Damsel In Distress Scam

I was walking in Pahar Ganj when out of nowhere an attractive girl in her early to mid twenties approached me out of nowhere and claimed to have just arrived from Spain and was scared to walk around by herself as a single woman.

She proceeded to make small talk common amongst travellers and then excused herself as quickly as she appeared. I watched her scurry up the street and hop into a rickshaw without a word to the driver who proceeded to drive her 100 meters where she jumped out and started walking down the street looking for another target.

Although I'm naturally weary of strangers, she nearly had me fooled until I saw her jump in the rickshaw because she looked and spoke like a young Spanish backpacker. I'm not sure what the endgame was but apparently I ended up not fitting her profile.

Thanks for the heads-up! Any more details to identify the girl and the rickshaw?

The girl had a petite frame, dark shoulder length hair and was dressed like the average backpacker with yoga pants and a baggy white shirt. I remember looking at her and thinking that she was either Spanish or possibly Turkish.

I didn't get a good look at the rickshaw driver but was able to see that they never exchanged words. I've had variations of this tried on me in Sri Lanka where a helpful pedestrian chats me up and then mentions that he is going in the same direction as me and lo and behold a rickshaw driver appears out of no where with the local trying to convince me to get in.

Curious... Suspicious... But far from proven that she was up to anything dodgy.

Yes, I have no proof that she was scamming me but the fact that she approached me on the street and then jumped in a rickshaw that was waiting for her just to be dropped off up the street to walk in the direction she had just came from leads me to beleive she was up to no good.

And only 100m too ...why wouldn't she walk?

It is all very curious.

A variation of this ?

There are a few women baiter based scams, going around in more popular tourist spots with a large number of testosterone driven extranjero. In India, I doubt it occurs outside of 5star hotels or parts of Goa; and that too not in numbers large enough to warrant the attention of scam-busters

The only possible scam ready to be exported to India is the perfume bait.

Possibly. I think her goal was to get me in the autorickshaw to go somewhere without me knowing that the driver was in on it. So maybe an autorickshaw scam or something more nefarious.

I think it is good that you warned people. I was wondering, how likely would it be for a genuine person (female) to approach an unknown male in case she was indeed scared to walk around by herself? Everybody is different, but I was thinking, if I felt intimidated in a public place, I would definitely approach another woman, not a man, for help. In fact, it did happen to me (in the Middle East, when I was younger) that men were bothering me when I was walking alone, and I instinctively asked for help from another woman. Maybe it's just me, but this 'damsel in distress' story sounds suspicious from the beginning. I think you were, rightly, suspicious of her and when she realised that, she did not waste more time on you and moved on to another potential victim.

perhaps she was a pick pocket
or perhaps she was simply stoned
or just people hopping
looking for a way to spend some
time while waiting for a ride
or as you said, perhaps she was casing you out
working out potential prey
although i would imagine that if she was not from india
that she was less likely to be a robber
why would some one go to india to rob
still, such things arent unheard of
I heard that Ibiza had loads of such
scamming b-tards
i guess druggies sussed out that if they
robbed and scammed people they could
extend their holiday and party time...