Most people are familiar with common scams when travelling, often to do with theft or a loss of property etc. I was approached thrice, twice on a day trip to Suwon and the last at Hongdae in Seoul. As this was happening, another lady also with a clipboard, this time in her twenties, came up to me asking where I was from. The man started asking if I knew much about Korean traditional culture as I shuffled along without replying.
The second time it happened, I was leaving Suwon and walking underground from the shopping mall to the train platforms, when I was stopped by a college-aged university student who was on his own.
I remained cautious despite his warm and sincere demeanour. It started off with very innocent talk, really, asking what I was doing in Korea and how long I was here for. He reached for his phone, and wanted to show me something. A couple days passed, and on one of my last days in Seoul, I was doing a spot of shopping in Hongdae, and a college-aged couple, one male and the other female, walked past me on the street and simultaneously asked me where Style Nanda was in Korean.
Where are you from? The girl was pretty much leading the conversation, all chirpy and enthusiastic. The guy would nod in agreement or add in little quips here and there throughout the conversation, but never took over. He too was very smiley and warm, though notably a little shy. They took a lot of interest in the fact that I was travelling alone and not with friends, even though I told them I had friends in Korea, and kept asking me about it, along with what I was studying in university.
Once again, I was cautious, but this couple did raise a couple red flags that made me uncomfortable. Just as it happened, I bumped into an old friend from school and said hey. He left after scanning the situation. Something about it was a little off, but everything about this situation felt odd. How do you know each other? Why are you not travelling together?
