By the way it is Chinese etiquette that the person inviting will foot the entire bill. And this is still a strong tradition in China. So right away she broke with Chinese tradition.
wow what a bitch that girl is! Her line about being on camera against her religion is total bullshit. . Her only religion is money. . . It was easy to see how she was inventing BS rules about Chinese culture to try and put one over on the visiting foreigner.
That was awesome. I was invited for beer... little did they know I spent the previous 18 months at a Chinese university studying Chinese and had overheard them trying to cheat me. GREAT JOB
Good Job! I spent some time in Shanghai watching these scams, it really annoyed me so since the scammers came up to me all the time, and I didn't have much else to do I would let them walk me to the place, then stop at the door I said actually, I know somewhere better, then point to an international chain. that was after more than 30 minutes so they weren't happy but it was very satisfying to see the look of torment on their face! its a bad scam since it preys on guys who are alone travelling!
good job man !!! u jock !!! lololol u made me laugh so hard hahahah !!! im about to travel to china can u tell more about scams over there in beijing ? anyway you rock for owning them :)))
good job man !!! u jock !!! lololol u made me laugh so hard hahahah !!! im about to travel to china can u tell more about scams over there in beijing ? anyway you rock for owning them :)))
fuckers got me the other night! i wish i had learned about this before it happened to me. there was a little twist in my Beijing tea scam: some girls asked me to eat with them, they GAVE me a menu, the prices were dirt cheap for food so I accepted, but the waitresses served me tea without asking me, and it came out to 1000 RMB!!! ($ 150). never trust friendly English students in China, and always ask how much EVERYTHING costs first
I love this video...the same thing almost happened to my fiancée and I in Shanghai...it's really bad what these people are doing to "foreigners". Someone has to stop them!
You won cause you stuck up for yourself regardless if you got your money back! BTW who charges a service fee on a room to only drink tea in!?! Thats what renting your own place for.
anyone going to Beijing, if two pretty girls come up to you in a busy shopping/tourist area and seem overly friendly be very suspicious! Sad but true, if it's in the countryside no problem but in the city they're probably scam artists. (this goes for the whole 'student artist's' near tiananmen as well)
It's a good thing I'm not too fond of tea. I remember when I was in Beijing, I flat out told the scammers I don't like tea and asked for the closest Starbucks, they backed off.
GREAT VIDEO! haha I wish I was there with you! Chinese, although some are very nice, MANY will scam/cheat you (they consider us aliens-- really they say aliens--) whenever they get the chance. -- Tea houses, taxi cabs, barber shops, real estate agents, contracts, internships, work, restaurants-menus! just to name a few. Speaking Chinese def. helps. Best is to be confident and always watch out!
got scammed in Shanghai and only realized at the last minute. You were lucky in that you with only one girl. I was with 2 girls and a big guy so had in the back of my mind the possibility of violence if I didnt pay up. They asked for 2000RMB and the guy suggested we split it. convinced them to all pay (500RMB) and then queried the bill, pretending that they were my frinds and it was the tea house. Got away with paying 100RMB in the end...better than your horror story. Ballsy of you to go back
my revenge was less brave than yours. I had an afternoon to kill and decided to scam the scammers. I went back to the same place and within 5 minutes met a different group but the same scam. I wanted to see how much time of theirs I could waste. I said I was meeting a friend and he would arrive in 15 minutes, after 25 minutes I said I would go to the teahouse alone, then my "friend" phoned and we had to go back but hed just left etc etc Took over an hour before they realised something was
...up and that MY story was complete bullshit. I then told them how fucked up they are. They denied everything right up until the end but got quite angry when I told them that only losers thieve from others.
Despite everything that happened I can appreciate the very clever execution of the scam. They have nerves of steel.
If you fall victim to this dont let it spoil your trip. Dont hate the Chinese, hate the scammers. Most Chinese live a hard life and are just trying to make ends meet.
Thanks for the vidoe Bill and great job! I was naive and fell for this scam in 2006 in Beijing. It's nice to know they are getting exposed for being scum. Cheers!
