Our ride in an Indian police car

From GopStopTravel

Event Stats
Victim:	Avril & Niamh
Author:	Avril Metcalf
Scam Type:	Helpful Local
Date:	2006-06-05
Location:	Delhi, India
Keywords:	Taxi Phone Scam Fake Tour Police Annoying

"...at the hotel i tried to make a phone call out from our phone in the room and suddenly had the driver ringing in to see if all was ok?! Why did i want to make a call?!...It felt like we were being imprisoned in a way..."

Apparently this scam is listed in the lonely planet... unfortunately we were travelling with the footprint guide... loads of other travellers were surprised to hear of our experiences... not actually believing the lonely planets writeup!

Namaste one and all!! Well after our "lead up" to getting to India and all the reading we did about how tourists are prime targets for money making con artists we were admittedly nervous and anxious about arriving in India!! We landed at Delhi International Airport and were determined not to fall for any of the "stories"- we had read about taxis insisting on your hotel being full or closed down, in order to get you to stay at a different place so they can get commission! So arriving at 3am into Delhi airport... which was to say the least... not very international... with only one or 2 shops(closed) and an ATM machine... and hundreds of taxi touts trying to get you to go with them... and no tourist office... was an experience and definitely NOT what we were expecting!!

So our into to India was haggling with taxi touts... for a fair price to get to our semi reserved (via internet) room at a hotel in town. Soon enough we were headed into town in a battered white car with 2 men in the front...probably having agreed to paying too much... but it was a short night with little sleep had!! After 20 minuts of driving(Niamh and i reading the signs to make sure it was towards town we were headed!) we were driven into an area of town i find very difficult to describe. Buildings in shambles (at least 2 floors high!),people lying everywhere on the ground in the dust and dirt, and rubbish scattered from one side of the dirt road or lane to the other. There were very few lights and no signs of life. I remember sitting in the back of the car being absolutely horrified and even more so when the driver turned into one of these streets declaring it o be the one... and stated looking for numbers! All that went through my mind was "there is no way I am getting out here... not even if THEY pay ME! Then i started to think... "its all part of the scam"... and told Niamh we were not getting out of the car until we could see the hotel name!! Suddenly the driver had to stop for directions... from one lonely soul wandering the dark street... nope, they had no idea... then at another hotel.... where apparently the driver was told about a government tourist office just up around the corner. We were taken there... apparently only government offices are allowed to stay open through the night?! At the tourist office me and one driver got out the car(our second mistake... the first being getting into the car!)... Niamh stayed in the car with bags and other driver/man! The Tour Agent in the office did not know exactly where the hotel was... i had full street address and map, but needed a "sector #" so we phoned the hotel to get it... hmmm... still i did not see what was coming! We rang the hotel... me providing the phone number... and oh dear they are fully booked and have no accommodation available. I quizzed the guy on the other end of the phone myself and was told no sorry... no space... arrived in too late room was given away! So we now had no place to stay!! Great... and a taxi to take us but to where!?! With the tour agents help we rang over 20 places from our trusty guide book... all fully booked with no spaces due to a festival going on in Delhi!! We also rang the train and bus stations to try and get tickets out of town... nope nothing for at least 12 days!! Now i know this sounds unbelievable... we too could not believe it... by this time, Niamh was inside the office and so were all our bags! And yes the guy was dialing the numbers that we called out to him... and yes i spoke to the person on the other end of the phone!! The "helpful" tour agent offered to ring US$500 hotels... we laughed... and then he offered us a tour to the mountains (where Niamh and i had planned to go for a few days) for 3 days... for US265 each!! A huge price, but we had no other options seemingly!! So we agreed to this(he did try push for a 3 week tour!) and by 5:30am we were in a car with a driver on the way to the mountains! We were relieved to have somewhere to go... and not be stranded! Sadly only later that day after a conversation with our driver Kazim and another member of his family did i start to think we had been scammed. Kazim had said there was NO festival going on in Delhi... only elections... and it got me thinking!! What happened? Well the phone was somehow rigged to not actually go through to the places dialed, but to a colleague who ... each time the tour agent said something in hindi and the name of the hotel before handing me the phone to ask for rooms... so they always knew where we were phoning!! I initially was not convinced it could be possible... such an elaborate scheme to con somebody... but after much thinking and replaying of all that happened i became more convinced that indeed we had been duped...BIG time!! We decided to just enjoy the tour... 3 days in the mountains and one night in Delhi... then carry on on our own... no more to do with that company... after all it seemed there was little we could do!

Our last night in Delhi at the hotel i tried to make a phone call out from our phone in the room and suddenly had the driver ringing in to see if all was ok?! Why did i want to make a call?! I got so angry that i stormed out of the hotel and went next door to phone and make a reservation at another hotel... obviously the driver was planning on trying to get us to take another tour with him the next day and had told the reception to stop all outgoing calls!! Poor Niamh had not seen me like this... and spent a while making jokes trying to cheer me up and make light of it!! It felt like we were being imprisoned in a way and i was not happy! We had already accepted that the money was gone, but were definitely not going back to that tour office to get "worked on" for the next great deal!! So at 9am the next morning we made our "prison break".... walked out of the hotel with packs on our backs, no clue where in town we were, refusing hotel taxi! We walked down the street and found a motor rickshaw... 3 wheeled motorbike with bench seat at back... it took us straight to our hotel... and we were free!! we were so pleased with ourselves! So besides fitting in sights, we decided to visit the official government tourist office to get proper info on traveling safely in India... armed with address we negotiated a ride there... the guy tried to take us to 2 different places(close to where we wanted) before we got out of the rickshaw with me shouting at him for only wanting a commission and not taking us to the right address! People on the street just stared!. We eventually found the right tourist office and went in relieved to be off the street! What hard work! In the Government Office they were extremely helpful with loads of information and advice... when they heard our "tour story" they encouraged us to get the address of the agency and follow it up with an official complaint! We figured why not... so returned the next day with the address from the Visa receipt... and well, WOW... wrote out an official complaint! They rang the agency requesting their presence.... otherwise police action! An hour later we were in a police car on the way to the agency... the ride being rather surreal! If people weren't staring at us before, they certainly were now... tourists with the police... boy did we get some filthy looks! Not too comforting really! But all very exciting and not what we had planned for our time in India! The best part was walking into the tourist office with police... and telling 2 other tourists to get out and save their money from the thieves in front of them!! They left very quickly... not surprisingly! The next part of the story is rather tedious... Niamh and i had not expected to get any money back, just wanted to have our say... the following 2 hours were spent arguing with the people there... throwing in demands for money refunds! When we realized this was possible we were shocked... (and pleased)... the police kept being brought back into a back room and long discussions and no doubt bribes took place.... we walked out with 75% of our money in huge wads of cash feeling pretty pleased with ourselves!! We returned to the real government tourist office to tell them the result as promised... they were pleased we were happy, but then told us they would have liked for us to get all our money back PLUS at least 40% compensation money!!.... If only we had known we were even gonna get any!!! The manager at this office requested we speak to the media of our experiences..... Niamh was well pleased with this idea... i was unsure as we still had to travel around india!! In the end the media never arrived to our hotel... phew! So this is how we got scammed in India! and well on a smaller scale are probably still are getting scammed on a daily basis!! Backpacking in this place is hard work... you constantly have to make sure taxi drivers take you to the right place and not the"cheaper or better" place! ... but it sure is fun!