Kuala Lumpur Warning or Danger Tips by cemx86

I am in KL for 6-8 months on work assignment from the US. While I have not been scammed, I have certainly been approached many times as a single white male, especially when carrying a camera it seems. All the scammers were friendly and had very good English. The first day I was here I was greeted by a middle aged kindly looking man who asked where I was from. Knowing the Malaysians were said to be quite friendly, I sat down and talked to him. Surprise! He knew all about the US and had a daughter who was going to go to Med school in San Diego. He was very engaging and asked to meet for dinner. Something told me this seemed odd, so I took down his phone number to get rid of him but didn't give him mine. Other times I am greeted with "nice shoes", "nice shirt", and my favorite (twice now) a large bearded man saying that I had a "Lucky face!" I was caught off guard by that one but soon realized something was not right. This has happened between Jalan Ismail/Jalan P. Ramlee, KLCC and Bukit Bintang. I never felt threatened at any time, as one person wrote I think they just want my money. They are looking for naive tourists. If I am dressed for business or look somewhat "local" I am never bothered.

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Phone: Call the local police

There are these orange robed monks (Buddist?) that I find in Bukit Bintag and KLCC. Nearly every time I go to KLCC they approach me . Their MO is to hand me a shiny gold colored card. They are very gentle about this, with a smiling open face, and it seems harmless enough to accept the token But then they want some money. If you hand them RM1-RM5 they pull out a book showing how many people have given RM50-RM100 or more. Yeah right. If you don't pay, they want the token back which is fair enough. Something told me right off that this wasn't something to get involved in. I now can see them from 10m away heading right for me and I use a raised hand to indicate "No" and they always back off. Bascially they are gentle religious folk trying to pan-handle as part of their life. No real harm and if you feel like giving them money, give them a few RM and their token back and be on your way. Just know that you will be hit up again. Maybe if you keep the token and wear it they will leave you alone.

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There are so many places to buy fake designer watches in KL that it is amazing. The area around Chinatown seems to have the highest concentration. Man, they look good. The price typically starts at RM300-300 which you can easily get down to sub RM100 by walking away a few times.

However, anywhere near Bukit Bintang or KLCC you may be approached by someone who surreptitous shows you a single watch, often within a handkerchief. On about the 10th such event I decided to ask "How much?". The answer was "Rolex! Its real! Only RM1000!". Real? Yeah right. Who can tell real from fake anyway? I certainly can't. Within 30 seconds (really) I had him down to RM100 with little or no conversation on my part except repeating "Too much". I didn't want the watch at any price (who wants a watch that will probably fail within a year) so that's when I said "No" and he walked off to find another victum.

These guys are basically harmless, they are just looking for the naive tourist who thinks that the watch is truly real so that he can make the big score. One RM1000 score a week and they are set.

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Phone: 999