Burger King photo sparks Bali scam warning

The woman, posting a photo on Facebook of two men and a woman speaking to the father and son sitting at a table, said she and her husband had been eating their meal this week when three “dodgy” looking people walked past.

“I saw them approach a father and son and I walked past to listen to the conversation,” she wrote.

She said the trio asked the tourists where they were from before steering the conversation to international currency and exchange rates, then asking to see what the money from their country looked like.

The woman said she felt something was off about the interaction so pulled out her “big-ass phone” and snapped “nice clear photo” of the trio, after which they “bolted out pretty quickly”.

Commenters on the post said they were aware of a scam where thieves would pretend to be interested in foreign currency to get tourists to show how much money they were carrying.

One said they had encountered the same couple in the picture. “This is the couple that tried it on us. The third guy is the driver, usually he is nearby,” they wrote.

Another said, “If they see you have enough booty in your wallet, they swipe it and run off with it, separating.”

Earlier this year, a tourist posted in a local travel group for Australians visiting Bali warning of the scam, and was inundated with responses.

She said she had been approached by two strangers while in a bar in the popular beachside area of Legian.

As part of the scam, the strangers put money on the table, ask you to explain the currency and look at other currencies. As you talk and are distracted, they attempt to take your belongings.

“Yesterday I was in a bar on Legian and the older Indian couple approached me with $US2,” the traveller wrote. “They walked into the bar and put his money on our table. Asked me to explain how much it is.”

She said that while this happened “the wife stood back eyeing off my friend’s handbag”.

“I just started yelling security and received the death stare from the man. They took off pretty quickly. The bar staff hid in fear. Lucky I had previously read about their scam.”

One person commented, “They have backup, it’s a very professional scam, they work in teams. Often use children as well.”

In a separate post, another woman went into more detail about the “coin scam”.

The woman explained that a known family, not local to Bali, goes around asking Australians if they can look at their money in an attempt to steal their wallets.

“The guy came up to us and asked if we knew of a good Italian restaurant to go to and I was trying to think of the one near our hotel,” the traveller wrote.

“He said, ‘Are you not Indonesian?’ (we look far from it) and I said, ‘No Australian’, he then shook our hands and said ‘Do you have an Australian dollar coin’ he could look at. I said, ‘We aren’t showing you our money mate we have heard about your scam.’ Well they took off like a bat out of hell.”

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) warns that “theft, robbery and bag and phone snatching are common” in Indonesia. “These crimes can sometimes involve violence,” the Smartraveller website states. “Opportunistic crime such as pickpocketing occurs.”

Originally published as Burger King photo sparks Bali scam warning