Yue’s Yappings

A few weeks ago, while at a RFID tradeshow in Guangzhou, I witnessed an incident that was quite disturbing.
I, representing Skyetek, together with our Chinese partner, had a booth at the show. On the first day of the show, the exhibition floor was packed with people. I found it suprising that anyone with identification, including just a business card, could get onto the show flow. Of course, each of us in the booth put our business cards on the counter along with product brochures.

Around lunch time, one of the sales staff from our partner, a young woman, received a phone call from a man. “Hello, Miss X, I am CEO of company Y, don’t you remember me?” “No, I don’t remember you” “Ha, you have such a bad memory, we talked before. Anyway, I have a important business partner from Taiwan who is really interested in your product. Can you come out to meet with us?” Since the Taiwanese customer was staying at a nearby hotel, he asked her to meet in the hotel lobby. Being in sales, she didn’t hesitate to say yes. However, right before she was going to leave a group of people showed up the both that required her attention. So she asked her colleague, a man, to go to instead.

Her colleague went to the hotel and waited in the lobby. Half an hour later, the caller hadn’t showed up. The caller then phoned the sales woman again, and apologized for not making it to the hotel. He sent his brother to the hotel instead but his brother couldn’t find her in the lobby. After she told him that she had sent her colleague instead, he then said that he was available to pick her up outside the exhibition.

At that point she started getting suspicious. She called her colleague who was still at the hotel. It turned out that some guy, not dressed in business clothes, had wondered around the lobby and then left immediately. When she hung up the phone, she immediatly received another call.

Putting two and two together, it sure looked like the whole thing was a setup for a kidnapping. Unbelievably, it happens in Guangzhou. Young, out-of-town business woman at tradeshows are often targets. At the opening of an exhibition, these people scan the show floor. They identify women, grab their business cards, and call later that day to setup meetings outside the tradeshow.

We were all very shocked. It would have been terrible if she had gone to the hotel. And the security at the show was non-existent. The same day, I talked to another exhibitor whose laptops were all stolen. In our booth, we actually tied our laptops to the booth to make sure no one would pick them up.

Another common scam is for people to come to the exhibition floor, grab as many brochures as possible, and then sell them outside to be recyled.
Things like this are typical in Guangzhou. It would never happen in Shanghai or Beijing. I feel safe in most Chinese cities, but not Guangzhou.