“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, my mother always told me. The woman has got a point. I clearly remember the times I was looking for a house to rent in the centre of Amsterdam. How often did I suspiciously watch an ad of this beautiful renovated apartment on an out-of-this-world location... which you had to ‘watch from the outside’ as the owner ‘was on a holiday’, but some neighbour will give you the keys after you transferred the money to some account in Poland. Or microwave food, another example... ever compared that mouth-watering photo on the package with that collapsed piece of disillusion that actually appeared on your plate? Right. Well, I’m sure I will remember equally clearly how someone promised the world to me to possibly lure me into India’s sex industry, or whatever obscure business they were planning.
It started rather innocent.
As I just arrived in New Zealand I scrolled down some traveller’s pages and forums to find tips and advices, allowing me to get my trip properly started. My eye fell on a little topic on the Auckland Couchsurfing group:
[All communication outlined in this blog is a direct copy-paste, including spelling mistakes]
“Needed: New Zealand based digital nomad and crowdfunding expert for a socially responsible project in Nepal.
If you are into travelling and love nature and mountains, love to work remote and blogging, if you enjoy online promotions and creative writing and social entrepreneurship, please message me for a wonderful initiative that can make you a free person as a Travel nomad and give you an opportunity to travel Asia with us. A few local social ventures in Nepal needs a website and online crowdfunding, we have connected with real Artisans across this beautiful country, everything handmade, handwoven and nature friendly directly from the communities.
A small team of 4 of us started this journey in October, because we got interested travellers and social activists from New Zealand who showed interest to be a part of us with their skills, we thought of starting from NZ and Australia. If you are a good in promoting online our work and activities or any of your friend knows someone who can help us take care of website and all, please write me. We can discuss details from there.
Thanks
Elaine (Emi)”
Right. The English was a little off, but hey, maybe this is quite good for a Nepalese, you never know. Although Elaine didn’t really seem like a Nepalese name to me. And what is the (Emi) about, that doesn’t sound like an abbreviation for Elaine... Well, whatever. I decided to drop a quick line, see what this is about.
“As I just arrived in New Zealand and scrolled through the Couchsurfing page of Auckland, I stumbled upon your message. I'm a travel blogger (I have my own website), on the road since 3.5 years and very socially active. I supported many volunteer projects all over Latin America, all humanitarian. If you feel there's a connection, please feel free to write me.
All the best,
Stephanie”
A very simple message. Not much of a wow-factor I’d say. But apparently Elaine (Emi) thought differently.
“Wow, this email made me happy, are you in whatsapp, can we have a chat on there? please add me +91 87429 38166 and I'm online now, we would love to meet you and we have 2 amazing projects. Lets have a chat.
Regards
Elaine (Emi)”
Whatsapp? Ok, why not?! Let’s see which two amazing projects they have to offer.
Hi Elaine, this is Stephanie, thanks for your email.
- Awesome. So whatsup, how long are u in NZ?
Whatsup? Interesting way to start a business conversation.
I don’t have a definite plan, but my visa is valid for a year. I have a working holiday visa.
- Ahhhh I see. Well, we are a entrepreneurs Team working last 8 years now
That’s quite a while
- We have 7 websites already 50% of money goes for charities and rest for people like you and me. Every year we reach a new country, a new project.
And this year it was NZ?
- A new community, the goal is entire Asia, preach education food shelter and medicine. Well, not exactly, we have potential market in NZ. The founding director leads the team, he lives half a year in Asia half year in Europe.
Ok, I see
- We wanted to organize journeys between NZ, Australia and Asia which can generate revenues for our social entrepreneurs. Like I’m from the UK...
Wait, hold it. She added me as a friend on Couchsurfing and there it said she’s from Berlin, Germany. Red flag #1. And if she’s from the UK, why does her English suck so bad? Red flag #2.
... but I’m on the road 7 years now, my Role is Yoga journeys.
Right, yoga journeys. And this preaching of these basic needs as you describe, via which projects is this done?
