FRAUD AND EXTORTION
• NIGER, BURKINA FASO, MALI, MAURITANIA, ALGERIA, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR), September/October 2022
In the summer of 2022, a traveller from Vancouver (referred to here as E) on her way to 193 organized tours to 7 countries in West Africa to share the costs of group travel. All had been in a Vancouver Facebook chat group for 2 years. She puts in a tremendous effort in organizing the trips. She finds a guide and deals with the individual preferences, problems, and drop-outs, which is a pain.
We had both applied for a visa to Niger and had mailed our passports to the Niger Embassy in Ottawa in July. The embassy is difficult to deal with as they don’t reply to any correspondence or answer the phone so you never know the status of the application. On September 5, I flew to Ottawa to get our passports. I also had three other visas to get.
Niger September 30-October 9 2022
Niger was the first country of the seven countries. She had initially tried to negotiate a tour with Yaou, the only reputable guide in Niger to go to Gerewol, a famous courtship festival held annually in October and the focus of the trip. She encouraged us to use another guide, Adamou, as he was $400 cheaper than Yaou – US$2450 for the 10-day tour. We trusted her decision.
I arrived in Niamey, the capital of Niger on an earlier flight. Adamou was supposed to meet me, and get E’s Hong Kong passport at immigration but never showed up. At Niger immigration, E presented the visa letter of invitation with a forged Canadian passport number. It was detected by Niger immigration and all our passports were confiscated for 9 days. We never knew where they were and this enabled Adamou’s extorsion.
Everyone in the group was having difficulty paying the deposit of 50%. No bank transfers worked for many reasons. We all paid by Western Union. However, E was paying cash, half on arrival in Niger and half at the end of the trip. When tips were questioned, she said “I never tip but will hold back money if the trip has problems”.
After seeing Niamey, we flew to Agadez. The Old Town Agadez with its mudbrick buildings and famous mosque is a World Heritage Site.
Amadou wanted more money as the fees to attend Gerewol had increased from $600 to $1200 per person (the actual fee was $35). The normal army security cost $800 per day but was not available and we needed to hire a much more expensive private company called Finis. He demanded $6700 but agreed to $3000, which he promised to pay back in Niamey. E immediately coughed up $2,300 and each of us paid $100. Adamou gave E his wedding ring as security. We all paid the balance owed for the tour with cash (I held back $500).
We left Agadez accompanied by normal army security – 2 heavily armed trucks full of soldiers. One of the Land Cruisers had no air conditioning, which was very hot. Rick, the only member of the group who spoke French rode with Amadou and the rest of us were in the Land Cruiser with AC. Rick became friendly with Amadou and actively advocated for Amadou whenever there was an issue.
We drove 120 km to Ingall, the location of another festival called Cure Salle held at a different time of the year. Ingall is about 200 km north of Abalak, the location of Gerewol. At Ingall, we entered a walled compound with several tents. There were 11 men with elaborate facial makeup and 10 disinterested women who appeared to be about 14 or 15. They did the typical dances, chanting, and had animated facial expressions with wide open eyes and blowing motions trying to impress the women. Photos were welcome and we didn’t feel intrusive. At 9 pm they started again with girls tying knots in the men’s dangling turbans and showing much more interest. We understood that most paired up for the night. This was not Gerewol but an almost identical courtship ritual involving two local villages. Someone who attended Gerewol saw our photos and videos and confirmed this. The facial makeup was not quite as good, and the selection process was necessarily different because of the small number of participants. The local community of Ingall took an active part in the courtship ritual. There was great dancing and music. This was neither fake nor private, but I believe he was genuine in every way.
Adamou asked for the $500 I still owed him. In another tent, I handed him five US$100 bills. A few minutes later, he came and said I had only given him $400. I complained but no one believed me and demanded I give another $100. Rick criticized me for not counting out the bills individually.
We confronted her with how much money she paid. it took her two days to produce two bank transfers using TD, a Canadian bank. One was for $600 in August and another for $1200 on Sept 28, the day the trip started. Why would she pay $550 more than required fo the deposit? I believe that the transfers were cleverly forged.
