I Got Scammed and @Swissclive knows it!
Source
@swissclive posted a writing prompt and I had to respond.
Here's the prompt: https://steemit.com/scammers/@swissclive/writing-competition-write-about-scammers-a-scam-you-saw-or-a-scam-you-suffered-first-prize-25-steem
Here's my response:
About a decade ago, when I was in my mid-20s, two friends and I went on a pleasure cruise in the Caribbean Sea. The cruise line had all sorts of agreements for excursions at various ports of call – snorkeling, parasailing, banana boat, and so on.
The cruise director cautioned everybody about non-affiliated vendors. Said they weren’t safe. Said we could trust only the cruise line’s affiliates.
We thought it was a come-on to scare us into buying our excursions from the cruise line, which seemed ridiculously expensive for our young wallets. What the hell did the cruise director know about excursions, anyway? Overpriced tourist traps, right? The local vendors will give us an authentic experience.
We declined the cruise packages. When we arrived in Jamaica, we walked the exact opposite direction of the other passengers.
Within a few minutes, we were approached by a guy asking us if we were interested in snorkeling. We nodded. He told us there was a shipwreck not far away. Fish everywhere, all different colors and types. White and rainbow corals. We may even see a stingray! The guy even joked about a missing treasure chest.
We knew he was BS-ing us, as expected. Still, we really did want to snorkel and we thought it'd be cool to check out a real, genuine Caribbean shipwreck. The guy asked for $25. We each had at least $100 cash on us but we thought we were supposed to negotiate, so we offered $20. He accepted.
Pat on the back for a successful negotiation. And to think that cruise ship wanted to charge us $150! Suckers.
The guy walked us through some foliage to a quiet beach and for a second it reminded me of the dropzone for a drug smuggling operation. It was very quiet and there was literally nobody there – except another guy standing next to a small motorboat bobbing in the shallows near the shore.
He smiled and waved and beckoned us onboard. Sure enough, they had all the snorkeling equipment in a footlocker. They showed us their IDs (we didn’t ask) and offered us some bottled water. They asked us if we were excited to see the big shipwreck. We said, absolutely!
Off we went.
We actually had a great time chatting on the way to the shipwreck. The guys were nice and funny and they made us feel totally at ease. After about 5 minutes, they stopped the boat and said, “we’re here!”
My friends and I didn’t see anything, despite the clear blue water.
One of the guys pointed to a spot a little closer to shore and said “it’s just over there, I’ll show you” as he put on his snorkeling gear. We our gear on, too, and dropped into the water with him.
After swimming for about a minute, he pointed to the “shipwreck.” It wasn’t a 17th Century pirate galleon or even a coast guard patrol boat. It was literally a 2-man rowboat submerged on a sandbar. There was at most 3 feet of water depth. I could basically touch the boat.
No fish. No reef. No coral.
We asked the guy why there was no wildlife. He shrugged and said, “sometimes it’s a good day, sometimes it’s a bad day.”
We knew we’d gotten duped. But when you’re treading water in the middle of the Caribbean sea with no clue how to get home and all your stuff is in a boat 50 feet away being guarded by a man who can easily leave at any moment, you tend to keep your mouth shut.
So we did.
By the time we got back to shore, safe and sound, we collected our stuff and asked them to walk us back to civilization. They said “no” and pointed to a path through the trees. We started walking back, still in our swimming gear, under the assumption that we’d actually figure out where we were going.
Turns out the guys weren’t lying about the path. It lead straight into town. We hailed a cab back to the port.
“Well, it was an experience, I guess,” I said.
When the cab reached the port I reached into my pocket and opened my wallet.
Empty.
I showed my friends. They looked in their wallets, too.
Empty.
So I guess in the end, we did get an authentic experience. Just, a little too authentic.
This was a tourist scam. I think every young person has done what you did in some way or another. Every tourist destination has its cheats, liars and scammers. Stay with the official recommended guides if you can afford it. If you can’t, take a chance, like you did, and hope you are as smart as you think.
Yea we screwed up. Though, in the Bahamas we went off down a road leading out of town (don't remember what town) and ended up eating conch fritters at a cricket club during an exhibition. We dumb yankees didn't know anything about cricket, but when you're enjoying it with beer and fried shellfish, it's as much fun as any other sport.