- Just have a look. Right now Amy from Australia in on her journey for 4 months with our Mentor. Bhutan. Nepal. India. And Bangladesh.https://dyingartasia.wordpress.com/
Ok, let’s indeed have a look. Hm, pretty website, looks legit. Conscious buying, sustainable fundraising, support of children and animals in need... non-profit organization with small projects and charitable works under the name Broken Wings. But didn’t Elaine just say only 50% of the earnings goes to charities? And what the hell has this to do with yoga?
- Now we need a face from every country of Europe. It’s a win-win for both parties.
So in order to get someone from Europe, you post a message on a New Zealand Couchsurfing page? Surprising strategy, to say the least.
- We not just create a journey where her face gets recognized [whatever the hell that means], but she becomes a member of our Project and actually starts a social business.
How much time a week you on average spend on your project?
- I just sent you an email. Have a look at it if that makes sense. http://gaatha.com/
Ok, I will right now.
No. No it doesn’t make sense. At all. It’s an incoherent copy-paste of several websites in a wide variety of fonts and sizes, embroidered together with some meaningless gibberish in the worst English grammar imaginable. I will spare you the details of the brain-numbing description of ‘their projects’ of the mentioned Broken Wings (described entirely different here), the art workshop Dying Art and something they call Yoga Sutra. What is that supposed to be? Sexual practice in weird flexible poses? The work description is entirely unclear... some kind of mish-mash of yoga instructions, meditation classes, teaching in schools for the poor, translating websites, making documentaries about spirituality and women empowerment, photography and blogging. Signed with “Namas-Tea, Team Free Souls ASIA, Reemi and Manashi, Emily and The World.” The other link they sent leads to a website unrelated to the first one, an Indian page about handicrafts (wasn’t it supposed to be Nepalese?).
I’m confused. At this point I have about a million red flags and alarm bells ringing all around my face, no way I’m getting involved in this... but I’m just curious about the end of this story.
- You not just work with us but get training on Reiki, Meditation, Yoga and Ayurveda massage. We activate your spiritual side as well. Amy finishes in December, the issue is we need someone on the road in Nepal and India, its a dream land to film and shoot.Film and shoot the yoga journey in Nepal and India? Why you looked for a New Zealand based blogger then, I don’t see the connection.
- Well, we can wait for you, the idea is Asia just read the email, i have something to share with you.
Ok
- Our Director, he is a student of HH dalai Lama, very knowledgeable man and wise, out of 71 messages and emails and responses when we shared your profile to him he was silent for a few mins and then replied, this Girls is Powerful :)
My Couchsurfing profile?
- Looking at your eyes, i mean ofcourse Buddhism has its ways, we were like WOWWW.. i don’t remember the exact picture now but i can share u later. Are you into spirituality as well?
Ok, so now this guy got into the game too
Quick recap: So they create this once-in-a-lifetime-urgency to come NOW and, however short and shitty my message was, this was the best of all the 71 non-existent replies. Plus, some Dalai Lama Buddhist has the hots for me.
I’m into meditation, but in the non-floaty way. I’m very grounded.
- Nice. One of our projects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qqqVwM6bMM&sns=em [A Ted Talk about another humanitarian project in India]. You can surely work with us from NZ, however you are needed for better reasons. We need you for a spiritual awakening here in Asia :)
Wait, what the actual fuck. Is this a sect? An AWAKENING? Like let’s-all-die-and-go-to-the-hereafter-awakening?! Weird just became creepy.
- https://www.himalayanyogabliss.com/ [website about an Indian yoga training course, again unrelated to any of the other websites] this is our current journeys, we want to help a school in Nepal.
What would be my role in that project?
- 300 hungry kids. Rex [Rex?] needed someone to be the Face. I have asked Amy from Tasmania to drop you a message tomorrow, she is leaving Nepal her work is done, the same kind of journey meeting artisans, video’, meditation, food, culture and share your heart. Be Nepali and Indian not Dutch :)
I never really felt Dutch anyway.
