i was walking around the city the other day. then there was this indian man approached me and said "you've got a lucky face". He then said i was lucky and said he was a fortune teller. seeing that i was a girl, he obviously asked for the name of my love. Then he wrote something down on a piece of paper, crumbled it up and handed it over to me. He then asked a series of questions and later on asked what was the name of my boyfriend or so. And what do you know, he asked me to open the crumbled up paper and open it, the name of my bf was written there! he claimed that he could read my mind.

Anyway, to the important part. he then showed me a few pictures of children, and claimed that they were children belong to his charity called 'happy heart' or something similar. he asked me to donate some money for them. he said most people donate 200, 300 or 400. I said i don't have any money in my wallet. He said he'd walk me to the ATM so i could withdraw money and donate.
I handed him $20 and said that is all i have. He asked if i wanted to purchase a gift on my credit card if i have no cash in me. I was slightly annoyed and said no. so he walked away, saying he'd wish me good luck anyway.


going home, the story kept on bugging me so i do some google on the internet and found out about this fortune teller/ psychic scam that happened pretty often.
so beware people (specially young people / girls!!!) wandering around melbourne city metro area, there are indian fortune teller/psychic scam walking around trying to prey on your unawareness of this trick and try to get your money. I know especially for girls we're all attracted to the psychic mind reading or fortune teller wondering about things such as study, career, love life ..etc. i hope nobody else got trick like i did. luckily i did not go to the ATM to take out any more money to give to him.

further reading on the indian fortune teller scam could be found on this link. and the indian fortune teller scammer that tricked me today did almost exactly the same steps. so it's worth a read.

the info about the scam steps was found on this link:

http://cardopolis.blogspot.com/2004_09_12_archive.html


"So there I was, standing outside a store in New Oxford Street, killing some time before a 3 o’clock meeting when I heard the words, “You have a lucky face.”

They came from a small Indian guy, possibly in his late teens. He’d crept up behind me and when I turned to face him, he said the words again. “You have a lucky face.”
“Pardon?” I said.
“You have a lucky face, yes very lucky. Let me see your hand.”
And I did, I let him see my hand. Instinctively I knew he wanted to read my palm so I held it palm uppermost and sure enough he started to point to the lines on my hand with a pen. As well as a pen he was carrying a small leather folder, the kind with a zipper around the edge. Clipped to the folder with his thumb were several small scraps of paper. “This is the lucky line, ” he said, tracing one of the creases in my palm. “I show you.”

He started to write something down on one of the pieces of paper, rolled it into a ball and then dropped it onto my palm. I closed my hand to stop the ball of paper rolling away.

“Tell me the name of a flower, ” he said.
“Rose” I answered.
“And a number from 1 to 5.”
“3” I said.
“Look at the paper.

I opened my hand, unrolled the paper and saw that he had written down the words rose and the number 3.

He started to write some other things on a second slip of paper and mutter some stuff about this being true, that I was very lucky and that money was coming my way. He looked up at my lucky face. “Do not shave or cut your hair on Tuesday” he advised. “Tuesday very lucky day for business. You will get much money.”

Then he stopped writing, reached into his leather folder and rummaged around inside. I could see other pieces of paper in there and something else, a picture of some kind. But what he brought out was what appeared to be a small red-brown nut or seed. He handed it to me. “This is very lucky stone. You keep it. You will be lucky.”

They engaged you in conversation, wrote something down on a piece of paper and then asked you to think of a flower. Most people said a rose.

And then they asked you to choose a number from 1 to 5. You won't be surprised to hear that 3 is the most popular number.

But there was a third phase to the routine. They scribbled something on a slip of paper and asked for your date of birth. And when you opened the paper that’s exactly what you found written on it. Amazing. And worth ten dollars of anyone's money, which is what the fortune teller usually asked for."