PRCForever - While is true that there are stores that thave people standing outside. If you have ever really been in Wangfujing street you will know that there are not people standing outside there shops. Shanghai's tourist street it more akin to this.
Wangfujing's Oriental plaza has no tea houses in it, the nearest one is 0.5 Km away. As for being arrested yes but only the ones that have been proven to be cheats. I think in the west its called fraud, unless your saying that China is lawless.
LMAO! back from china today - we got scammed on wangfujing as well. They wanted us to pay $400AUD for our tea - we paid 'our half' being $200. It was our first day in China, so at least we learnt our lesson and were not so gullible from then on :)
well it is a little expensive but it should be more then a standard cup of tea because your being entertained and she want the most pretty girl. its better just to ask a girl in a book shop if she wants some tea if you want to do it cheap
Well done for doing this video. There is also the art shop scam to be aware off. I'm amazed these people get away with it. This is blatent Fraud and the Chinese goverment should criminalise it.
I got fleeced once in exactly same scam. I went back next day with two chinese colleagues, threatened them (at normal tone level) that I would call cops and report to licensing authorities and started taking pictures. And they gave me my money back in cash.
So, people, dont feel stupid and keep quiet if got scammed. Go back and threaten and get your money back.
One of my favourite past times was going to Oriental Plaze and spotting the Tea scam girls. When the games where on they did do a major clean up. After the game were over they did creep back.
Also I would visit soon after the shops are shut in the dark. I walked down it like 10:30 pm and was offered 3 times the services of a lady of the night.
Others are planning to have the girls go to a restaurant first and then they will pretend that they left their wallets so the girls will pay for the tab, then they will run away again after eating the food.
"How to beat the Tea Ceremony Scammers," is now getting to be a popular tourist activity now in Shanghai and Beijing. Some of the hostellers I met, drank so many cups of tea knowing that they are 40rmb/cup (they even pretended that 40rmb is cheap) and just ran away very fast.
Same thing happened to me 3 days (October 13, 2008) ago at Shanghai. 2 girls approached me and asked me if I want to join them for tea. I obliged and when I got inside the room, I became very cautious because I thought they will drug me and get all my money. I asked how much, they showed me the menu. The menu showed it is 40 yuan per cup but I did not see it also shows that there is a 30 yuan show charge.
So I told them that I really dont like tea that much to pay for 40 yuan and waste my time drinking it. Paid 40rmb and went away. When I went back the hostel, the same thing happened to another guy who paid US$500 because he was so nice he paid for the 2 girls she also met. The Chinese government should do something about this. They spent a lot for the Beijing Olympics, yet they can't do anything about these scammers.
ginesdemafra - IF the Chinese government arrested ALL these people. Amnesty International would be raging about 'human rights' and 'wrongful detention'.
Trust me on something, the Chinese government would arrest these scammers and shoot EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM if the Western world didnt like sticking its BIG NOSE in other's internal affairs
I got scammed in shanghai along with a friend of mine by 2 students. We felt like idiots later, but I figured it was actually not expensive at all: We paid 250 yuan each for 2 hours tasting excellent tea served by a beautiful chinese girl in a cool ritual. If they told me right up front what we´re about to have, and that it would cost 250 yuan each, I would have agreed immediately. So why did they bother doing all that acting??? :-)
I got the same treatment in Beijing today, but i figured it was a scam going in so when asking for the bill i stood by the door (against their wished) gave them the 30rmb for the tea (as the sign said) and bolted out the door to the tears of the girls who now had to pay for the whole room charge themselves. While 30rmb is still expensive for tea i did have like 4 cups i guess. A friend who was in Beijing with be before was kinda wondering if it was a scam, so i thought i would figure it out!
well played, sir. I got sucked into this one today, but sensing foul play (though not following my instincts) I got away with only 90 RMB for the two young ladies and myself. thanks for putting this out there--I only hope it can reach more of us gullible foreigners.
All u gotta do is be prepared to fight. All Beijing locals know this 1. I as a Chinese citizen willingly subjected myself to this thing. (to have fun) I actually fought my way out... smashing 1 of the girls and my uncle is a senior police officer and arrested a few of those involved.