- I feel it from your website. I felt you are more Asian ha ha. Watch this [some cheesy Indian travel-girl clip from another source]. Rex India actually wanted to have a call with you, he is our Founder Director who leads the entire Team from Europe, but not in any social sites. He is very nature person, we take care of online connections across the Globe. Not sure what he saw in your eyes, he is very spiritual and phychic [that’s not a word] as he is a Buddhist nomad. He asked Heather (who? again a new made-up name?) and me to send you a link of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=1ClbiB7_YYg
No way! This is a video of GaryVee! I just finished one of his books last week and this guy is anything but spiritual. And you can cut off my imaginary balls if he has anything to do with this ‘project’. And who the hell is called Rex India? Even a comic book figure couldn’t be named that badly.
Ha, that’s funny, I just finished GaryVee’s book, the man of the last video.
- Wow, it’s a connection, Karma. [No, no it’s not, karma is a concept of reciprocity]. If u ever meet Rex, not sure what is there in destiny, you have to see him speaking in front of 3000 villagers :) and also Ted Talks :) My life changed in Asia, never thought I was capable of doing so much
Is that him? From the Ted Talk video? That man didn’t call himself Rex.
- Nope its his professor [wasn’t that the Dalai Lama himself?], we support the cause. Bunker roy is our mentor as well.
I’m not a Buddhist myself, I follow no religion, hope that isn’t going to be a problem? I prefer not to attach to any group or stream, just be independent and follow myself.
[Discussion about what Buddhism is. I won.]
- The idea is also to make our website in Dutch language. Thats why Rex wanted not just a volunteer but a women leader, who can lead the social entrepreneurship. If u dnt mind whats your date of birth, I’m into astrology ;) its my work and I love to see charts, I understand a lot of ppl in the west, doesn’t really like it
Leo.
[...]
- Stephanie. I know u want to travel NZ now, I guess its a bad timing. But all we need is YOU :)
- I strongly believe in Karma and I feel it inside you [once again, it’s a concept of reciprocity, not a feeling]. Rex is not stupid, he read your eyes, he was right, you have fire inside, u most come to Nepal and land of Buddha. So u can’t get some 10 mins time today, he was really looking for our next face and i felt you could be the person, not because if your online knowledge but the energy what he feels could actually make miracle.
It’s actually night in New Zealand.
- Well he is now in Katmandu and a simple whatsapp can be done, nothing serious, just to get the concept and vibration. Okk...it didn’t have to be video, a voice call is fine and he wont interview you. Verry cute person travelled around 50 nations :) when he sees Fire in someone we trust him, thats why you are kind of famous here now ha ha ha. I mean it nevermind :) i can share his number.
Calling an obvious scammer? I am actually too curious not to.
Let’s see how he gets further and further entangled in his own web of lies.
- +91 87429 38166. Perfect. Fingers Cross. I wish you luck, I realy wanted you to take part with us.
Ha, funny. I knew after 5 minutes that this wasn’t some girl writing with me. It’s a guy who wants me to drop my guards by talking to a fellow woman, just before conversing with The Boss Rex, which is also him. The fact that this number is the exact same number as the one I was already talking to only confirms my case. Sloppy.
The number of Rex you shared is the same number?
- Well... its a company whatsapp, can u try to call him directly, which means he uses the number, and whatsapp is used by us. Its not a personal number, its used by the Team.
A team that’s scattered all over the world? From England to Tasmania to Nepal? I know for a fact that one number can’t be used by more than one phone when it comes to whatsapp. So nice try, but not good enough.
- Do u have credit in your phone to make a call, not a whatsapp, a normal call. Then add him in this number +91 9379039651. Its simple and easy. Whatsapp. He gets a lot of call from all over the world, so just call him.
Ok. I called this number and got an Indian voicemail.
- Ok just use whatsapp. He is overloaded with messages, sometimes replies days later :) we know him ha ha ha
Well, apparently he has time enough to call some ‘cute travel girl’, as he referred to. 25 minutes he was on the phone with me. A young-sounding guy, too young to have travelled 10 years (8 had suddenly turned into 10), with a thick fat Indian accent.Non-stop he talked his incoherent brabble about his years in England and Poland, his yearly meetings with his buddy the Dalai Lama, how he set up global fundraisers for hurricanes all over the globe and fiercely fought human rights violators in Cambodia. Quite a guy, huh? Seems almost ehm... unreal. He ended his monologue with the offer to come straight to India and make 3000 dollars a month (so screw charity all of a sudden?). He would even send a few thousands (what, rupees?) over tomorrow so I didn’t have to work anymore and could just focus on The Awakening.
