Swindling/threat in Addis (Addis Ababa)

Dear all,

Few months ago, I had my mobile phone stolen in the street by two children pretending selling me stuff (on Bole road).

And this afternoon, I have been abused by a pseudo neighbour who came to visit me and asked me for money for his child to have him received at the hospital.

You may think I am naive and indeed I am... Swindling always take advantage of surprise and (light) appearance. While the guy was explaining to me his story, speaking me in French and pretending to be from Djibouti, I was wondering if he was sincere or not, but decided to trust him and eventually gave him 2,000 birr.

He offered me to accompany him to the hospital, which I eventually declined. I asked him to show me his house, which he did, but it turned out later that he is unknown in this compound (also he told me he would go to the hospital by taxi when I saw a car in the compound). And I did not thought of asking for his phone number before he left (would probably not have changed anything anyway).

Not the kind of thread you like to report, but I guess it is worth to share this in case it may avoid the same bad experience to someone else.

In case the guy come back with the money as promised tomorrow, I will let you know, but more I think about it, more obvious it is that I have been cheated.

Other experiences of this kind can be reported here also.

Cheers,
Pierre