On October 5th, we continued south via Dosso to Niamey. We missed seeing several sites on the way. In Konni, the Land Cruiser with no AC died. Rick rented a car and continued on his own. Before Niamey, Koure National Park with its habituated giraffes was on the tour agenda. Because of a terrorist attack several years before, Koure required a special permit and armed security. As we had neither, we just drove by.
Back in Niamey, E paid a US$500 bribe to get our passports back (TIA – This is Africa)
and they arrived at 9 am. Adamou sent them by courier. We had to pay for our last night in the hotel and our taxi to the airport was also included in the tour cost.
Although the evidence is circumstantial, I am fairly certain this is what happened in the background. Yaou would not agree to E paying less or nothing and thus, pretending that the decision was altruistic, E wanted Amadou. He gave her the trip for free. From what happened in the remaining six countries, she negotiates deals to pay less than her “clients”, and then denies it. We all told her some benefit is reasonable but then we need to be informed. Once the trip starts, she takes no responsibility and leaves sorting out the messes for the participants. The $2.300 paid in Agadez was the first she paid.
Amadou’s extortion was carefully planned from the beginning. With the threat of not seeing Gerewol, we were at his mercy. Complicating the mess, Rick spoke French, befriended Adamou and advocated for him “Adamou is not making any money”. We were left at the mercy of his lies, poor vehicles, missed sites and broken promises.
We didn’t know where our passports were.
I don’t know if E knew we were not going to the real Gerewol. She did not know the dates or fees. As the “trip leader, ” she dealt with Adamou ineffectually.
E is a rich woman. She owns an apartment in Vancouver and one in Whistler, both with the highest real estate values in Canada. She hasn’t worked for years and makes money playing the stock market. The amount of money gained by these backroom deals is a minor change. It is surprising as we were all “friends” and chatted daily on the Facebook chat group. I had met her once but the rest regularly went out for drinks or lunch whenever E came down from Whistler to Vancouver.
The shit show continued. If you don’t like negativity, stop reading here.
Burkina Faso. After Niger, three left the Niger group on their own agendas. All eight of us had made a contractual agreement to pay for the trip through Niger, BK and Mali. Both BK and Mali were seen with the same tour company.
There had been a “peaceful coup” in BKs capital, Ouagadougou the week before. The only violence had been against the French Embassy. Two others were joining us in BK. Because of the coup, M from Germany and Eric from the US had their flights into Ouaga cancelled. M cancelled his tour but Eric rebooked flights taking six days to finally reach Bamako Mali just before we were scheduled to leave.
The coup raised all sorts of potential security issues – we received a stream of advice from many sources suggesting that the entire country was dangerous and going past Ouaga was tantamount to death. A Thai tourist had disappeared at the BF/Mali border the week before and had not been heard of since. Despite these warnings and because our two guides reassured us that all was safe, four continued to Bobo and crossed the border into Mali 100 km south of where the Thai tourist had been kidnapped.
The guides were using a 9-passenger van and now claimed to be losing money and the four of us would have to pay more. We arranged a meeting over dinner, but EC never appeared leaving her three customers to sort out the mess. We wrote an email to the three that left detailing what each owed to complete their contractual obligation This worked.
Our guides were unlicensed. I thought they were partners but Amadou claimed he was the boss and Ibrahim his employee. However, Ibrahim was the one who functioned as a “guide” doing all the talking and organization.
Mali. We went to Djenne with the largest mud mosque in the world and a WHS. J from Brazil in the original group had gone to Togo and Benin for 3 days and was driven to Djenne. We received many warnings that Djenne was a no-go zone including Phil the owner of the Flying Camel Hotel in Bamako, the authority on Mali. Things went without a hitch and we arrived at a hotel in Bamako where Eric had finally arrived after his flight ordeal. What a great guy as he still paid for his share of the BK/Mali tour despite being by far the poorest of us all. His only benefit was two nights in the hotel.