I was needed there. I was The Next Leader, charismatically guiding thousands of women towards salvation and ending the world from poverty.
I could also come to Bhutan (I once blogged about my desire to go here) on a social project visa, granted by the prince himself to only five people a year. And I was one of them! I must know that there was a village full of starving Tibetan children out there and if I didn’t come to India (not sure if he realizes these are two different countries) all these kids would simply DIE!!! I had one day to decide, it was a matter of urgency.
I decided to end the comedy right there, although the messages of robotized voices of Emily and Amy and whatever names kept on coming in for a few weeks. It was as funny as it was sad. Because you all know what’s gonna happen right? Skimming through a fine selection of white girls with pretty eyes, god knows how much they’re worth on the Indian market of high-end prostitution? They’re far away from home, their family isn’t around and they travel alone. It would take a while before someone gets worried, before some notices they might have gone missing.
There’s not going to be some enlightened spiritual leader picking you up from the airport. Rex India doesn’t exist. Elaine doesn’t exist. And neither does Amy, Emi or Emily. They have Couchsurfing profiles though, oh yes they do.
- Elaine Tott - 36, female - from Berlin, Germany - an open book with many random pages, described as ‘excessively empathetic’ - her favourite movie is Titanic - all her groups are New Zealand based, which is remarkable, as according to her profile she never went there - she has 26 friends and 1 review from... Emily!
- Emily Wild - 38, female - from Bristol, England, BUT according to her profile she actually never lived there - also an open book with many random pages and excessively empathetic - her favourite movie is also Titanic (actually the entire profile is an exact copy-paste, just the photos are different) - all her groups are focused on volunteering - she has 93 friends and two references, obviously from ‘Elaine’, but also from... Emelia? Clearly someone was out of inspiration here.
- Emelia Scott - 36, female - from Brightons, Scotland, even though she only speaks German and Hindi and only lived in Bhutan, India and Nepal - she’s not an open book, but an open-minded, friendly an crazy person - her favourite movie is Titanic though - she has 119 friends and 2 references: from Emily and Polina. That’s a new one.
- Polina Barislova - 30, female - from Vienna, Austria (doesn’t sound like an Austrian name though, but how would they know that in India?), but never lived there - well, there you go, again she’s a damn open book with random pages and excessively empathic - Titanic still going strong - focused on USA Couchsurfing groups - 13 friends and two references from Emelia and Emily.
All profiles were created in 2017. All unverified. All had friends, as people just accept random friend requests from strangers without realizing what they actually support by doing that.
This is the flipside of the internet.
The dark side of social media and online profiles.
Targeting naive people who think such things will never happen to them.
Photo credits: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12
This article got a lot of attention and via my blog other victims contacted me. There's even a Facebook group of just his victims. He mainly stole big sums of money and sexually abused women. He's expelled from Germany and Indonesia.
owo thats great
What exactly do you find so great - and explain why please.
hello, please follow the rules in the group ↕ Resteem to steemit, the main rule is to resteem someone from the group and then post in the group and other people will resteem you.
You went all inspector Gadget here !
Please elaborate. What’s your view about what happened.?
Woahhh... That was quite intense.. I am from India and we ourselves receive a lot of calls from these scammers asking for our bank details, or non existent job offers. Many desperate people get fooled due to the kind of urgency the caller shows as also in the above case. But I still hope you don't judge India from this single experience because we do have a lovely country with people from different cultures and practices.
Haha of course, I never judge a country or culture by the exceptions, if that would be the case all the 52 countries I visited must be judged negative haha. This one just happened to be an Indian guy. Yes, nowadays with the digital revolution we just need to be alert I guess?
I hope this post gets read by as many folks as possible. If it can prevent one woman from falling for this trap, it would be a blessing.
