Let me share this story, - a beer or two always brings some inspirations.

There are many great scams out there. Kunming (China) is full of scams; and those of us who can read Chinese - and read the local news - cant miss the stories of scams, on a daily basis or so.

A few months ago I rented an appartment. The deal was made I pay in cash, to the agency, who will deliver this to the landlord. All okay. We registed at police (with phone number), at house complex (with phone number) and I gave phone number to agnency/landlord.

Next day there was a sms to the phone (in Chinese): "The landlord want you to pay the rent to this account instead: 1722829***** Please hurry!".

This was a scam. I had paid in cash already by then. Either the police station, the agency or the building complex sold my number to a professional scammer. Or some of them did it.

There are persons hanging in foreigner bars, with very sophisticated scams. Targeting foreigners. If your Chinese girlfriend invites you to Ruili, and asks you to bring a bag of corn starch up to Kunming to make some taco; its probably not a good idea.

Good tip Peter! Maybe this should be the official SCAMS thread, post all your Chinese scams here! Then new people here can read through the list and be aware when they go out into the big bad world of China.

Genuine scams are worth knowing about.

As long as you are not posting a 'rumour' that gets re-posted 500 times. No problem.

Talking about phones.

The most common scam, that everyone with mobile phone has been a target of, is the one, when you get a call, from a number, but it only calls once. So, some of you wonder who called, and call back. Snap! Pay number!

This scam has been around in China so many years, that Im not sure if it still works? Do the authorities still let this scam be around? Personally I still keep getting those one-ring-calls, once in a while, so I assume the scam is still working...(?)

Corn starch for tacos is a scam? I don't get it.

Normally, when you pass the customs theres the green line and the red line, - right? In Ruili there are three; the green (jade) the red (rubies) and the white (corn starch) lines, at custom.

Anyone that has been down to Jinghong or Ruili may know that the military stations along the highway - a bit after the cities - is where the real searches (may) take place.

Unfortunately I cant provide any link or source now, (I simply cant remember where it was, - news or internet) but the Chinese PSB has said that foreigners have been utilized on those routes. How its been done in practice, was not mentioned, but one may imagine a pretty girl asked someone to bring a watermelon to Kunming - or something like that. Or maybe the English teacher in Guangdong, went with his Cantonese "friends" to Yunnan holiday.

Yeah, I have driven around there a few times and have been stopped every time (once or twice) ...but once they see i am a foreigner, all they want to talk about is where i am from and how i have a car(never check my ID or anything). all the time there are really friendly and curious. But we(wife and me) have talked about what they are looking for...I think its drugs(heroin would be my guess), but cant be sure, they seem to wave everybody through ....Maybe they just search if they get a tip??

A great but somewhat rare scam in town is: Parking fees!

Yes, always ask for an invoice if some random person (mostly out of uniform and awkward place) comes up to you and asks for parking money.
If they can't give it to you (they ran out, also legal ones sometimes run out of them) you can check their parking attendant license (which they usually have on the front of their jacket anyways.

Seasonal scam.
Currently we are in the DianChi fishing season (17 days). People pay a lot for this rare time limited delicacy.

In one of the villages next to DianChi, I noticed a van delivering live fish in boxes. These were then dumped into the bottom of a small boat. The small boat was then rowed around to Haigeng DaBa, where the fish were sold to expectant customers/day trippers.

The irony in this case, the fake is probably much healthier than the genuine article.

I used to live in JiangCheng, near XiShuangBanna. Locally grown watermelons were delivered to a large outdoor sorting area and relabelled as "Produce of MyanMar". The whole village joined in this grand scam!