On the morning we were to leave Bamako for Mauritania, Amadou, our guide phoned and said that E owed him $500. I didn’t understand what his rationale was but this implied that E had at least paid less than us. I understood that she had not paid for the hotel in Bamako. He threatened to call the police and E paid the $500.
Only E, Eric and I from the group continued to Mauritania. We were joined by a friend of Es from London and we flew to Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania.
Mauritania
The 7-day tour to the north of Mauritania E had arranged cost $1,200 with a guide named Dahid. I knew that the standard price for this tour was $750. I searched for other companies and arranged a tour for $750. I was joined by Arzu from Philadelphia. I contacted E about this deal and encouraged the three of them to join us. When she told Dahid, he threatened to meet her at the Nouakchott airport with the police and have her arrested. She believed him and they stayed with Dahid. From the price difference, I also believe E had arranged another backroom deal to pay nothing. Because I had left their tour and 2 vehicles were still necessary, Dahid’s price increased to $1500.
My final cost was $910 as the hotels in Nouakchott on each end were not included,
$600 less than they paid. We had a spectacular trip as our guide/driver/owner Ali and our cook Ahmed could not have been better. They were completely professional. Ali was a spectacular desert driver and I learned a lot for the next time I have to drive through a lot of sand. We desert camped all but one night. Having a cook was the way to go. Arzu took the iron ore train the 6 hours between the mine and Choum.
Our best experience was the monoliths Ben Amera and Aisha the second largest in the world after Uluru in Australia. Aisha had a great area of boulder carving done by a team of artists for the Millennium. We camped next to Aisha – very quiet, and cool, with no bugs, and great dark skies.
E said she hated the entire trip. They had wasted a day waiting in the sun for the iron ore train which none eventually took. I disliked talking to her so know none of the details but can guess as all reports at my hotel in Nouakchott said that Dahid was “not representative of Mauritania guides” and a crook. He didn’t drive E to the airport and she came with us.
Algeria
The shit show continued in Algeria. E and I were the only ones on this tour and we flew into Algiers together. The original tour price was $1,700 transferred into the guide’s European bank account. When we were in Mauritania, I had an informant who somehow knew that E had arranged with the guide to pay $1100 and me $2200. Then there was a bewildering series of price changes. E wrote that we were going on separate trips and the price increased to almost 2700 each! The guide emailed me that I needed to add $500 to my original! $1700 for $2200, just as my informant had said. I wrote back that I would not pay any more than E or would quit the trip. He then said his email was a mistake, and that my cost was $1,700. E had only paid $1,375 and needed to pay the balance or would not be going on half the trip. Our guide appeared to be completely honest and I’m sure was caught between E’s backroom maneuvering as she continued to try to extort money from me. I wrote him privately about what a sociopath she is. I warned him that he would be EC’s personal photographer so that she could make all those goofy poses in front of every photo.
I had a spectacular trip, easily the best in all of Africa. After seeing the north, we flew to Djanet in the Sahara and camped for 5 days. It is an amazing landscape of sand and rock formations including several arches. The area also has 15,000 rock art sites of mainly giraffes, elephants and cattle that had not been seen here for 10,000 years. The pictographs are in overhangs and finely detailed paintings. The petroglyphs are large animals wonderfully pecked on boulders.
Our guide shows us 10-15 rock art sites per day finding his way in the maze of canyons and sand. Both he and the cook are great guys. The food is tasty and I slept in the open all five nights. E was in a foul mood. As she has ADHD, she paces around our camps endlessly. In the north, she only wanted to eat sharamas.
E continued on to Cameroon for 2 weeks with a completely new group of travellers. I know nothing of how things went there.
I had been to Cameroon and flew to Paris for 10 days of normalcy. I flew to Sao
Tome/Principe, an island country in the Atlantic Ocean.
I then flew to Banjul, the capital of CAR to join the Cameroon group.
Central African Republic (CAR)
One of the poorest countries in the world, it is also one of the most corrupt. The Wagner Group provides security and we saw them many times driving around Banjui in their heavily armored vehicles wearing balaclavas.
