Dear Members,
This is just to inform all of you regarding a new type of conning I faced while I was returning to Islamabad from Lahore on Tuesday 25th. So, I was travelling with my wife and kid on Tuesday evening. At about 9 o clock, I reached Bhera. While my wife and kid was in the car, I went to the tea counter to get tea. When I came back a 05 blue Honda City stopped just behind my car. A young fellow who was almost 18 or 19 was driving the car while a seemingly simple aunty was sitting next to him. There was two children at the back seat as well. I couldnt figure out their age due to poor visibility. The young guy got out of the car, he was skinny and wearing a black t-shirt with an open buttoned shirt on top. He seemed to belong to some okay family. The boy came to me and asked me; "Bhai, aap sai aik bbat karni hai please". Accent was punjabi. I asked what he wanted to say. He told me that he was travelling with his autie and her kids from Faisalabad to Abbotabad and had spent all his money on fuel already. His auntie "forgot" her purse at home and now they were out of money and fuel. He further said that since I am travelling with my family and seem to be a nice person, I lend him money so that he can return home. I started wondering, in the meanwhile his auntie came out as well and started almost pressurizing me for money. I advised the fellow to goto nearby fuel station or resturant and ask them to lend him money. He told me that this wont help as they will not trust him. He and his aunty were also promising that they will pay me back as soon as they reach home and they have hungry kids at the back seat blah blah blah....
To cut the long story short, eventually I was overwhelmed with "empathy" as the case with most of us middle class Pakistanis and gave him PKR 2000. After receiving the money the aunty said that this is not enough and she needs to feed her kids. My wife came out to intervene and told that lady that this is what we could do and that we were travelling with limited cash as well. The boy asked me for my visitng card, took it, promised me to call back and fled. You can well imagine how women react in such cases, irrespective of the amount involved, so my trip back home was not easy(married fellows will understand) :-).
As I had realized just 30 minutes after the encounter, I never received a call!
Point is due to this conning I am afraid I wont be able to help anyone in a similar situation again even if the other person is in a genuine problem.
Please take this post as an advisory and beware!!
Thank you.