Hello from the land of the pyramids and pharao's.
Nothing mystical or mysterious in this post, no X-File'esque story, although this post is about crime.
This week I was scammed. Somebody posed as my downstairs neighbor that just moved is a while ago, and that wanted to meet the other tennants. I'd seen this guy before in the building so I thought his story was genuine.
He knew about the other neighbor from downstairs and that my neighbor from across the hall is a Brit.
We chatted a bit and when I got him a soda, he got my Nokia N85. I didn't notice until he was gone.
This guy was as friendly as every other Egyptian I've met sofar.
I should've been more cautious in hindsight as the security guys had told me somebody would drop by that evening, and why would they mention this when it concerns a tennant. And this guy rand the intercom to check whether or not I was in.
So I guess this time the experience in Cairo is not that positive and not really typical Egyptian, but I think that it should be a real warning, as these scammers prey on gullible expats who think all Egyptian are nice and
friendly. But Egypt is an orchard, most apples are sweet and tasty, healthy in vitamines, some apples are rotten. But trust me, these are forming a minority. Everybody around me felt genuinely bad for me and wanted to help to get past this.
So, trust no one? Just be cautious.
Iwan
:s in Egypt there is a quote that can be translated to "never let your guard down". on the other hand a true Egyptian would say with an ironic tone "good luck next time" ;)
ReplyDelete