"Do not lend any real money out to strangers on streets"
Recently I was being scammed in Hong Kong by a stranger male who said his son is going to die in hospital and asked for some hundreds dollars on the currency value of the Hong Kong dollars
To sum it up: I was too trusting and ended up being scammed out of HK$400 (approximately NT$1520). Around 7:53 PM on August 17th, I was stopped by a man near Kwai Chun Court. He said his son had a fever and he needed to take him to the clinic, but his ATM card had been swallowed by the electronic teller machine, and he had no real cash on him. He wanted to borrow some money from me. Initially, he only asked for HK$200 (approximately NT$760), but seeing that I was willing to help, he changed his mind and said he needed HK$300 (approximately NT$1140). He even showed me a picture of his child on his phone, emphasizing that he was from Hong Kong and even said he could provide his ID card as proof. Without thinking much of it, I gave him the money which he had asked me on to.
Just three minutes later, he called, saying that the clinic needed HK$400 and asked me to give him another HK$100 (approximately NT$380). I softened and gave him the money again, thinking I could really help him and his child.
At 10:20 PM that night, he contacted me again via WhatsApp, saying his child's condition had worsened and he was hospitalized, needing a taxi and asking to borrow another HK$200. That was when I realized something was wrong. I told him, "I can not even help you anymore, you should ask someone else," and hung up. Looking back, the whole thing was full of doubts and full of contradictions: he had previously said that his debit card was swallowed and he could not use online banking, so how could he then ask me to transfer money to his account? It did not even make any sense!
In the end, I had lost a total of HK$400 and have already reported it to the police.
I am sharing this experience just to warn other people in Hong Kong : if someone on the street comes near you and says, "my child has a fever, I am a few hundred dollars short for a doctor's visit," do not be as easily convinced as I was. Just refuse any one of the people, and you can even suggest that they can go and call 999 for help. It is very important to know that the emergency room consultation fee in Hong Kong is only HK$180 (approximately NT$684). Even if you are really short on cash, the hospital will not refuse your admission; there is absolutely no need to stop strangers to borrow cash—that is a scammer's trick! Thinking about the whole case now makes me really angry: NT$1520—I could have used it to treat my husband to barbecue or help him with his player unknown battle ground mobile (pubg mobile) own pubgm in-game purchases, and instead, I just gave the cash to a scammer! In short, I was scammed this time because I was too kind and even had no doubt on the stranger.
I hope that everyone can really avoid my mistakes: kindness is good, but you must be vigilant.
Even if after reading this case, you feel you "do not reallywant to be a good person anymore," that is okay, as long as you do not harm others; but if you still want to maintain your kindness and help others, please remember to be wary of those who exploit your sympathy to scam money 🙏.
do not easily trust the strangers and lose your own real cash to people you do not really know whom the stranger people really are
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