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"You Broke My Glasses" Scammers Now Targeting Asian Tourists
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 26, 2013
Modified Mar 26, 2013
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 26, 2013
Modified Mar 26, 2013
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One of con artists' favorite scams is the "You broke my glasses" scam, which involves the scammer targeting a naive person into believing he/she broke the scammer's glasses—or bottle of insulin or other valuable item. Now, it seems that the police are warning Asian tourists in Chinatown not to fall for a variation on it—"You broke my bottle of wine!" or "You broke my bottle of vodka!"
According to DNAinfo, cops warned that con artists are "bumping into pedestrians, dropping purportedly pricey bottles of wine to shatter on the sidewalk, then demanding compensation. The crooks often brandishing a receipt that 'proves' the wine's value, said Inspector Timothy Beaudette, commander of Midtown North Precinct." Beaudette said "They drop it and they got a receipt and they say, 'You broke my wine bottle. Give me $60!'"
He added, "It happens to the tourists, particularly they seem to pick on Asians. I don't know why. Nine out of 10 [victims] are young Asian men." A source said, "It's not a huge, huge problem" and offered advice, "If you say it's a scam, if you know it's a scam, they're only going to push you so hard."
Two years ago, a broken-glasses scammer got sentenced to seven years in prison—and four years ago, Manhattan DA Cy Vance announced that another broken-glasses scammer was sentenced to 20 years!
Tagged
asian tourist
broken glasses
Chinatown
con artist
scam
you broke my glasses
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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