I was near Shibuya scramble crossing the other day, leaving a small restaurant after an early dinner (so it was still light outside) when this black guy standing about 2 meters away from me asks me if I have a phone he could make a call from.
Normally I help out. But knowing about Nigerian touts and having been harassed and followed by them in Kabukicho when I went there one time, I was cautious and walked briskly in the opposite direction.
Was this likely a scam of some sort, if I handed him my phone? Something where they say “Oh I need to use this phone in \[insert shady place here\] follow me” or something like that?
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Whichever way it was, fuck it. You did right thing. He can find a phone if he needs it.
How much is your phone worth? Would you hand a stranger a $400 bill and cross your fingers they’d return it?
Once they physically have your phone, there’s nothing you can do to get it back except use force, which will likely get you arrested.
If it was a legitimate emergency, walk them to a koban or a payphone (if those are still around?) and give them 100 yen.
A guy is not going to steal your phone in daylight in Shibuya crossing, be reasonable.
There are cops and cameras everywhere in that area.
How do you even know he was Nigerian? And if he was, so what? Do you think Nigerian guys only work as touts out here?
I hate this sentiment on this sub that all African people in Japan are always up to no good.
I’m African and I own and run a company. My other friends from various African countries are studying or working in IT or English schools.
If you don’t want to lend a stranger your phone, thats completely acceptable.
But why make it out to be some elaborate scam just because the guy was black? If he was white you know you wouldn’t have made this post.
They got payphones still
This is a common way to rob people in london. Ay yo mate can I use your phone? No. Just like I wouldn’t let someone have my keys or wallet. Use a payphone, if you’re in trouble I’ll help you, give you money, or whatever, but no.
“Normally I help out”
So if the guy was white, Asian, black but not Nigerian looking (whatever that means) you would have lent your phone?
You know what that makes you right?
Guy probably needed to make a phone call. If you’re usually so helpful, there’s a Koban literally right next to the crossing that you could have directed him to.
Depends if he was a prince with a large sum of money for you to hold onto.
Next time when someone asks you something like that, offer to walk them to the koban. I wouldn’t let any stranger so much as touch my phone.
It was probably just a guy who wanted to make a call.
There is nothing wrong with being cautious though.
You could help him by dialing the number for him and holding it securely while it rings on speaker phone. I understand you’ve been burned by bad experiences, but with such a small interaction with very little context, this doesn’t paint you in a good light. I think a lot of things that could be my own brain creating a situation that may not be real, but I wouldn’t ask a subreddit with 499k members for vindication. You’re going to sound bad to at least a few.
I’m investing in bags and rocks.
No one touches my phone. I also don’t want anyone having my phone number. I would have walked the gentleman to the koban.
Nobody knows if the guy wanted to scam you or not. That being said, I would never hand my phone to anyone.. my phone costs ¥200k+ if you’re not a super good friend of mine then you’re not going to touch my phone.
Even if it was a clear and obvious emergency or other urgent situation, I would have asked him what number he wanted to call and I would dial and firmly hold the phone while he had his convo using the speaker phone function. This is unrelated to the color of his skin or perceived nationality/background.
Anyone upset at the dude for not trusing a random black guy in tokyo might wanna take their issues to roppongi, harajuku and kabukicho and talk it out with the nigerian touts there.
I can’t blame any foreigner in tokyo for being extra cautious.
Even though a white, purple or yellow gaijin might also rip you off if you’re too trusting in strangers.
In the 90s persians also had a certain image in tokyo, but that blew over too.And from what I’ve heard there’s now romanian touts in roppongi, so who knows how that will develop.
Another common scam in general is that someone will just Venmo or cashapp themselves a bunch of money from your account
Just wanted to point out that the odds of him being Nigerian specifically are low. Would you let a Japanese or white person borrow your phone? Me personally I wouldn’t let anyone borrow it.
It’s insanity that anybody would even consider just giving their phone to somebody, except maybe like a little old lady with a walking frame who had fallen over. Anybody suggesting otherwise is naive AF.
In the words of Phoebe Bridgers, “they still got payphones.”
> …this black guy …
>
>… Normally I help out but …
Gotta love the cognitive dissonance of people saying “well done mate, you were going to be robbed” in one post and two minutes later “japanese are the worst racists, especially towards black people!” in another
Had a stranger in Shibuya ask to use my phone a while back, for either a text or a call (?), so I took a copy of their ID and then let them use it.
I can’t guarantee it was a scam, but I can say I would have made the same decision, and I think anyone who would hand their phone over to a random in Shibuya, surrounded by Koban and payphones, would have to be pretty naive unless there were very clear special circumstances.
I’ve never heard of a similar scam(not saying that it doesn’t exist, just saying that I’ve never heard of it).
Maybe he was supposed to meet with someone but his phone died and after looking around for help he aimed at you because he thought that as a fellow foreigner you would be more prone to helping him out compared to locals. Could it be?
I’m saying this because once my phone died, I got lost, couldn’t find a soul to help me nor could I find any koban to save my ass so I mustered up some courage, walked up to the first shrine in sight and asked for help to its kannushi. It was hella embarrassing.
Seriously, life is unpredictable and sometimes it puts us in bizarre situations.
Now, I can’t say whether you did the right thing or not with that guy, but should it happen again that someone asks you for help in a similar manner, point them at the nearest koban. At least they have an option to get themselves out of whatever trouble they might be in.
One time, I let someone who was a cosplayer who was lost help her find her way to her night bus. When she took my phone, she then added herself and her page as friends by going through my FB. She was also walking super fast like we wouldn’t catch up to her; because her phone was dead it was almost like she was fixin’ to steal my phone.
Anyway, never let someone borrow your phone these days.
>when this ~~black guy~~ not a dog (you can trust dogs, usually) standing about 2 meters away from me asks me if I ~~have a phone he could make a call from~~ am willing to hand him an electronic device that is very small and easy to steal, has all of my personal (and maybe financial?) information in it, and it may lead to future scams against my friends and loved ones, plus and would be kind of expensive to replace.
“The time? Time for you to fuck off” as you keep walking, in case you run into that one.