Interesting. It helps to know some people in authority. I would love to have seen you bust out of there haha. From what I've heard, these scammers won't let you leave until you pay... will the physically assault you back if you fight?
Awesome. The same scam happens (for laowai only of course) for Beijing Duck, some cute girls will lead you to some room for Beijing Duck and the price they quoted you was for 1 person (not 3) and of course you will pay for the two pretty girls who dont have any money, right?
The Xian Art Scam is also good, hope someone can post that.
I hope you get the Pulitzer prize for this great video documentary. I got scammed by a girl a month ago near Tienamen square and was charged over 2,000 RMB for a tea ceremony.
Let me tell you- it really felt good to see this video. Great job!
Well, a young man or woman poses as an English student, talks to foreigners, and invites them to a tea place. The foreigners do not ask for prices assuming that the tea is cheap.
Well done fella! I got done by the same scam about 3 weeks ago. I have some serious rage for these people - maybe someone can make a video of themselves smashing up a tea-scamming tea shop with a baseball bat?
By the way it is Chinese etiquette that the person inviting will foot the entire bill. And this is still a strong tradition in China. So right away she broke with Chinese tradition.
MrDanielTynan 3 weeks ago
wow what a bitch that girl is! Her line about being on camera against her religion is total bullshit. . Her only religion is money. . . It was easy to see how she was inventing BS rules about Chinese culture to try and put one over on the visiting foreigner.
MrDanielTynan 3 weeks ago
That was awesome. I was invited for beer... little did they know I spent the previous 18 months at a Chinese university studying Chinese and had overheard them trying to cheat me. GREAT JOB
chako86 2 months ago
"In my country, it's not polite to steal money from people."
I totally disagree with you, iambillbowles. I've met a lot of scammers from every single part of the world, including the USA.
MrThecrazyworld2012 3 months ago
Hmmm, perhaps if you'd done your homework before entering China, you could have done this before they scammed 3000 yuan out of you.
Did you win this battle? Yes. Did you win the war? Not even close.
sbowesuk 4 months ago
Good Job! I spent some time in Shanghai watching these scams, it really annoyed me so since the scammers came up to me all the time, and I didn't have much else to do I would let them walk me to the place, then stop at the door I said actually, I know somewhere better, then point to an international chain. that was after more than 30 minutes so they weren't happy but it was very satisfying to see the look of torment on their face! its a bad scam since it preys on guys who are alone travelling!
triphappenings 4 months ago
Did you really pay 3000 Y ? Because if you did you lost it man
themidnightlamp 4 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
good job man !!! u jock !!! lololol u made me laugh so hard hahahah !!! im about to travel to china can u tell more about scams over there in beijing ? anyway you rock for owning them :)))
odedbengigi 7 months ago
good job man !!! u jock !!! lololol u made me laugh so hard hahahah !!! im about to travel to china can u tell more about scams over there in beijing ? anyway you rock for owning them :)))
odedbengigi 7 months ago
Good work , bro!!! i will watch out when iam in Shanghai in August :)
Spartan360 7 months ago
I got stung in Beijing!
10pennysweets 8 months ago
Nice work, buddy.
People should just walk out when presented those ridiculous bills.
Those scammers really made me angry when I was there.
MegaShadyJ 8 months ago
I got scammed just now. Only cost me 138 rmb but only because I told them exactly how much I had before I got there :(
stillsoflife 8 months ago
fuckers got me the other night! i wish i had learned about this before it happened to me. there was a little twist in my Beijing tea scam: some girls asked me to eat with them, they GAVE me a menu, the prices were dirt cheap for food so I accepted, but the waitresses served me tea without asking me, and it came out to 1000 RMB!!! ($ 150). never trust friendly English students in China, and always ask how much EVERYTHING costs first
terrendously 8 months ago
I love this video...the same thing almost happened to my fiancée and I in Shanghai...it's really bad what these people are doing to "foreigners". Someone has to stop them!
