Chinese Brides Scam Your Money

UGH. 40000 yuan for that horseface? Things must be getting desperate.
SUCKER!

Source: Wall Street Journal

With no eligible women in his village, Zhou Pin, 27 years old, thought he was lucky to find a pretty bride whom he met and married within a week, following the custom in rural China.

Ten days later, Cai Niucuo vanished, leaving behind her clothes and identity papers. She did not, however, leave behind her bride price: 38,000 yuan, or about $5,500, which Mr. Zhou and his family had scrimped and borrowed to put together.

When Mr. Zhou reported his missing spouse to authorities, he found his situation wasn't unique. In the first two months of this year, Hanzhong town saw a record number of scams designed to extract high bride prices in a region with an oversupply of bachelors.

The fleeing Mrs. Zhou was one of 11 runaway brides -- hardly the isolated case or two that the town had seen in years past. The local phenomenon has fueled broader speculation among officials that the fast-footed wives may be part of a larger criminal ring.

.....more

Video Link (can't embed cause WSJ code is screwed up)


Nothing like a good scam. This one is very creative and the victims are the families who worship their sons. I love it. Not only to the sons get duped, there is additional match-making and everyone gets duped for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Marrying after meeting for a couple of hours? Buyer beware!

She offered nude pictures for virtual pet gifts

Source: Asiaone

IT SEEMS she is willing to exchange real-life nude pictures of herself for something that exists only in cyberspace - items for her online pet.

Is that all her modesty is worth?

The question doesn't seem to bother the Facebook user, who introduces herself as Ling Er, an 18-year-old Singaporean.

Her offer has drawn some flak, even from other netizens who are blase about such shenanigans.

As one of them put it, she may have taken games addiction and online barter to a new low.

The teenager set up a Facebook group last month to get netizens to give her virtual items for her character in the popular game Pet Society on the networking site.

Birthday suit

The name of her group: My birthday suit contest.

To date, some 133 users have signed up as members of the group.

The game, which can be played by Facebook members who download it, allows them to create and play with a virtual pet, buy it items, and pit its 'skills' against those of others.

The object of the game is to acquire as many points as possible.

These points allow players to acquire more virtual items for their pets' homes.

On her Facebook group, Ling Er has appealed to netizens to give her their most valuable Pet Society gifts possible.

She claimed that senders of the best five gifts would get a set of nude pictures of her in return.

They have to do so by 1May.

She has even listed those who have sent the most valuable gifts so far.

The teen wrote on the site: 'I will send you guys pics of me in my birthday suit that I was born with.'

Er, does she mean baby pics, perhaps? Who knows.

But since the group was set up, it has attracted more than 100 members, almost all of them men.

Wow. Proof there are 133 idiots around. Once she gets your pets, she'll run. No way you're getting ANY pictures!

Facebook face-off

Source: Asiaone

IT SOUNDED harmless enough - a drink with a group of new friends.

But soon after, the gathering turned sour, and Mr Ong Jian Zhao, 21, found himself left alone at a bar, with a $213 bill to settle on behalf of people he hardly knew.
Mr Ong, a civil servant, got to know Miss Chloe Yoong, 21 - one of the members of the group - through social networking site Facebook last month.
He said: 'I was randomly browsing through profiles and I decided to send her a message.' After several messages over the course of a few days, they exchanged handphone numbers.

He then asked her out several times, but each time, she declined saying she was busy.
But on the evening on 28 Feb, Mr Ong received an SMS from her inviting him for a drink at Raffles Hotel's Long Bar with her, her boyfriend and three other friends.
Said Mr Ong: 'I was reluctant at first, but she told me to join them anyway and not to be a wet blanket.'

He recalled that when he arrived, there were already several drinks on the table - two cocktails, a glass of bourbon and a bottle of red wine.
He then chatted with the group for a while.

But after about 20 minutes, Miss Yoong and one friend left, claiming they were going to the toilet.Shortly after, while Mr Ong was away taking a phone call, two others left.

When he returned to the table, only Miss Yoong's boyfriend remained. But he, too, left immediately, saying he had to take a call. Mr Ong claimed he waited for about 30 minutes for the group to return but nobody showed up. When he SMSed Miss Yoong, she claimed to have left with a friend who was not feeling well.

He then paid the $213 bill for the drinks and left.

He had believed the evening was planned by the group of friends to get him into paying for the drinks. He said he had repeatedly tried to ask Miss Yoong for his money back after the session but she had been uncontactable. He even contacted the National Institute of Education, where Miss Yoong is studying, hoping to get hold of her.

