Latest Update on the Filipino Card Scam in Saigon

For the past two weeks, the Filipino Card Scam Mafia has not been seen at their usual spots in the park in front of the Ho Chi Minh City Museum or inside the Vincom Shopping Center. Many thanks to the management, owners and security of Vincom for screening customers at the door and keeping vigilant watch inside.

These criminals are however, working Dong Khoi Street (particularly around the Caravelle Hotel area) and Nguyen Du, around the Notre Dame Cathedral, Reunification Palace and other tourist spots.

These criminals often say that they work in a casino at the Caravelle Hotel when they are trying to win the confidence of their victims. While their story is doubtful, evidence by way of a testimonial suggests that these criminals may be spending time at Club 21 in the Movenpick Hotel Saigon.

One worrying account has just surfaces that a female victim believes she was drugged by the group.

A fundamental lesson that can be learned from these incidents is that tourists should never accept invitations from strangers they meet on the street in Saigon.

Candid Testimony From Another Tourist who fell into the Filipino Scam

I received this email (below) from someone who got caught up in the Filipino Card Scam that is ongoing in Saigon. They made a lot of obvious mistakes and very bad decisions, but nonetheless their candid story provides us with a lot of valuable insight into how the scam works and how not to make some of the same mistakes.

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Dear Fish Egg Tree,

I'm pretty sure i just went through the poker 21 scam a few hours ago. same scenario but it was a woman from malasia that had a daughter getting a visa to canada. she insisted i go to meet her and not wanting to be rude i did.

When we got there the daughter was at the hospital as the grandmother had gotten sick. however the 4 year old niece that she had talked about was there. her brother (said his name was manoy dado lee) started talking to me about his job in the royal hotel "vip room". then he pulled out a buisness card of his friend from australia that helped him cheat at the casino. trying not to be rude i politely listened planning on not going i(to the casino) if he invited me.

Cousin louie told me how he was a gym teacher at a local school. then they invited me to eat. afterwards i sat on the couch while uncle manoy kept talking about his job. he wrote down his name and phone number. he left the room and a few minutes later asked me to go upstairs so he could show me his "job" -he did not want his sister to see. louie, of course had never done this and was told to come as uncle manoy was retiring next year and wanted to show him how to do the job. he wrote the rules down on a piece of paper and started showing me "his tricks". i figured i'd go up there, listen and leave. then he gave me $200, Louie $100 and told us to put it in our pockets. confused i did so. next thing i know there was a knock on the door and a "banker" from singapore walked in. he did the double take and attempted to leave but manoy told him i was his very good friend for 9 months and invited him to sit down.  all of a sudden we started playing. of course, the first hand the banker upped the ante. not having enough of manoys money i had to come up with my own but i only had $40 american and some dong. not enough- louie put in the rest and gave me back 50000 dong. we won. same thing for the next hand...but this time the banker thought he had a 7 -it was a "3". strange for a man who plays alot eh? banker than upped it to $1000. of course, i had 21, Manoy gave me the wink wink and conviently lended me the $1000. i won again but was desperate to leave. i told them last game. the banker insisted one last game for me and one more for him. stupidly i agreed. i won the next hand. last hand i had 21 when the singapore business man reached into his briefcase and pulled out a stack of cash- $52000 us. if i walked away he won the pot. already over extended by $1000+ and not wanting Manoy to lose his money i panicked. i agreed to another loan. stupid i know but the whole thing smacked of idiocy on my part. then the banker started freaking out. he had cash and all i had was credit. Manoy asked him if he could talk to me alone...insisting i take my cards. i found this strange that with so much money at stake the banker would let me just walk away with the dealer AND the cards. on the stairs i started to get angry. Manoy then said a strange thing- he asked why i had kept betting when i had only 16. he covered it up by asking to see cards and sighing with relief when he saw 21. then he admitted it was getting out of hand but i had nothing to worry about as he would cover the money with a loan shark. back in the room i went. banker said we would only accept cash or gold but would give me a hour to get it. he had to go back to his hotel to cancel his appointments. we sealed the cards in envelopes and placed them and the money in a small safe. Manoy gave me the key but the banker insisted on taking it as all the cash on the table was his. i agreed. he put the key in his briefcase, stood up to leave and then sat back down. now wanted collateral...id. manoy said no, how was i to get the money out of the bank with no id? so i gave him my camera. and then suggested my ipod as well (my idea-yet again stupid but i just wanted the guy to leave.). while manoy was putting my stuff in the safe the banker made sure i was aware that if i did not come back that he won the pot by forfeit as i had already agreed to cover. i kept saying yes, yes...anything to get him to leave. 

