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Road Block SCAM - New Delhi

3 posts
1 helpful vote
Road Block SCAM - New Delhi

Road block scam that led to a company called "INCREDIBLE INDIA" on Connaught Place robbing us of £300 (there are 6 or 7 other companies in the area all trying the same scam). Long story short the scam is:

- you buy a pre-paid taxi at Delhi airport. The taxi driver takes you into Delhi centre however you run into a "Police Road Block" in the street, with barricades and a fairly official "policeman" standing at the gate.

- The "policeman" advises that the area is blocked off due to a festival that is ongoing, and the risk of possible conflict between muslims/hindus and other political reasons etc.

- You are re-directed to a "Government Information Centre" on Connaught Place. At the centre, a new guy corroborates the festival story and sits you down to "help" you out. You are offered tea and comforts. He appears to phone your existing hotel to ask if there are any other possible entry routes. He even dials the hotel number and hands you the phone. In reality, however, the person on the other end of the line is simply this man's colleague in a different room!! He tells you it will be impossible to reach the hotel. He also calls 4 or 5 other hotels in the area (or appears to at least, yet it is again just his colleague in the back).

- In the end he proposes some other options such as taking a private driver to Agra and getting a Govt hotel there (at an extremely inflated cost relative to actual prices). He may even just conveniently find a hotel in New Delhi, but the price will be absolutely extortionate.

The factors contributing to the success of such a scam are:

- tourists arriving in the middle of the night, exhausted, hungry etc.

- first-timers in India unfamiliar with the culture, systems and what is plausible/feasible in the city. You should never tell the taxi driver it's your first time in india (they generally fish for such information to gauge your susceptibility) and also try to seem alert even if you are truly knackered.

- There are 7 or 8 intimidating guys in the "Govt Centre" all lurking around. You never know what sort of turn the situation could take if you "rumble" their scam and refuse to go along with it. I was with my wife so the safest thing to do was just to pay to get out of the immediate situation and deal with it later.

- reading other forums, it appears this scam has been in play for many years. Some of the performances of these actors is oscar worthy - dont be fooled and always remain sceptical of every little detail. This is one of the more elaborate cons ive witnessed with many people all in on it.

Kind Regards

Agra
323 posts
4 helpful votes
1. Re: Road Block SCAM - New Delhi

Dear Andrew

Thanx for sharing such useful information .i would like to add one more thing to this .

there is one more scam in which these private taxi person told to customer that particular road is blocked by swine flue effect so they will not go by this road and force you to go to another road and also force you to book your hotel on the same road as you wont be able to reach your hotel due to road block .

So please dont get in to such scam .

Regards

Akbran

3 posts
1 helpful vote
2. Re: Road Block SCAM - New Delhi

Yes, the risk of Swine Flu near to our original hotel was also mentioned in the "spiel" given by the guy in the Information Centre.......simply another tactic to encourage you to give up on your original hotel booking and go with their proposed solution.

I would also say as a general point, another clever and subtle trick most con artists use it to try and make you aware of OTHER dangers and scams that you may be exposed to. In doing so, they seek to boost their own credibility and gain your trust, such that you'll subsequently let your guard down to their own attempts to trick you.

So upon hearing such warnings, never resign to the thinking "oh well that was nice of him looking out for me, he must be a sound enough guy" :)

Regards

Andy

Edited: 9 years ago
3 posts
1 helpful vote
3. Re: Road Block SCAM - New Delhi

d

netherlands
2 posts
17 helpful votes
4. Re: Road Block SCAM - New Delhi

I would like to contribute my story also to learn for others. I was traveling with my son of 16 years old and I'm an experienced traelller. When we arrived in Delhi last Sunday night it was 02:00 am. We went outside the airport and immediately we had some people behind us for taxis. We went straight to the taxi booth outside and booked a taxi to Paharganj area where we already had a prebooked hotel. One guy showed us the way to the taxi. He didn't take a taxi Faridah was already standing there, which alerts me a bit and than he joined the driver! Another alert. But honestly I was tired and went along as it seemed official with the note from the booth. In the taxi the guy from the booth starts talking about festivals etc. another alert. When we arrived in the area of Paharganj we arrived at blocked streets and I insisted that he would bring me to the hotel anyhow. But he drove us to an official office which could help us with different hotel, which I kindly refused. Than he wanted us to sell train tickets but I told him I bought them already via clear trip. He wanted to see the tickets but I refused. Then he said the only way to get in is by rickshaw. I didn't agree but according to him there was no other way. I got a bit upset to guy from the booth and then we drove away. But we were brought to a rickshaw driver and he could drive us into the area. Before I realized the taxi driver took off with booth guy and we were left alone in the darkness of Delhi with a rickshaw driver who only spoke a few words,of of English. Mind it was already 03:00 am in the morning and we had a 8 hour flight from Amsterdam behind us, so we were exhausted and they knew. The rickshaw driver brought us to the area again and again we were blocked. A guy appeared and he said that due to the festival the whole area was blocked and that it was dangerous to go out on the street in Delhi because of robbers and so on. The rickshaw driver wanted to have a stop there but I threatened him to drive onwards tot the lighted streets again. I told him to drive us to any other hotel. But he said he couldn't help us in his few words of English. He drove us to another official tourist office where e man waited happy to help us. I told him very agitated that I don't want any help or hotel or train ticket but someone to bring me to the prebooked hotel. Of course he couldn't help because of the roadblocks. I said no problem and took my telephone and said I call the police, please give me the address. Then he got agitated and said I had to leave immediately. I told him that I wiould not and would stay in the office till the morning. I said I would not and otherwise would hang outside. I realized only later that this was not what he wanted because more scams were going on at the same time and he didn't want us to meet others. In fact we saw at least 2 other rickshaws with tourists driving to the same road blocks. So this guy from the tourist office went outside with me and immediately called for a rickshaw driver in the area. This guy again tried to bring us to the closed area. I told him not to do so an stop it and bring us to a hotel. He asked the budget and I said 1000 rupees or so. Of course this wasn't possible and he tried to convince us that the price was much higher. I told him that he should just bring us to a hotel and stop the hassling. We were brought to a cheaper hotel..When we entered the hotel was surprised and that relaxed me. We were now in a hotel and they seemed not part of the scam otherwise they would have been awake! They offered me a room from the standard rate and I negotiated it down to 2000 rupees. Which is a shame but at least not too much. I knew that we were close to the original hotel but all I wanted now was safety! Next morning I found out that our original hotel was only 5 minutes drive from here and there were only a few blocked roads in the area. Everything could be reached! I think in hindsight we were lucky! The experience only costed us a good night of sleep and 2000 rupees.

My advice: when one arrives in Delhi airport go to a taxi booth inside. Take care of the exchange scam mentioned in other stories! Ask for the booths' telephone number and ring this on the spot to make sure you have the right number, tell them you have also the number of the police. Ask them for festival, roadblocks or anything else and that will call them and the police in case. Let them escort you to an ofificial taxi waiting there and ask them that no one accompanies you! This could work!

Good Luck,

Arthur

5. Re: Road Block SCAM - New Delhi

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