Over my many years as a more or less observant itinerate, I tried to learn all I could about scams and petty theft. Like getting lost, watching such things in real time brings a satisfying adrenalin rush. For example, I always sat in the back row of buses in Mexico City so that I could watch the pickpockets at work. Still, there were two places where I was very careful about what I did and where I went: one was the entire country of Guatemala and the other was the entire city of Bogota, Colombia.
Except for once. That was when I found myself walking the streets of downtown Bogota because of a layover between Peru, where I was working, and Medellin Colombia, where I had a meeting, and a fellow in his early fifties, really thick glasses and a full head and shoulders shorter than I, stopped me. He asked if I was a foreigner and said that there were problems with terrorists and counterfeit bills in Colombia (there were) and said that the police wanted all foreigners to come in to have any money they had exchanged checked so that they—the police—could close in on the counterfeiters. He said he worked for the police and would take me to the nearest police station to check any money I might be carrying. It was an interesting proposal that I was about to turn down when another fellow—same age, same height, same glasses and same rumpled suit—came up and asked if we knew where the nearest police station was because he was from Ecuador and had been advised by the hotel where he was staying to check with the police concerning any paper money he may have exchanged.
My first friend said that he was about to take me to the police station for the very same reason and told my second new friend to come along.
There are a couple of other things that I had learned over the years, like for example, that an Ecuadorian accent in Spanish in no way, resembles a Colombian accent in Spanish, and that if somebody is lost and has stopped to ask for directions, he doesn’t lead when he doesn’t know the way. Fascinating, I said to myself as Friend # 2 took off first for the police station. I wanted to see just what the scam was so I followed, assured that all I needed to do in case of trouble was to knock their glasses off and they would spend the next four days trying to find them.
A couple of blocks further on, my two new friends were chattering away about whether the weather in Quito was like the weather in Bogota, when they stopped and Friend #1 said, “Look, there is going to be a long line at the police station. But if you give me the money you exchanged and your passports, I can go to the head of the line for you.” Friend #2 hesitated a moment, fumbled for his wallet, took out some crisp, new bills and then he took what looked like an official passport from his coat pocket and handed all of it to Friend #1.
They both waited, looking at me. I said nothing.
“Do you have any money?” asked Friend #1.
“No, I haven’t been to the embassy to get any yet,” I answered—which was a lie since I had oodles of dollars in Peruvian soles, scads of dollars in Ecuadorian sucres, a bunch of dollars in Bolivian pesos and a whole lot of dollars in real dollars, all stuffed into my boot tops.
“Are you sure you don’t have any money?” asked Friend #1. “You can trust me. Friend #2 here trusts me” he added.
“No, I don’t have any” I repeated, “And, no I don’t trust you and I don’t trust your buddy here either.”
They looked at one another, they looked at me, they looked at one another and said, “Okay, we will be on our way” and as they left they both nodded hello to a smiling old guy sitting on the corner.
Three days later I was reading the Medellin morning news at breakfast and there, on page three, was a report of a tourist in Bogota who had been scammed by a scam that was very much like the one my two friends tried to pull on me. My conclusion, that I have saved all these years just for my kids in a large volumn called “Father’s Files” is: “Folks can think up any number of ways to separate you from your money. Some work on some and don’t on others. Be careful out there.”
Now, I know this has nothing to do with your search for Forrest Fenn’s treasure, so let me leave you with a bit of news on that subject.
Over the last week or two, I have received a couple of comments from a new friend, Tommy Gregory, wanting me to check his web site (www.nmtreasure.com). He thought I might find it interesting. I did check and I do find it interesting; I made a screen grab of it for you.
Be careful out there,
r/
After my father died a few weeks back I went into a mental haze that made me an easy mark. First a lady came up to me doing the damsel in distress routine. Long story short, she walked me to the ATM and got me for 240 dollars. An hour later I had to slap myself. But, it wasn’t devastating.
The next scam came from an adept salesman. I went into the Verizon store to trade in my phone for another cheapo basic model. I walked out with the new Windows smart phone by Nokia. I later slapped myself. I was looking for a new computer anyway. This phone has more features and power than the laptop I am using to type this.
I never knew that personal events could cause such a mental fog. Next time I have to deal with greif I may just hire a body guard to stop me from wandering around handing out money.
Awesome reminder and story!! Thanks for sharing!!
Anyone – I believe the worst possible situation is when friends cheat friends. It’s getting so you can’t trust anyone. Maybe always been that way. Shameful! About Tom Gregory & his $$$ opportunity – he’s right up front & out in the open about what he is offering. Mostly just geographical directions & ideas. I myself would never deal with him as a professional because there are at least 3 mis-spellings on his ad. How intelligent is that?
I posted my comments on their youtube video. There are evil people all over. Just because he’s an old man doesn’t mean anything. Ever seen an old politician? Thanks for posting the link buddy. I hope you saw the Grapette hanger.
Ok. I emailed him and told him I’d report him to the federal authorities including internet crimes, IRS and state Tax authorities. I didn’t report him immediately because he is obviously stupid and a warning is fair. But tomorrow he shall go down like a 42lb chest of gold in a lake!
I loved the stories. It’s amazing how vulnerable we can be!
By the way. I told him Forrest could sue him for the use of his copyrighted pictures that he copied! Duh!!! Safe hunting to all.
“The trouble is that the stupid people — who constitute the grand overwhelming majority of this and all other nations — do believe and are molded and convinced by what they get out of a newspaper.”-mark twain
He also had a quote, which I might paraphrase “There is nothing morally objectionable with taking advantage of ignorant people.”
I am not taking TG’s side or anything but if you are going to turn him in, there are a million internet sites, magazines, newspapers, religions, etc, which are doing exactly the same thing.
-JW
PS- no offense to you Mr. Hendrickson and I extend my condolences to you and your family.
No problem. I was making an effort at self depricating humour.
As for the ad, it is all part of our free market culture. He has an idea to sell as a product. It is up to the critical thought of the buyer to beware. Which is still better than the lack of choice given to us by major institutions that now legislate their way into our pockets.
Off the scam topic. I thought I would try out Richards idea of using dreams as a method of search. He wrote on that topic a few seasons back. Full conscious lucid dreaming is something I had practiced many years ago along with variations of mind bending hypothises. There turned out to be scams revolving around these activities also. For this search I reapeated to myself before sleep a request that I be shown the treasure of Forrest Fenn. The clearest of results I got were this: I went through a forest to a clearing that was scattered with logs, near water. There were some logs that were on top of each other in no particular design, about three or four. In one of the lower logs was the box.
This actually fit quite well with my internet search posted in the previous thread.So, the next problem was to find someway to confirm the existance of the site. No problem I thought, because the lakes along the Gibbon River are scattered with logs. The next challenge was to narrow it down by looking for a pattern. If I was wise and found the blaze I could look quickly down. So, I wondered if I could see it from space. Would the vantage point of a satellite map allow me to quickly see a pattern that I might call the “Blaze”.
Well, the whole area of scattered logs strewn for miles was the result of a huge fire. But, that is not what we are looking for. I looked for logs that were put in the shape of an ‘F’. I looked for geaometric patterns. The resolution was not sharp enough for carvings. I tried scanning outside the park. I tried to dream again. I can always dream. It’s part of the game, but not as good as being out there in the wood.
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