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HI - New York Hostel
Situated near Central Park and Columbia University, the hostel is in a historic
Victorian Gothic-style building on Upper West Side. It organizes walking
tours...more
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The usual scams |
The Usual Scam & the people who work them
People who lose money, are not usually caught off guard by some desperate guy down on his luck. Instead they are tricked in to taking part in some sort of game, whether it be with cards or a tiny ball being place underneath a cup, then the co-person will move the cup about in a way that no one can make out where there the tiny ball will end up, let alone follow the cup itself. The person who is doing the con has been doing for a long time, where as you might have never seen some thing like this until he or she asked for you to take part in it. The common techniques employed in this con that make it such a convincingly easy game to play, and allows it to work time and time again, is that the conman can learn to read people, he or she develops a way to talk these people in to playing the game, and after you start to win, others standing around you, may feel the need to urge you on, and play on you do. The lesson to be learned here is that no matter how much a stranger assures you that you can trust them, they are not to be trusted under any circumstances, as the only thing they care about is your money, and not you. This applies to people who are on the street or just where you are staying. People who engage in activities like games of chance, have to increase the odds in there favor.
Someone may come up to you, and claim to have misplaced or lost certain item, and ask you to aid them in finding it, so with you being a kind person and not thinking anything bad could come of you helping some seemingly nice person, yet during your search for this nonexistent lost or misplaced item, the stranger may be plotting on how he or she can get in to your purse or your wallet. Trust your gut feeling/instinct, you must realize that this person is not about to give in so easy, he or she will find an excuse to keep you interested until they find a way to rip you off. So, my best advice is to always be aware of your surroundings regardless if the area appears to be the safest place on Earth. You can never tell. A popular saying comes to mind, you should not judge a book by its cover, which means, appearances can be deceiving. You must look deeper to truly understand something or someone. Just use your best judgment, and hope that is enough. (It usually is)
Another typical scam, is when you notice someone standing on the sidewalk as you are passing by, and they have an item or two that they are selling. Most of the time, at first glance the item looks to be brand new, so much in fact you decide that you should not pass it by, and that is just what a co-person is waiting for. Some key words to remember are "it is hot? or it just fell of the truck", as they refer to goods that were obtained by illegal means, or stolen. Furthermore, you must be mindful that even if someone manages to sell you a $500 camcorder for what you considered to be a deal, like for $100, and upon returning to your hostel, or room, you come find that the camcorder is not in box, but a bunch of dirt or something was put in the box to match the weight of the camcorder.
In most of the inner-cities, and other metropolitans, this maybe a common occurrence. So, you'd better brush up on your street knowledge prior to venturing off in to the big cities. The best thing is to always buy from a proper store or vendor. If you are caught buying goods that have been obtained illegally you can be prosecuted in a court of law.
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