy man. I work hard but feel under-appreciated, I have two bad habits that I need to break (note: this is the most part I was interested in) and a love of my life will come to me next month etc. Lastly, the highlight: he opened his little note book, looked me in the eye and said in a firm voice tone “Now put your money there!”. Surprised and not surprised, I told him I don’t have any money with me. “I don’t believe you” he responded as if his mask had just dropped. I repeated ” I don’t have money” then quickly ran away…
Looking back, it’s kind of laughable now. Well, he got those 2 easy questions right but not the money part. Want my money? Out of the question!
To me, some of his words still lingered but I wasn’t taking it too seriously. Believe or not, there were 2 scammers in that week. Enough…
Ted Tsai 