Well Played: How I got Scammed

It's not often that I get scammed. The only time I lose money is by doing something stupid and perhaps getting scammed is one of those things. But still, it was an incredibly good lesson to learn and I have no qualms about it.

There is a saying in poker: "If you can't tell who the sucker is, then you're it" and that was exactly what happened.. all in the span of about 5 minutes.

So what exactly did happen? I'll get into that right now.

Walking along the streets of Copenhagen, there was a crowd surrounding this one man on the street. A small cloth covered there street where he had 3 little boxes, no bigger than size of a credit card. A ball a placed under one box, he moved the boxes around and then you have to guess which box has the ball. It's a classic "cups and balls" game that you see in movies set in New York. But still, the presentation was brilliant.

I walked by the crowd and watched for a little while. The table host moved the ball around underneath the little boxes. One guy guesses at the wrong box and loses and another person guesses at the right box and wins. I stop and watch for a while longer and the pattern continues.

Looked easy and obvious enough to me. But it gets even better and I learned a great lesson.

During the play, one guy flips over one of the obviously wrong boxes and loses. The host takes the guy's 500 DKK and shoves it at me and in a sort of a Russian sounding accent

"which box has the ball?"
I point at the box.
"Okay, show me the money."
"Naah"
"Come on, show me the money and it's yours"

I watched the game meticulously from the start and it was obvious that I knew. So I figured, what harm? I pulled out the cash, flipped over the box and found *nothing* and disbelief, he flips over the other box and there the ball was. The guy cracks a smile takes the cash and goes back to the game.

The crowd standing there tells me, "no no no" you gotta put your foot on it next time so he can't change it on you. They go through another set and I watch. The host stops, one guy walks up, gives him some cash, flips over a box and gets the cash.

A second set gets played, one guy plays and flips over the wrong box. The guy looks over at me again, which one is it? Reactively, I flip out a little more cash, put my foot on the 'right' box and lose. Even I was surprised at how fast I reacted.

I immediately walk from the game and started thinking, "how the hell did I lose!?" I was astounded and part irritated. I walked through the street a little more and found a few more of these guys playing the same game along the street but I ignore them and walk past.

Then the whole gravity of the situation made perfect sense!

I walked back to the other guys playing the same game and there was a crowd at each and everyone of them. Each of them playing the game in the same way. The host stops, one guy gives him cash and flips over a box and loses. Another player gives him cash and flips over the obviously right box and wins. The game keeps going and going. There are at least 3~4 people surrounding this guy and they keep playing they don't leave. Then some outside person joins and he plays a few rounds and loses all the while one person in the group "takes a loss" and the table guy gives the new face an "easy chance" to win... and yet he loses.

Its a scam! Beautifully played scam!

I pull out my camera to take a photo of the setup. One guy, walk out of nowhere at me and says "I'll give you some money if you take a photo of them." It sounds absurd and too good of a deal but I refuse, I got the picture I wanted and started walking. The guy chases me, briskly walking beside me, "wanna go 50/50?" I tell him "nah, I don't have any cash."

I caught you guys! It's obvious, the whole thing is a setup! All the people that got caught in these traps simply walked away after playing not giving it a second thought. But I did and figured out the whole scheme.

But still, the scam was brilliant and yet somehow I still respected them for it in some way. Compared to other ways of stealing money, they picked the best method-- a technique with not violence, they used their brains and were creative. The losers just packed up and left with the scammers keeping the money. Tricked, playing a fair game; a beautiful irony, isn't it?

I also was incredibly amazed at how they made a great appeal to my logic. Every single time that someone won, the ball was in the obviously right spot. Then when it came to my turn to play, the ball wasn't there! But still, how could it not be there!? Slight of hand? Magic? Something was obviously going on that I didn't get... but the beauty of it is that they managed to trick me on something that looked blatantly obvious. I was amazed at how they fooled me.

This experience has rocked my foundations on what I can take for granted. The way that he could move the ball around to trick me was unimaginable to me. I learned something new and there will always be unimaginable ways for a person to get caught.

I got played, perfectly. They made an appeal to logic, made me confident and tricked me at the end. This was an awesome lesson in human psychology.

It sounds so obvious when I write this out and perhaps some of you will laugh at me for getting caught. But you have to live in the moment to fully understand the impact of how your thoughts and feelings get manipulated leading to making this terrible decision. You never really understand the true art of a scam until you feel it and most of us never do.

I lost $200 without realizing it. Dealing with exchange rates is messy to which also caught me of guard.

But I'm glad about this experience. I'd rather screw up for $200 than get scammed for $1000. Now if I was truly evil. I'd come back the next day with some extra cash and flip over the box that they weren't expecting. I might lose the first round, but I always strive to win the second.

I think that everyone in their life should experience getting scammed at least once. There is much more to it than words can explain.

When you travel, you will be exposed to things that might never be able to imagine. Amazing isn't it?