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Stress (1968) 

Scams



This scam is not Ukraine-specific and is as old as the hills, but it will be less familiar to people living in Western Europe.
The only reason for including it in this blog is that last month I was involved in two separate attempts to be engaged in this on one day.
One group operate around the Gulliver shopping centre, on Baseeynaya Street and the other group near between Lva Tolstovo Ploscha metro station and the Arena entertainment centre - both very central locations.
First of all watch this video to understand the basic scam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO8zHHsv-rM

There are variations to the scam. In one scenario the money is dropped by a person walking away. The second person picks up the money and asks you if it's yours. Then they will suggest that you split the money. If you agree (!) then a policeman will find the two of you splitting the cash, take the stolen dish and then and demand a kick back off you to keep it quiet. If you say you don't have cash the drop location will be conveniently located near to a cash machine.
Here are tourists to Moscow's experience of the same thing:  https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294459-i705-k6815631-Dropped_Money_Scam_in_Moscow-Russia.html

Another option that I witnessed in Kyiv was where the wad of money on the floor was picked up by man No.1 and handed to a smarter man No.2, who then walks off with the cash. As you walk on man No. 1 then starts to ask you where you are from….. How this continues I don't know, because I just ignored all communication and walked on. The scam is pretty obvious, because the US dollars (its always US dollars) are photocopies.
However, the message remains the same: JUST WALK AWAY AND DON'T SPEAK TO ANYONE.

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