From this site:
http://www.hansrossel.com/travel-information/india/scams-travel-safety.htm
other touristy places. The basic idea is that diamond traders have to pay 250
percent tax when they export to the west. Anybody with a tourist visa can according
to the scam without problems buy and send diamonds to the west as gifts and
then avoid the tax. Around this story a whole theater play gets set up and
performed and the poor tourist gets one of the main roles...
Normally it goes
like this, you meet a very friendly guy and he invites you to a meal in a restaurant.
You meet up again and everything is going very well. After a week or so he
invites you to a family feast (wedding etc) where you enjoy yourselves together
for a few days, everything free of cost for you. The moment that they know
that they have your full trust the next phase starts. Your new friend tells
you that his family has a jewel business and all you have to do is to send
a packet of diamonds to your home in Europe, fly over there and give the packet
to the contact person in your home country and then fly back to India. Everything
paid for of course. The whole thing is done in a couple of days and as a thank
you you will get 10.000 dollar!
After having agreed to help your new friend
you pack the parcel together, bring it to the post and send off the diamonds
to your home address. Then comes the big surprise; since you now have a packet
filled with diamonds worth lots and lots of money soon arriving at your home
they need some kind of assurance that you don't just run off with the treasure
and never return. All you have to do is to sign a paper that gives them the
allowance to enter your bank account and get out at least 10000 euro the moment
that you try to escape. If you refuse to this the problems begin; verbal attempts
to convince you soon turn into threats and torture which might mean you getting
locked up without food or sleep until you finally, weakend by fright and exhaustion,
agree to sign. One Belgian guy was even forced to call to his bank to rise
the limit of his VISA card. Once you have signed they let you go and quickly
disappear, as well as the money on your account. The diamonds arriving to your
home turns out to be polished glass.
This scam seem to be very active, I was
approached by two different diamond dealers in Pushkar who tried this story and a young very friendly guy that first invited me and my friend to a cafe and then the following day wanted to take us to a very expensive restaurant. When we found it a bit too much and felt a bit suspicious he invited us to a coffee again and noticing our un comfort quickly told us the diamond story and the offer of the 10000 dollar. When we after a bit of doubting said no it was not a problem but it also meant the end of the friendship with the young friendly guy. Suddenly we were not interesting anymore and he stopped talking to us, when we left the cafe he did not say goodbye. I heard about many other travelers that had similar experiences, all with more or less the same basic scam story. One variety can be that they want to send carpets.
The scam is still active, and you should also take care in Manali:
"I just came home from India where I got mixed up in the jewel scam
you mention on your web site (I feel like a real sucker).
Anyway, I just wanted to inform
you that I was approached in Manali and then taken to Jaipur. So you might
wanna add Manali as another place the scam takes place.
They were also very interested in my guide book, which suddenly and silently
dissapeared while on the way to Jaipur. They obviously did not want me to read
about the scam.
I can, if you are interested, give you the name of the company.
But I suppose this was just a front for the operation, and that they change
this name all the time."
James, 6 june 2007
1 comment:
There is 2012 Jewellery Designing competition
for details contact
http://jewellerydesigningcompetition.blogspot.in/
Seshu Gopal Vundavalli
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