As soon as he was gone i started yelling at manoy. i was pretty pissed at the whole situation. he kept trying to inturrupt me but you know us north american woman-once we get going its hard to stop. he called his loan shark telling him a story that i wanted to buy jeans to sell in my country but my money hadn't arrived yet. the loan shark asked to talk to me. he told me he was only going to give me $25000. i gave the phone to manoy and got up to leave. he stopped me telling me i didn't have to worry, hed get the other money but i needed to give him some. i told him i only had $1000, could only access $500 and had none at my hotel. he was flabbergasted.  i would have to go the bank. then i pointed a finger at him, told him he was responsible for the whole situation and that if anything went wrong he was on the hook. he agreed. i then said i would go to the bank but was not coming back. he told me that as i played with louie it was ok if i wasn't there when the envelopes were opened as we were "partners". he would meet me at my hotel to give me the winnings.i hissed that he could keep the damn money- he got offended and said that the deal was 50/50. so off i went in a taxi with auntie and louie. the whole time louie kept asking me questions (which i grunted answers while staring out the window). louie apoligized that this had happened and gave me his email/phone number. when we got to the bank louie waited outside while i went to the atm. it only let me take out 2 million dong so i went into the actual bank to ask a question. louie followed me into the lobby. nobody could help me so back to the atm i went withdrawing a grand total of 19 million dong before my bank stopped me (thank god). louie was not happy with the amount but when he called manoy it was ok. he grabbed my reciepts (before i could stop him) so that manoy could give me back my money once we had won the pot. then he gave me more dong for my taxi ride to ben thanh market(my choice) and told me to call at 7:30am the next day (again my choice as i did not want to give the location or name of my hotel). once the taxi had driven a few blocks i told the driver to drop me off at phanh alley where i walked around the block a few times before escaping into the alley to my hotel. immediatly got onto the internet as once my heart slowed down i realized it was probably all a scam.

The lady went with me to 2 different shops (i was looking for a adapter). "dntn tm-dv tin hoc tan thq" at ton that street and another one down the block.

Manoys phone number (or so he says) is 01635860857

Louies phone number is 01657956022. His email is chis2828@hotmail.com.

Dear Miss Earth, Please Don’t Make Light of Phan Thiet’s Serious Environmental Problems

Dear Miss Earth Pageant,

Welcome to Vietnam, and welcome to Mui Ne (Phan Thiet) next month. We hope that the contestants and managers enjoy their time here. We also hope that your contest boosts our local tourism industry--in a positive way. We also hope it creates an interest among local residents and authorities so that they begin to consider the need to protect our environment. However, so far I’m not feeling very hopeful that this will be accomplished.

Your event is set to be hosted by Rang Dong’s Sea Links Golf Course and Villas (recently re-branded as Sea Links City). We were concerned by the point on your itinerary of planting trees at Sea Links Golf Course (as announced by our local government-owned news agencies). Please don’t come here and plant a few trees at a golf resort for a quick photo op (let alone the standard non-native, invasive casuarinas trees the government ignorantly dumps everywhere) and then tell us you are making a difference for Vietnam. Please don’t tell us this is inspiring positive environmental change in Vietnam. Please also don’t tell us that the Binh Thuan Province, Phan Thiet City or Mui Ne is making great strides, let alone even remotely interested in tackling environmental issues. That would be less than honest--and would be letting us all off the hook by making us feel vindicated in doing nothing.