CAR has few attractions, none in Banjui itself, but outside the city is a spectacular waterfall and visits to pygmy villages. There is a great national park in the south but requires charter flights and expensive accommodations and safaris.
The trip went well. I had written the tour company asking if E was paying the same as everyone else. This group consisted of her true friends and he replied that she was.
We were charged for an extra night in an expensive hotel.
After this fiasco ended, I submitted a report to the FB group Every Passport Group without naming her. I was kicked out of the Vancouver FB chat group. I asked a common traveller friend from Vancouver who saw E regularly about what she was saying about me. “Did you see what he wrote about me?”
She was expelled from EPS for getting financial gains from trips she organized.
I have no reason to associate with her. She still had about 25 countries on her way to 193 which she finally finished in December 2023. She appeared in many Nomad Mania reports and was made the NM envoy for Western Canada. I don’t think they knew her history.
I feel very disappointed about being cheated so badly in Niger. Seven of her friends did not see Gerewol, a world-class spectacle only because she wanted to save a few dollars. She had no qualms, regrets or guilt about scamming her friends. Sociopath describes her best.
I wonder if she still has Adamou’s wedding ring as a souvenir.
• SHANGHAI CHINA December 2016
On a cool December night, I went down to the huge promenade along the river. On the street side is the Bund, a wonderful street lined by all the old colonial buildings, banks and hotels. Across the river is a spectacular array of huge skyscrapers lit up at night. It is a popular place for tourists to take selfies.
I walked along the kilometre-long promenade. An attractive Chinese woman in her thirties started walking beside me “I just need someone to talk to. I have not seen my son for some time and am feeling depressed.” She worked for an international company building swimming pools for hotels and had just returned from Sydney Australia. She was staying at an expense account-paid hotel that she pointed out. It was 18:30, and she was hungry and wanted to get something to eat. “I will pay for half.” After dinner, on exiting the restaurant, she grabbed my hand. “I would like to go to a bar near here. It’s a normal Chinese bar but the beer is a little expensive.”
We arrived at a place with no sign or address. There was a counter and a long bench and we were ushered into a room with a TV and music and a beer was placed in front of us. We sat on the couch and she immediately said she wanted to see my penis. We started to make out. She was very eager. Soon a prostitute came in and made advances. I said that I only wanted my new friend and the prostitute left. We started making out again, another prostitute arrived and we kicked her out too. We resumed our passion until a third prostitute came in. My ‘friend” left to go to the bathroom.
After I had finished, the prostitute rapidly dressed. As soon as she closed the door, three big Chinese guys entered. One spoke English. “Do you know how much you owe us? They showed me the ‘menu’ – 18,000 RMB for the sex. and 18,000 RMB for the room and beer or about US$6,000. That was blatantly crazy and I argued. “Don’t you look at the menu when you go to a restaurant?”. I continued to whine. Every time I stood up from the couch, a big tough guy roughly pushed me back down. “We are the Chinese mafia and Chinese men pay this all the time.”. The arguing continued and they reduced the bill to 30,000 RMB (US$5,000).
They searched me, found my credit card and took me out to the ‘lobby’ to use a credit card machine. 12 prostitutes were sitting on the bench. I inserted my credit card and it declined the transaction. It was a Union Pay machine and wouldn’t accept foreign cards. The boss thought that I had exceeded my credit limit, took me back into the room and wanted me to call Visa to have my limit raised. I talked to the Visa agent saying “I am being held for extortion in a brothel by the Cosa Nostra. She transferred me to security. He could see the attempted transition. I said that I was worried for my safety and asked for the transaction to be completed. “Wait 5 minutes and try again.”
When I entered it again, the transaction thankfully went through. They photographed both sides of my card, and said “Come back any time, the beer and the taxi are free.”
I tried to find a taxi but eventually walked back to my hostel about 30 minutes away through a rough neighborhood of bars and brothels. I phoned Visa, explained what happened and the agent told me to contact the police for a report.
The next day, I went to the local police station and they referred me to a station on the other side of the ‘bar’. I wrote down the addresses of the buildings on either side. At the police station, I explained the extortion on my credit card and gave the captain the address, He rolled his eyes and left.
