What scam was being run on me?

[alfred russel]

Yesterday I was wandering down a major tourist street in Paris by myself, with a map in my hand. A guy wanders up to me holding a large gold ring. He says in somewhat broken english, "sir, you dropped your ring." I told him that wasn't my ring. He says, "but it isn't my ring either, I am from Bosnia, it is good luck that I am here, you should have good luch too. You can take the ring." He shows me that it is a gold ring, that it doesn't fit him, and that I should just take it.

I'm not sure what scam starts with giving someone an apparently valuable object as a gift, but I'm cynical enough to believe that some Bosnian isn't going to find a large gold ring in Paris and then pick out a random guy to give it to. I refused a couple of times to take the ring, when some guy from one of the shops came running up saying to the supposed Bosnian, "You, go away--walk that way" (pointing a direction opposite that I had been walking), then to me, "You, keep going."

The Bosnian looked confused, but we both followed instructions, and that was the end of the encounter. Does anyone know what was going on here?

[Grey Fox]

You a chick?

Maybe they've started kidnapping guys as sex slave now.

[dps]

Obviously, the ring had microfilm hidden on it that had nuclear secrets on it, and the Bosnian was trying to get it off his person before the Mossad caught him.  Expect to be picked up by one of the other intelligence services and given some special interrogation.  Don't worry about the Mossad or CIA, though.  The Mossad is too good to get thrown off track like that, and the CIA will probably pick up the shopkeeper instead of you.

[alfred russel]

You a chick?

Maybe they've started kidnapping guys as sex slave now.

I'm probably way down the list of people to kidnap as a sex slave, even among men, and I'm still uncertain how giving me a ring would start a chain of events ending with me as a sex slave.

[mongers]

Yesterday I was wandering down a major tourist street in Paris by myself, with a map in my hand. A guy wanders up to me holding a large gold ring. He says in somewhat broken english, "sir, you dropped your ring." I told him that wasn't my ring. He says, "but it isn't my ring either, I am from Bosnia, it is good luck that I am here, you should have good luch too. You can take the ring." He shows me that it is a gold ring, that it doesn't fit him, and that I should just take it.

I'm not sure what scam starts with giving someone an apparently valuable object as a gift, but I'm cynical enough to believe that some Bosnian isn't going to find a large gold ring in Paris and then pick out a random guy to give it to. I refused a couple of times to take the ring, when some guy from one of the shops came running up saying to the supposed Bosnian, "You, go away--walk that way" (pointing a direction opposite that I had been walking), then to me, "You, keep going."

The Bosnian looked confused, but we both followed instructions, and that was the end of the encounter. Does anyone know what was going on here?

Obviously a homosexual pick up line, think of the symbolism involved. 

[grumbler]

An old scam in Paris.  If you take the ring, the scammer then asks you to "share your luck" by given them ten euros, or whatever.  The ring, of course, is worthless.

[mongers]

An old scam in Paris.  If you take the ring, the scammer then asks you to "share your luck" by given them ten euros, or whatever.  The ring, of course, is worthless.

There speaks an old sea-dog.

[The Brain]

An old scam in Paris.  If you take the ring, the scammer then asks you to "share your luck" by given them ten euros, or whatever.  The ring, of course, is worthless.

Worthless to whom? The guy got 10 euros for it.

[alfred russel]

Obviously a homosexual pick up line, think of the symbolism involved. 

Wow, I thought it was rough for straight men having to pay for women's drinks to pick them up, imagine how hard it is for gays if they have to pay for gold rings!

[alfred russel]

An old scam in Paris.  If you take the ring, the scammer then asks you to "share your luck" by given them ten euros, or whatever.  The ring, of course, is worthless.

That sounds like the winner--especially since the approach was that I had apparently dropped the ring. A less skeptical and honest person would probably lie and said they did drop it, and then feel duty bound to pay a finders fee to the guy.

Unfortunately for him, I not only had no interest in giving him money, I also didn't have any euros to begin with. My favorite similar story is in Rio, after landing and checking in, I went out of the hotel to get Reals from an ATM a few blocks away. Some moron tried to pick my pocket on my way to the ATM! 

[Ideologue]

Is Europe just full of crime?  Even in Atlanta on the corner of Forsyth and MLK, no one tried to pick my pocket--well, one might have tried, he was walking really close behind me, but I screamed at him to fuck off and it worked.

Actually, now that I think about it, there was an attempted scam by someone claiming to work for the parking lot, who was obviously homeless.

[garbon]

Well Rio isn't Europe...

[Martinus]

Is Europe just full of crime?  Even in Atlanta on the corner of Forsyth and MLK, no one tried to pick my pocket--well, one might have tried, he was walking really close behind me, but I screamed at him to fuck off and it worked.

Actually, now that I think about it, there was an attempted scam by someone claiming to work for the parking lot, who was obviously homeless.

I never was robbed or pick-pocketed anywhere in Europe. Otoh, a colleague of mine got robbed at a knife point within 10 hours of arriving in NYC.

[Ideologue]

Well Rio isn't Europe...

True.  I didn't read that very closely.

[Josephus]

That's an extremely popular scam in Paris. It happened to me two years ago whilst walking along the Seine. A Roma woman dropped a ring as I passed her and picked it up and showed it to me. I had read about it on the 'Net so knew to walk away.

http://www.bargaintraveleurope.com/07/France_Scam_Paris.htm