MrMonalola 9 months ago
I wish I had seen this clip before i went to beijing :(
jamesaa007 9 months ago
@jamesaa007 me too :(
camilogrillo 4 months ago
You won cause you stuck up for yourself regardless if you got your money back! BTW who charges a service fee on a room to only drink tea in!?! Thats what renting your own place for.
forbid44 10 months ago
anyone going to Beijing, if two pretty girls come up to you in a busy shopping/tourist area and seem overly friendly be very suspicious! Sad but true, if it's in the countryside no problem but in the city they're probably scam artists. (this goes for the whole 'student artist's' near tiananmen as well)
'
goldghoti 10 months ago
but you didn't get your money back :(
cinemasia 11 months ago
well done!
Gabrielpolias 1 year ago
cannot be filmed because of religion!? LOL
Sky300 1 year ago 2
I got scammed in Beijing too, but i only had to pay $50. Still, they certainly have a persuasive, innocent seeming way with it.
Ikas90 1 year ago
fucking owned
beaufortguy18 1 year ago 7
bill has balls the size of grapefruit. Im going to beijing in 3 weeks. thank-you for this video.
jtuneddc5 1 year ago
Wow im chinese and i can't believe people actually do these things... don't they have conscience??? man serves them right!!
artz900 1 year ago
It's a good thing I'm not too fond of tea. I remember when I was in Beijing, I flat out told the scammers I don't like tea and asked for the closest Starbucks, they backed off.
SOJUxGURL 1 year ago
I was brought to the exact same place. Is it on the east side of the Forbidden City? I had a different girl. Cost me 1000rmb
fetter02 1 year ago
Comment removed
MaTjs 1 year ago
nice one! hahahah.. cunts.
monkeetime 1 year ago 2
"i am special religion. i am buddhism" so i cannot be filmed. lmao
algoseer 1 year ago
@algoseer special religion "gimme your cash", buddhist my ass.
monkeetime 1 year ago
GREAT VIDEO! haha I wish I was there with you! Chinese, although some are very nice, MANY will scam/cheat you (they consider us aliens-- really they say aliens--) whenever they get the chance. -- Tea houses, taxi cabs, barber shops, real estate agents, contracts, internships, work, restaurants-menus! just to name a few. Speaking Chinese def. helps. Best is to be confident and always watch out!
Stiller10 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I hope you got back your Y3000, else I don't think you won. Cool video though :)
creamyhorror 1 year ago
I hope you got back your Y3000, else I don't think you won. Cool video though :)
creamyhorror 1 year ago 13
just got back from Beijing yesterday...
Got asked by so many people if they could practise their english at a tea house or would I like to see an art gallery
In the end I just asked them if they were the scammers I had read about and straight away it was "ok bye now..."
lol
willieman333 2 years ago 2
dude u rock! LMAO give it to those tea house scammers
ICB22 2 years ago
got scammed in Shanghai and only realized at the last minute. You were lucky in that you with only one girl. I was with 2 girls and a big guy so had in the back of my mind the possibility of violence if I didnt pay up. They asked for 2000RMB and the guy suggested we split it. convinced them to all pay (500RMB) and then queried the bill, pretending that they were my frinds and it was the tea house. Got away with paying 100RMB in the end...better than your horror story. Ballsy of you to go back
candree 2 years ago
my revenge was less brave than yours. I had an afternoon to kill and decided to scam the scammers. I went back to the same place and within 5 minutes met a different group but the same scam. I wanted to see how much time of theirs I could waste. I said I was meeting a friend and he would arrive in 15 minutes, after 25 minutes I said I would go to the teahouse alone, then my "friend" phoned and we had to go back but hed just left etc etc Took over an hour before they realised something was
candree 2 years ago
...up and that MY story was complete bullshit. I then told them how fucked up they are. They denied everything right up until the end but got quite angry when I told them that only losers thieve from others.
Despite everything that happened I can appreciate the very clever execution of the scam. They have nerves of steel.