I sat in the waiting room for an hour when a Chinese man in his 30s sat beside me. “How much do you want to leave?”. I said 25,000 RMB. “No way” and the bargaining started. After 10 minutes, he offered 10,000 RMB. He pulled out a stack of a hundred 100RMB notes (the largest Chinese denomination) I counted them and checked that they were not counterfeit. I signed a note “The bar has forgiven 10,000 RMB. Finished” and signed my name.
I sat for a while thinking that this was ridiculous. The amount I had paid was unrealistic. I asked to see the police officer again. A female officer appeared, I said I wanted more, and she brought me into an office. The manager appeared in a minute. I said I wanted more. He got upset and wanted the original 10,000 back. I told him what I thought and the bargaining continued in earnest. He finally agreed to another 5,000 RMB, pulled out another was of a hundred 100 RMB notes, and counted off fifty. I checked them and signed a second note “The bar has forgiven 15,000 RMB. Finished” and signed my name.
I again thought how crazy the amount was and called back the police officer. “How much do you want to leave?”. I said another 10,000 RMB She went outside and returned with another hundred 100RMB notes. I checked them and signed a third note “The bar has forgiven 25,000 RMB. Finished” and signed my name. I didn’t see the manager this time and he had come with the entire 30,000 RMB.
The police officer said “Chinese law has no way to deal with this. What you did was illegal and what they did was illegal. Next time you have to ve smarter.”
I left with a huge wad of bills, returned in the dark to my hostel and left Shanghai the next day. Visa contacted me requesting a note describing what had happened. “I was held for extortion at a bar in Shanghai foe 25,000 RMB on my credit card.”, signed it and sent it to Visa. It took me several visits to Chinese banks to exchange all the money into US currency.
The transaction never appeared on my credit card and I made the equivalent of US$4,200.
The extortion was crazy. The amount of money was crazy. How often had they gotten away with this? I don’t believe they had had many customers go to the police before.
This confirmed that I have unbelievable luck. Everything always turns out for me.
If you want to know the address, contact me personally and I will give it to you. It was one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me in 18 years of travel. But maybe you think it worth the risk?
THEFT
PIckpockets
I have been pickpocketed four times. Pickpockets are very good. They often work in groups with one person distracting you. They bump into you while someone is in your pockets. Uncommonly, mustard, ketchup or smelly fish oil is thrown on you. Someone takes you to the bathroom and relieves you of your wallet and money.
The only guaranteed way to prevent pickpockets is with a “secret pocket”. These are a passport-sized pocket sewn into the inside waistline of every pair of travel pants I have. I have a sewing machine and make my own using soft nylon. Don’t add any closure as it is hard enough to access as they are.
It’s also important to have pants with several pockets, some with zippers that make access hard. Women are at a disadvantage here as many women’s pants have almost no pockets and none that are secure.
Always put things in the same pockets.
•
Beijing, China August 2015. This was on my earlier travel and was my first trip to China. I flew from Ulan Bator, Mongolia to Beijing. I withdrew some money from an ATM at the airport and boarded the subway to go into Beijing. My wallet was in my back pocket and it was gone when I got off the subway. This was a real rookie mistake.
• Barcelona. On my first time in Barcelona, I went for a walk in the evening along the urban legend, La Rambla. It is packed with tourists. When I got home to my hostel, my new iPhone was gone. I felt nothing other than being jostled by a guy. But I had in my front pocket, another rookie mistake.
• Uzbekistan. I was pickpocketed on a bus and lost my wallet.
• Goroka Festival, Papua New Guinea. Sept 16-17.2023. On the second day, I returned to the bandstand area with two young Americans. Robbie was determined to get to the front and we worked through the tightly packed crowd until he was about 30 m from the stage. A group of guys picked him up and floated him above the crowd, then did the same to Michael and me. It was a lot of fun but totally out of control. I felt someone get into the zipper pocket of my pants (where I had the equivalent of about US$20 in kina) and insisted on being put down. The guys carrying me tried to grab him and punched him several times, but he was small and fast and amazingly got away. I then noticed that the zipper pocket on the outside of my shoulder bag was open and my cigarettes and phone were gone. We were escorted off the field by a concerned group of guys and eventually returned to our dorm rooms.
