Euroasia: Language, Culture and Travel

If you’re like me, you would be thinking why the heck would people stand in line to pay $500 to some scammers in return for automatic approval of New Zealand residency.

Apparently, the story is that some guy has been going around the country selling visa stamps like how people peddle club memberships.

You stand in line with $500 cash in hand. You pay $500 and they stamp your passport, and voila, you’re now Maori, and hence granted automatic permanent residency.  It’s open to all applicants, as long as you have 500 bucks cash to fork out.

Hundreds of people turned up at a marae in Mangere last night. And a thousand the night prior at Manurewa. The people scammed are mostly desperate Islanders eager to get residency.

It’s shameful that often the most vulnerable members of society get scammed. Usually the most vulnerable ones are also the most guillible. You might be thinking this only happens to dumb people.  But just because you went to university and hold a respectable job doesn’t mean you’re immune to scams.  I came across another story recently, where a Kiwi businesswoman gave away $680,000 in 10 weeks  to some fraudster who claimed to be an American-born geologist who lived in New Zealand but was overseas on business. They met on some internet dating site, and he professed his love. He managed to get her to send progressively larger amounts before the scam unravelled. Obviously she’s not dumb if she has $680K cash to send overseas.

The point is we need to have some level of empathy with what people are going through.  In the meantime, I’ll be warning desperate immigrants that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.