If you fall victim to this dont let it spoil your trip. Dont hate the Chinese, hate the scammers. Most Chinese live a hard life and are just trying to make ends meet.
candree 2 years ago
Thanks for the documenting of this, probably the most fun you can have with legal forms of revenge.
qwertycattle 2 years ago
thanks for the heads up Bill, you're a F**king LEGEND!!!
ariseno 2 years ago
Thanks for the vidoe Bill and great job! I was naive and fell for this scam in 2006 in Beijing. It's nice to know they are getting exposed for being scum. Cheers!
kwaba111 2 years ago
PRCForever - While is true that there are stores that thave people standing outside. If you have ever really been in Wangfujing street you will know that there are not people standing outside there shops. Shanghai's tourist street it more akin to this.
Wangfujing's Oriental plaza has no tea houses in it, the nearest one is 0.5 Km away. As for being arrested yes but only the ones that have been proven to be cheats. I think in the west its called fraud, unless your saying that China is lawless.
Azodrut 2 years ago
were you with a girl by the name of C.F?
IMDLOSTANGEL 2 years ago
LMAO! back from china today - we got scammed on wangfujing as well. They wanted us to pay $400AUD for our tea - we paid 'our half' being $200. It was our first day in China, so at least we learnt our lesson and were not so gullible from then on :)
barriosalamanca 2 years ago
haha good job man. Show those English students :P
RDAMAGIC 2 years ago
well it is a little expensive but it should be more then a standard cup of tea because your being entertained and she want the most pretty girl. its better just to ask a girl in a book shop if she wants some tea if you want to do it cheap
harry8292 2 years ago
I got caught like this. It would have been cheaper for me to take tea at the Ritz Hotel in London (£40 per person).
Visitors to Beijing, beware!
MagnusNielsenBewick 2 years ago
Well done for doing this video. There is also the art shop scam to be aware off. I'm amazed these people get away with it. This is blatent Fraud and the Chinese goverment should criminalise it.
Goorney 2 years ago
the key is simple, be cheap and be careful.
if you asked upfront "how much" and made them tell you, they couldn't pull it off, don't be ashamed of being a cheapskate, it's YOUR MONEY.
funwjoshnjenn 2 years ago
Good job Bill. You have balls to go back, film them, and help people like me keep on our toes. Thank you
Cinrar 3 years ago
I got fleeced once in exactly same scam. I went back next day with two chinese colleagues, threatened them (at normal tone level) that I would call cops and report to licensing authorities and started taking pictures. And they gave me my money back in cash.
So, people, dont feel stupid and keep quiet if got scammed. Go back and threaten and get your money back.
siripathotmaildotcom 3 years ago
I just came back from Beijing yesterday. You still get approached a lot in the WangFuJing area. Specially in the Oriental Plaza/东方新天地.
I did got less now. Last year it was every 2 Minutes. Seems this year they try to crackdown a little. But there is no 100% success.
As a tourist the impression we get is that all Chinese are scammers. Harsh, but I wonder why the government allows it.
hiphop242 3 years ago
hiphop242 - it depends on what the Chinese guys ask u to do.
The Wangfujing area has a culture for inviting people into their stores with young girls/boys outside the store waiting for potential customers.
The only thing you gotta do as a foreigner is act like you want to make some friends and say "can I take a picture with you".
If they say now, then refuse their offer.
PRCForever 3 years ago
I lived in Beijing for 3 years.
One of my favourite past times was going to Oriental Plaze and spotting the Tea scam girls. When the games where on they did do a major clean up. After the game were over they did creep back.
Also I would visit soon after the shops are shut in the dark. I walked down it like 10:30 pm and was offered 3 times the services of a lady of the night.
Azodrut 2 years ago
chinese government are scammers.
fokyoaho 2 years ago
Excellent Bill! Thanks for being brave and going back to show us all!
seafury 3 years ago
Others are planning to have the girls go to a restaurant first and then they will pretend that they left their wallets so the girls will pay for the tab, then they will run away again after eating the food.
ginesdemafra 3 years ago
"How to beat the Tea Ceremony Scammers," is now getting to be a popular tourist activity now in Shanghai and Beijing. Some of the hostellers I met, drank so many cups of tea knowing that they are 40rmb/cup (they even pretended that 40rmb is cheap) and just ran away very fast.