While contestants are planting trees in the sand (perhaps later to be pulled back out when the cameras are off and construction of Rang Dong's new seaside condominium complex begins this year), all over our province the national parks are actively being logged—sometimes by the very people charged with protecting them. Likewise, this week large stretches of coastal dunes are being logged and stripped of all vegetation. Vast areas of dunes are also being mined for titanium in Binh Thuan Province—just out of view on the north side of Mui Ne and the south side of Phan Thiet. This is creating massive Saharan-like dunes that are growing and spreading across the province, and may never be habitable for plant or animal life again.

Even worse, according to Professor Nguyen Dinh Hoe of the Viet Nam Nature and Environment Protection Society, Vietnamese “scientists” are now advising that highly controversial bauxite refining operations in the Central Highlands be relocated to this province so that if a Hungary-style toxic mud spill were to occur that it can be easily purged into our very own bay.

“As proposed by scientists, I think the best answer would be to process the ore in Binh Thuan Province because it would be less dangerous if the waste leaked into the sea.” Said Nguyen.

Thankfully such a spill won’t hurt our coral reefs. That's because they’ve already been cut up into chunks, dyed pretty colors and laid out on tables for sale to tourists along the highway in Ca Na.

That’s not our only pollution problem of course. Mui Ne Beach is so clogged with garbage at its east end that it is unswimmable for much of the year. Then there is the Ca Ty River—the artery of Phan Thiet City. It’s so clogged with garbage and a permeating stench that it made national news a few weeks ago.

Then there is the issue of animal life (or the lack there of) in our decimated forests. The Vietnam government has sanctioned “wildlife farms” all over the country, with many located right here in the province. Issued licenses for captive breeding, they instead source most or all of their animals—including highly endangered species—from the wild. In other parts of the country these farms have been found to hold illegal tigers (more often dead than alive), bears (milked for their bile) and even rhinos.

One local "wildlife farm" that we visited in July, named Ba Bau (see the story below on this page), had numerous wild tortoises, porcupines, civet cats, monitor lizards and bamboo rats, all stolen from the surrounding forests and nearby Nui Ong National Park in Binh Thuan Province. Of the many local restaurants in Phan Thiet and Mui Ne that patronize the wildlife farm, the owner named the Ca Ty Hotel and Rang Dong's own Sea Links as some of their regular customers.

In short, please make adjustments to your itinerary. Planting trees at a golf resort is nothing more than a marketing photo-op for the benefit of the golf resort alone. Please do something that matters—address the issues above. Your organization can do a lot of good for our local community—if it is merely refocused on more constructive activities.

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Miss Earth in Phan Thiet: Schedule

“The place might be not beautiful, but that does not mean it does not need attention. Contestants could change our planet before and after the competition through their contributions to the contest,” -Carousel’s Creative Director for Miss Earth.

Early this week the Binh Thuan Province government announced that Rang Dong’s Sea Links resort and golf course would be hosting a portion of the Miss Earth pageant. The international beauty pageant has an environmental awareness theme and this year is jointly organized by Thanh Nien (an official media and communications agency owned by Vietnam’s communist government) and Carousel Productions Group (from the Philippines), with the cooperation of the Vietnam Ministry of Tourism, Sports and Culture.

Much like the Miss Universe pageant in 2008, the primary host of the event is Vinhpearl Land in Nha Trang. However, events will also be held in cities such as Saigon, Nha Trang, Hoi An, and Phan Thiet (Mui Ne). The Mui Ne activities will be held from November 12-14, the highlight of which is a pageant and parade of traditional costumes to be worn by each of the contestants.

The November 12th activities include creation of a “Decorative propaganda painting for environmental protection,” welcome dinner, and a show of candidates wearing ethnic costumes from their respective countries.