However, he was told to settle the matter on his own. When contacted, both Miss Yoong and her boyfriend, Mr Alex Lim, 25, confirmed the incident. Mr Lim said they had decided to leave Mr Ong to settle the bill because he had implied that he wanted to pay for the drinks.

He said: 'When he came over, he kept bragging about how well he was doing and how well-off he was.

'It is ridiculous that he is asking us for the money back.'

Miss Yoong added that in their exchanges on Facebook, Mr Ong said he had planned to treat her to a drinking or clubbing session. Mr Ong did not dispute this, but said he had only planned to take Miss Yoong out, but not her friends. Said Miss Yoong: 'When he first sent me a message, he said he didn't have a stable relationship with his girlfriend.

'He asked me out to go clubbing or for drinks, and said he wanted to treat me.'
She added that she began to get annoyed by Mr Ong's persistent requests and decided to 'get him off her back' once and for all. 'It happened that my boyfriend was around (on the night of the incident) so we asked him to join us.'Immediately after he paid the bill, Mr Ong reported the incident to the police but was advised to settle the matter privately with her.

However, he claimed he has been unable to contact her since.

He said calls and SMSes to her handphone went unanswered, and she later deleted him from her contact list on Facebook as well.

What he hopes for is an apology and his money back. When asked if they would accede to Mr Ong's request, Mr Lim said: 'Are you kidding?'
He added: 'It would be a different matter if he had been polite and nice.

'But after all that bragging, it was really difficult to be cordial to him.'

So what do you think?

Group of foreign workers wants chance to stay

Source: chron.com

Thang Hong Luu pledged his parents’ house in Vietnam as collateral to raise enough money to take advantage of a job opportunity in America.

He says he paid a $10,000 fee to be chosen for a 2½ -year stint as a welder that he thought would earn him more than $100,000 — money that seemed out of reach in Vietnam.

But in February, eight months into his work contract, he was told he’d have to go home, he said.

“There is a lot of injustice and deception that I don’t understand,” he said through an interpreter, Tammy Tran, who is also one of his attorneys.

On Tuesday, he was the first of about 20 workers Tran represents to file a lawsuit claiming Coast to Coast Resources, a Port Aransas-based staffing agency for skilled laborers, and ILP Agency, a Louisiana-based labor firm, promised work for 30 months at $15 per hour but reneged months into the contract.

Luu says the companies charged him and his fellow workers a fee of between $6,500 and $15,000 to be chosen for the U.S. jobs; told them not to speak to outsiders because Americans disliked citizens of communist countries; and overcharged them for housing and transportation.

Sad isn't it but making illegal workers pay for the chance at work in America is the oldest scam in the book. Conditions in Vietnam are so poor that men can easily be tricked into paying to take job that promise them $100000 a year.

Luu’s contract with Coast to Coast notes he would earn $15 an hour for the first 40 hours and an additional $22.50 an hour for overtime.

He also agreed to pay Coast to Coast $500 a month in rent, $85 a month for transportation and a management fee of $2 per hour worked, according to a copy of his contract.

He said he didn’t know when he signed the contract that he’d be sharing an apartment with three other workers.

Coast to Coast’s attorney said the management fee was never charged but the various other charges were often lower than the contract allowed.

The charges covered expenses the company incurred for the workers, including assisting them with housing, food, transportation, medical needs, tools, electricity, furniture, a full-time apartment supervisor and a registered nurse, he said.

Luu netted an average $13 an hour, according to Funk.

Yup. $15 is dirt cheap for a welder. A legal unionized welder would make alot more.

Jobless and afraid to return home without the funds to pay off debt he took on to come to America, Luu remains in limbo.

He and the other workers are relying on the local Vietnamese community for help.

On another legal front, immigration attorneys at Foster Quan said they plan to seek visas for the workers that will let them stay in the U.S. as victims of a crime or of human trafficking during an ongoing investigation.

Luu said he wants to stay in America long enough to earn what he needs to pay off the loan on his parents’ home and help educate his six nieces and nephews.

“I’d like to stay here legally for two to three years,” he said. “I am very scared for my family.”

It's tough but one has to think before taking such risks. There are no guarantees that there will be work. Any of us that work can be let go at anytime.

As for getting help from the local Vietnamese community, good luck. Recently people who come from Vietnam to America to work often thumb their noses at the local Vietnamese that have already been established in the US. I don't see the local Vietnamese being able or wanting to help much.