Egyptian officer tracks down swindler

By Zhao Hongyi

One week after being cheated, an Egyptian military officer training in a military school in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, tracked down the man who sold him a fake mobile phone.

Ali Muhammad (pseudonym), the officer, has lived in Nanjing for six months while training at Nanjing Army Command College. He often walked the perimeter of the city’s Xuanwu Lake as part of his weekend exercises.

On January 26, during an evening walk around the lake, he met a local who tried to sell him several new Nokia mobile phones.

Impressed by the new styles and functions, Muhammad bought a Nokia N86 and bargained the price down to 400 yuan from  1,200 yuan. Though Muhammad spoke little Chinese and only poor English, he got the phone.

After Muhammad paid 400 yuan, the seller swapped the real phone for a display model and ran.
During the next week, Muhammad walked the lake every day hoping to run into the phone seller. On the seventh day he went to the Nanjing Railway Police Station nearby to ask for help.

“It’s just a shame for someone in the military to be scammed this way,” he said. Muhammad told the police and asked them to help him catch the peddler. “I don’t mind the l I just want to see him get punished.”

That evening, he and the police found the man still pretending to sell Nokia N86 phones to pedestrians. When the police approached him he was found to have two display models in his pocket.

“Individuals should contact the police whenever they are the victim of a bait and switch,” a police officer surnamed Wu said. He praised Muhammad for his persistence.

“Most people tend to let these things go, especially oreign residents and visiting expats,” he said.“Unless people report these scams, it is tough to crack down on the people who profit at others’ expense,” he said.

The phone seller is awaiting sentencing. Police said they expect the man to be jailed.