True! That's the only reason I published it, traveling is a beautiful thing but it's good that people have some real-life examples of where they have to pay a bit more attention
@budgetbucketlist That’s a fantastic bit of investigative work you’ve done. Unfortunately the internet has made scamming in all its forms a major business. The older you are, the easier it is to spot - but there is an innocent person born every second, and they don’t listen to their mother. Catching scammers and traffickers is well beyond the resources of police forces. They can only deal with easy crimes, like parking tickets and smoking weed. Thanks to people like you some innocent girl might be saved from becoming a sex toy locked in a deep dungeon.
Thanks for your reply, I can see you're not one of those naive girls. To me it indeed seems all too obvious, but the thought of a young girl falling for this is frightening. If only one girl reads this and opens her eyes my goal is reached here. I also got in touch with Couchsurfing to get all these fake profiles off, although that won't entirely eliminate the problem of course. You're right about the police only wanting to solve easy crimes. That became painfully clear to me once I get attacked by several armed men in Chile, which is luckily a long time ago and never got repeated: http://www.budgetbucketlist.com/valparaiso.html Curious about reading more of your posts!
Great post! remember my hunt for an Apartment in Toronto when I was living there, could send my money to an account to get the keys many times haha! Found a real good place with Craigslist, very suprising with all the scams going on.
Interesting times
Haha yeah the reality of many big cities where housing opportunities are scarce. Glad you found a pleasant home anyway! What's Toronto like? A band I used to listen to a lot, Danko Jones, is from there... ever heard of them?
No, but googled and listing to a song now, not really me, my favorite Toronto song is Kardinal Offishall with the Anthem, mostly because of the clip.
Loved living in Toronto, but see myself as an city person ;
https://steemit.com/travel/@heyitshaas/around-the-world-1-the-best-cities-in-the-world-toronto-15-picks
Toronto was the first in my blogseries about fun cities.
Glad you didn't fell for this kind of scam. Proves one should always, no matter how legit things might seem from the outside, be aware of cruel intentions from these kinds of people. Good you wrote about it so other people can learn from your story as well!
Thanks! Yeah hopefully it opens someone's eyes!
Wow pretty scary, same technique as money scams but much more dangerous... Good on you to share you're experience.
You're on WHV in NZ? I was there last year, I can only recommend you to read some posts of my dear friends @bluudz (life is out there) and @gomart
They are both still in NZ travelling, so you can contact them if you need anything. Same thing if you need a place to stay in Auckland I can give you a good adress where you'll be very welcome.
Good luck, enjoy NZ
And cheeers mate!
Ah cool, yeah I'd definitely check out their blogs! Good tips are always welcome. I was in Auckland the first 3 weeks and basically saw most of it, but I'm now doing a house sit in Port Waikato, pretty place off the grid. I might run into your friends!
Thankfully you had the knowledge to recognize the scam and stayed out of harms way! But by the looks of it, it would be pretty hard to NOT notice it wasn't what it was made out to be.
Yeah this one was pretty sloppy haha, it's basically a sequence of mistakes. But the thought he's trying to do this to people is really unsettling.
It's sad what people are willing to do for money and power.
How incredibly scary. Thank you for posting your experience. I'm sure it was comedic having a play with them (or him if he was alone in this...) but the repercussions for someone gullible enough to fall for this would be catastrophic.
I'm just glad that they were so poorly organised that it was an obvious scam. I wonder how many organisations actually do this sort of thing effectively?
It's actually not. My article got over 10,000 reads via my blog and other victims contacted me. This man has actually stolen a lot A LOT of money and sexually abused women.
Wow.. that is terrifying. At least you've done something to try and make it harder for him then.
You gained all my respect!!! First of all for talking to this piece of **** for such a long time and keeping on investigating. I would have left the conversation after the first red flag. But actually it's good that you kept him wasting his time on you - at whom he didn't had a chance - instead of someone that would maybe have believed that story. Secondly for sharing your experience in such detail and warning other women. As his phrases do not make any sense at all and the whole story sounds like a product of insanity and a confuse dream - I mean is he kidding, literally nothing makes sense, is he next trying to convince you that the Dalai Lama is a yoga guru that holds TED talks?! - I just hope that no women will ever believe in what he's saying. This makes me so angry!
Thank you for sharing, and despite this sad context I have to tell you: You have a great sense of humor!