The Guadalajara Reporter

Old scams never die

The popular Plaza Galerias area in the western fringes of Guadalajara, with its adjacent Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco and myriad stores and restaurants, continues to be a favored site for elaborately choreographed petty crimes. Despite reports in the Guadalajara Reporter and other media exposing them over the years, these rip-offs live on and claim new victims, some of them middle-aged and elderly foreigners.

One example is the old mustard scam. Last week, an American woman who uses a cane was in a fast food restaurant in the Plaza Galerias waiting for staff to arrive with her order. Her open handbag was on the floor and her husband was in the bathroom, when a woman approached claiming there was mustard on the American’s clothes and touching her body where the “stains” were. Offended and distracted by this touching, the American didn’t notice until after the woman and her apparent accomplice had gone, that her wallet was gone too.

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