The Bankers Are Right! It IS Safer To Leave Your Money In The Bank....:)

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Any banker having a hard time persuading their customers to leave their money in the vault need only post this copies of this story at every teller's window. It's AT LEAST as good a reason as any arguments they've managed to come up with yet and a lot more spooky.

..."So remember, valued customers, if you neglect this warning and a Chinese person comes up and drugs you by blowing smoke in your face before politely requesting your money, YOU'LL BE SORRY YOU DIDN'T LISTEN TO US!"

I wonder if it's working for Hong Kong bankers?

Note that no evidence of the alleged drug has been found, which makes the story even more fascinating [and, from a banker's viewpoint, conveniently difficult to disprove]...

This is from the South China Morning Post....

Monday, November 8, 1999 Y2K conmen may be drugging victims

CHEUNG CHI-FAI ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A herb for treating asthma may have been used to drug people and con them out of large sums of money in return for pills claimed to cure the Y2K bug.

There have been several cases in recent weeks of people inexplicably handing over their money to strangers. Police have found no such drugs on any suspects, but say it is otherwise a mystery as to why people would hand over the money.

They believe the drug could be placed in a cigarette. The conmen would blow smoke into the potential victim's face before asking for the money.

In 1995, several people gave their ATM card numbers to strangers after drinking doctored cartons of drink bought from convenience stores.

Senior inspector at the Crime Prevention Bureau, Chiang Kwok-wah, said: "We have been spreading messages in a wide range of promotional campaigns but people are still being cheated. We're scratching our heads."

Mr Chiang said there was no tangible evidence the victims had been drugged but the possibility was not ruled out. "It could be some kind of Chinese medicine," he said.

On October 21, a woman, 46, was cheated of $500,000 in exchange for 2,640 stomach pills said by three conmen in Tuen Mun to cure the Y2K bug.

Two similar cases involving a total of $170,000 were reported on October 4 in Kwun Tong and Aberdeen.

A government chemist said unless the concentration of the drug was high, it would be difficult to detect once the victim returned to consciousness.

Kwan Chi-yee, president of the Hong Kong Chinese Herbalists Association, identified the possible Chinese herb as Datua metel L., a wild flower commonly found in south Guangdong and Fujian.

Traditionally, it was smoked by people seeking a cure for their asthma.

The dried herb was cut into pieces and rolled in cigarette paper.

The smoke could make people dizzy or hallucinate, Mr Kwan said.

"It is now rarely used in Hong Kong given its toxic nature. It could even kill if the user overdoses," Mr Kwan said.

[END]



-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), November 08, 1999

Answers

Wow, thanks for posting this. I think all of the Garden and Seed shops should put up the following article by their cash registers....

Cow Traded for Magic Beans

by Bob Hayes

Jack, a poor widow's son, traded his mother's cow last week for a handful of Magic Beans. Jack thought he made a great deal until the beans (which he had thrown out of his bedroom window), turned into a giant beanstalk which led to a mean Giant........

Hopefully this is the end of posts like this and the Hong Kong smoke blowers. Pleeeease.

-- Bob (bob@beanstalk.net), November 08, 1999.


Oh I completely agree tht it is far safer to leave your money in the bank. Never been a question about that.

BUT ... if there are problems in any of several dozen different systems, or if local stores don't accept checks, or if you need some cash - after everybody ELSE has panicked and emptied the ATM's, your money will still be safe in the bank....just safely inaccessible in the bank.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 08, 1999.


What happened to your sense of humour today :)?

Or did you actually believe that this posting was a serious recommendation that people SHOULD keep their money in the banks?

CLUES:

1. Note that this was a HK 'scare piece' not dissimilar to that being promoted by N. American banks.

2. 'There have been several cases in recent weeks of people inexplicably handing over their money to strangers. Police have found no such drugs on any suspects, but say it is otherwise a mystery as to why people would hand over the money.'

3. 'Mr Chiang said there was no tangible evidence the victims had been drugged but the possibility was not ruled out.'

It's a 'scare story', based on absolutely no evidentiary foundation and, as such, ludicrous and funny - to those with a still-functioning sense of humour, that is...:)

-- John WWhitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), November 08, 1999.


Leave money in the bank? Is this normal? Do most people have money in a bank? Do most people have money? If so, they must not be parents.

-- mom (broke mom@mom.com), November 08, 1999.

It's definitely safer FOR THE BANK if you leave your money with them.

Godspeed,

-- Pinkrock (aphotonboy@aol.com), November 09, 1999.



Interesting to note that, for us baby-boomer-Americans, this is the very first time in memory that the reliability of banks has ever been questioned, or that taking one's money out of the bank has ever been seriously discussed.

Before this, bank failure has been something that only happened in other countries or other periods in history.

It's a real psychological barrier for most people my age. Maybe there won't be a bank run at all. Has anyone considered that?

-- it isn't (really@safe.anywhere), November 09, 1999.


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