November 13th will include the official costume show and contest, followed by a press conference.

November 14th will include a golf cart parade from Sea Links to Hoang Ngoc Resort (the use of golf carts is comically explained because they “create no pollution”—never mind the busses and planes the contestants ride in for the rest of their activities).

Only the November 14 parade is expected to be open to the public.

Anderson Cooper Puts On a Bunny Suit & Delivers "Special" Toys to Chimps

This week Anderson Cooper from CNN went to Iowa to visit The Great Ape Trust—namely the very famous bonobo chimpanzees there that are involved in a language research study. I’m not sure when the piece will actually air, but Anderson has already released a few photos of himself wearing a bunny suit when he visited the apes. Viewers are asking what this is all about…

Well, I’ll have it known that I wore the bunny suit first. Actually, I seem to remember the one I wore included a full mask that covered the entire face and was very difficult to see out of. Nonetheless, I wore it first… and it has scarred me emotionally ever since.

You see, I used to work at the facility—actually a previous incarnation—known as the Language Research Center of Georgia State University (before that it was part of Yerkes). The research program involved getting chimps to communicate using symbols (arbitrary lexigrams) on a keyboard. At the time the facility had several labs, also with common chimpanzees, orangutans and macaques (the latter for a program funded by Nasa). I worked with the bonobos—namely Kanzi, Matata (Kanzi’s mother), Tamuli, Elikya, and a couple whose names I’ve forgotten (one male was on loan from Japan and another went to live at a zoo in Wisconsin). Tamuli later died, I believe after I left, due to a congenital heart condition. There was also a very neglected, armless orangutan named Mari that went on to live in a sanctuary in Florida. I did not interact with Nyota or Panbanisha as much as the others—they were virtually the personal property of Sue Savage-Rumbaugh (the director) and her sister. However Sue carried Nyota around constantly and occasionally I got to talk with Panbanisha through the plexiglass.

Anyway, back to the bunny suit. I hated that damn thing--hot, sweaty, and suffocating in the Atlanta summer heat. Sue would always claim that Kanzi wanted us to dress up as “Mr. Bunny” and come visit him with treats. Or even worse, she’d make me go out in the forest wearing it and film videos for the chimps to watch later, using the video as a conversation point with the chimps. A number of us on staff were suspicious of these “requests from Kanzi” and felt that the suit was one of many means that Sue used to deliberately humiliate staff on a daily basis.

Anderson mentioned a “ball” he brought the bonobos that they “really loved.” Well, I hope he wore gloves when he delivered the ball. When I worked at the center Sue and her colleagues (thank God I don’t count myself among them) used the ball as a way to sexually interact with the apes. You see, bonobos are very sexual animals. They use sex to calm stress and tensions among a group. Sex is used very casually in bonobo societies, and occurs between both opposite and same-sex pairings, siblings, and parent-offspring pairs. According to my recollection, Sue and other researchers, in their effort to bond with the apes as closely as possible, and thus encourage better communication between apes and humans, felt the lack of sexual interaction between the two societies was creating a barrier of frustration with the apes and could inhibit communication. So, as I remember, the balls were used as a sex facilitator. While Kanzi or Panbanisha rubbed their genitals up against the ball in sexual rapture, Sue and other researchers would slap away on the other side of the ball. I imagine the balls began to take on a sexual life of their own from there. Again, thank God, I never was called to engage in that. But I hated cleaning cages and having to move that filthy ball.

Hope you wore gloves Anderson…

Help Me Translate This Khmer Artifact in Vietnam

I recently came across this relic in a local shop. It's unusual because the inscription looks like Khmer. As this is coastal Vietnam I don't often come across Khmer script. It could be something old, or it could simply be something a Vietnamese soldier brought back after serving in Cambodia. Unfortunately I don't read Khmer. Can somebody offer a translation? There were 3 inscriptions, pictured below.