Swindled by experts

From Pos Kota

On March 3 at 11 a.m., I left my bank on Jl. Gunung Sahari for Jatinegara. When I arrived at the Jatinegara market, I met someone who claimed to be a Korean. The man asked me how he could get to Glodok as he wanted to take his computer there.

I gave him directions to Glodok, when two other men appeared on the scene and queried me about the Korean. I replied that he only wanted to know the way to Glodok.

Not long after that I was overcome by a strange feeling as the two men joined the so-called Korean.

I was then offered a computer for sale. Since they quoted a very reasonable price and my child happened to be in the computer business, I accepted the invitation to a restaurant located in the market.

One of the men asked me: "Do you carry money with you, Madam?" to which I replied: "No, I just have to shop a little, but I have money in the bank."

These men made good use of this answer and immediately said: "If that is the case, we also have expensive watches beside computers.

"You would be fortunate to have one of these watches because they are gold plated," said the so-called Korean. The two other men pleaded with me to buy the gold-plated Rolex watch for Rp 19 million. I went home to get my Tabanas savings book in the company of the three men. We then went to the bank.

In the cab, I started to bargain and they agreed with the price of Rp 18 million. After I withdrew the money I paid them Rp 18 million and they returned Rp 20,000 to me for transportation. They also promised to later buy back the watch for a much higher price. I believed them, since they left me their name card complete with cellular phone number.

They promised to come to my house on the second day between afternoon and evening, but nobody showed up. But more painful was the discovery that the gold-plated Rolex watch was just a beautiful fake.

MRS. R. HAMID

Jakarta