ginesdemafra 3 years ago
Same thing happened to me 3 days (October 13, 2008) ago at Shanghai. 2 girls approached me and asked me if I want to join them for tea. I obliged and when I got inside the room, I became very cautious because I thought they will drug me and get all my money. I asked how much, they showed me the menu. The menu showed it is 40 yuan per cup but I did not see it also shows that there is a 30 yuan show charge.
ginesdemafra 3 years ago
So I told them that I really dont like tea that much to pay for 40 yuan and waste my time drinking it. Paid 40rmb and went away. When I went back the hostel, the same thing happened to another guy who paid US$500 because he was so nice he paid for the 2 girls she also met. The Chinese government should do something about this. They spent a lot for the Beijing Olympics, yet they can't do anything about these scammers.
ginesdemafra 3 years ago
ginesdemafra - IF the Chinese government arrested ALL these people. Amnesty International would be raging about 'human rights' and 'wrongful detention'.
Trust me on something, the Chinese government would arrest these scammers and shoot EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM if the Western world didnt like sticking its BIG NOSE in other's internal affairs
PRCForever 3 years ago
and she says she doesn´t wanted to be filmed because of her religion... that´s pure bullshit man... :-)
fabiolemme 3 years ago
I got scammed in shanghai along with a friend of mine by 2 students. We felt like idiots later, but I figured it was actually not expensive at all: We paid 250 yuan each for 2 hours tasting excellent tea served by a beautiful chinese girl in a cool ritual. If they told me right up front what we´re about to have, and that it would cost 250 yuan each, I would have agreed immediately. So why did they bother doing all that acting??? :-)
fabiolemme 3 years ago
That's awsome! I just came back from Ningbo, and didn't get any of this. I guess they congregate in more touristy places.
DavidChou1 3 years ago
I got the same treatment in Beijing today, but i figured it was a scam going in so when asking for the bill i stood by the door (against their wished) gave them the 30rmb for the tea (as the sign said) and bolted out the door to the tears of the girls who now had to pay for the whole room charge themselves. While 30rmb is still expensive for tea i did have like 4 cups i guess. A friend who was in Beijing with be before was kinda wondering if it was a scam, so i thought i would figure it out!
goldeneye11112 3 years ago
well played, sir. I got sucked into this one today, but sensing foul play (though not following my instincts) I got away with only 90 RMB for the two young ladies and myself. thanks for putting this out there--I only hope it can reach more of us gullible foreigners.
huoleifengbrian 4 years ago
man... honestly...
All u gotta do is be prepared to fight. All Beijing locals know this 1. I as a Chinese citizen willingly subjected myself to this thing. (to have fun) I actually fought my way out... smashing 1 of the girls and my uncle is a senior police officer and arrested a few of those involved.
LongLivePRC 4 years ago
Interesting. It helps to know some people in authority. I would love to have seen you bust out of there haha. From what I've heard, these scammers won't let you leave until you pay... will the physically assault you back if you fight?
seafury 3 years ago
Awesome. The same scam happens (for laowai only of course) for Beijing Duck, some cute girls will lead you to some room for Beijing Duck and the price they quoted you was for 1 person (not 3) and of course you will pay for the two pretty girls who dont have any money, right?
The Xian Art Scam is also good, hope someone can post that.
Ahhhh... how i miss Beijing...
wansuiclay 4 years ago
I hope you get the Pulitzer prize for this great video documentary. I got scammed by a girl a month ago near Tienamen square and was charged over 2,000 RMB for a tea ceremony.
Let me tell you- it really felt good to see this video. Great job!
genoven 4 years ago
Can you explain a bit more. I am still not sure what the tea scam is. Did you simply over pay for a cup of tea?
scott022565 4 years ago
Well, a young man or woman poses as an English student, talks to foreigners, and invites them to a tea place. The foreigners do not ask for prices assuming that the tea is cheap.
The tea is overpriced.
Vikkoman 4 years ago
Well done fella! I got done by the same scam about 3 weeks ago. I have some serious rage for these people - maybe someone can make a video of themselves smashing up a tea-scamming tea shop with a baseball bat?
Duncestan 4 years ago