Will
09-06-2006, 04:46 PM
Don't let this put you off buying jewellery in Nepal at all, but please do bare this in mind when going there.
While myself and my friend were there, we got a lot of locals acting very friendly towards us. They would buy us drinks, show us around, show pictures of their family, and generally be extraordinarily nice to us. We suspected this was leading to something, but were never quite sure what. Then one of them offered us a "job" in Australia, as we had told him we were going there next. He was asking us to sell his jewels at an exhibition he was going to. This is when we knew there was obviously some kind of scam going on, but we led him on for a few more days all the same.
Then on the last day, he went for it and asked if we could send some jewellery to Australia under our names, and asked us for our passport numbers, claiming he could arrange it all, and we would pick it up at the other end. Not terribly elaborate, but I could see how some people could get caught up in this, as they really do lay it on thick with the niceties.
Basically, this would have been an illegal export of goods, and if the parcel was investigated, it would have been our names on the parcel and not his. This can wind you up in a Nepalese jail for 25 years. No doubt the parcel wouldn't have been waiting for us when we got there.
It may seem obvious when reading it, but we were taken in until they started making these strange offers and requests. It's worth warning people about this.
I Stress again, don't let this put you off buying jewellery there. There are plenty of honest traders, and they could use the business now more then ever. Kathmandu is a wonderful city in itself, and I thoroughly recommend going there.
While myself and my friend were there, we got a lot of locals acting very friendly towards us. They would buy us drinks, show us around, show pictures of their family, and generally be extraordinarily nice to us. We suspected this was leading to something, but were never quite sure what. Then one of them offered us a "job" in Australia, as we had told him we were going there next. He was asking us to sell his jewels at an exhibition he was going to. This is when we knew there was obviously some kind of scam going on, but we led him on for a few more days all the same.
Then on the last day, he went for it and asked if we could send some jewellery to Australia under our names, and asked us for our passport numbers, claiming he could arrange it all, and we would pick it up at the other end. Not terribly elaborate, but I could see how some people could get caught up in this, as they really do lay it on thick with the niceties.
Basically, this would have been an illegal export of goods, and if the parcel was investigated, it would have been our names on the parcel and not his. This can wind you up in a Nepalese jail for 25 years. No doubt the parcel wouldn't have been waiting for us when we got there.
It may seem obvious when reading it, but we were taken in until they started making these strange offers and requests. It's worth warning people about this.
I Stress again, don't let this put you off buying jewellery there. There are plenty of honest traders, and they could use the business now more then ever. Kathmandu is a wonderful city in itself, and I thoroughly recommend going there.