My mistakes were going into the crowd and bringing my phone as I didn’t need it. I should have put it in my secret pocket or inside my shoulder bag. The crowd was so huge that it was an obvious red flag for pickpockets. I never expected to be carried along by the crowd and lose control of my shoulder bag which is difficult to pickpocket.
I thought it best to wait till I was back in Port Moresby to buy a new phone but eventually bought one in Brisbane.
Theft
Virtually everywhere has places to avoid especially at night.
One must be careful and show common sense wherever you go. In the evening, leave everything in your room except for a small amount of cash.
Many people have poorly informed ideas of travel and think crime only happens in dodgy Africa (maybe the safest places to travel). People incorrectly evaluate risk – they rarely think about travelling in a car, one of the most dangerous things we do. Or realize that if you want to get robbed, the best place is Barcelona!
• Quito Ecuador. Old Quito is gorgeous – full of old architecture. However, it is notorious for personal crime. I met a nice woman from Venezuela and a walk during the day. She had a small SLR camera and gave it to me to take photos. We were at the edge of the old part and ventured about 50 metres onto a small bridge. Two young men grabbed the lens of the camera and the other the shoulder strap. It was impossible to prevent them from taking the camera. They ran like hell. We reported the crime to the police but they could offer no help.
The new part of Quito is much worse for personal crime. You are virtually guaranteed to be robbed. I knew one fellow who was robbed twice in one night.
• Barcelona. In my two-year trip driving around Europe in my VW California camper van, I parked it in the morning on a quiet street next to the opera house. When I returned after dark, the right rear window was smashed and my Kindle left in the open on the bed was gone. Glass was everywhere.
As I sat eating dinner, a Roma kid on a stand-up three-wheeled scooter pulled up to the van on the sidewalk. As soon as he saw me, he turned around and hightailed it. I thought he was disappointed in what he had stolen and had returned to see what else might be available. A Kindle is virtually useless. I cancelled it immediately so it was of no value to him.
I had the window taped up with cardboard and called all over to see how soon I could replace the glass. It cost $800.
BANKING
I travel with four credit cards and three debit cards. I have needed that many more than once. Because of stupidity, my one credit card was hacked by a Scottish online gambling company and I had to phone Mastercard to free the card for a few minutes to conduct necessary online purchases (like flights).
Credit cards. I have had my credit cards hacked so many times i have lost track. In May 2024, I had both a Visa and a Mastercard hacked on the same day in London (England surprisingly seems the worst for this). I have no idea how it happened on the occasion and rarely can I figure out how it happened.
Usually, you are notified by your card company of suspicious transactions. Your card is cancelled. Getting another card is relatively easy as most credit card companies courier cards in 5 days to wherever you are. Credit card companies are very good at protecting you and no hacks cost me money.
Prevent some of the hacks by ensuring your computer connection is secure. Google is fairly good at recognizing insecure websites. A VPN protects you well and should be used anytime you bank online and for all purchases.
Debit cards. I have rarely had my debit cards hacked. The only time was after getting off a bus and using an ATM before taking a ferry to Ilha Grand, Brazil, a popular tourist destination. There was a skimmer in the ATM that read my card. I had a daily withdrawal limit of $400 three $400 withdrawals made over three days.
Your debit card is cancelled. Getting debit cards sent efficiently is difficult as banks only send debit cards by snail mail. I am never anywhere long enough to receive them. The cards are mailed to your home and whoever picks up your mail can courier them to you.
PayPal. Their security is poor as they are one of the few money payment methods that don’t use 2-step verification. Even Facebook requires it sometimes – and who cares about FB?
• Indonesia. I used PayPal over an insecure line. It was hacked and $6,000 was transferred to a pending transfer account on PayPal. I froze it but getting the money back into my bank was very difficult. I eventually had to courier a statement to my bank (cost $96).