INTERNATIONAL HERALD
TRIBUNE
A Cautionary Tale of
the Year of the Snake
January 24, 2001
by T.K. Chang
As
a lawyer I have seen my share of shysters, but recently I experienced an
elaborate scam in
As
I walked by, the pair "caught" a writhing snake about a meter long. I
asked what they were doing. They explained that they were catching poisonous
snakes to extract venom for making antidotes and medicines.
The
men seemed to have a vast knowledge of the behavior and habitats of snakes, and
were persuasively earnest in their eagerness to share the information. They
explained that they had just caught the male snake, and so the female must be
nearby.
As
one kept talking to me, the other sprayed what they claimed was a snake
repellent in the crevices of a nearby stone wall to drive out the female.
Suddenly, a snake slithered out and the two jumped to grab hold of it. But, as
I could clearly see, the snake bit the finger of one of them before they
succeeded in capturing it.
With
his companion in evident pain, the other man asked me to hold my hands tightly
around the "victim's" arm in a sort of tourniquet. He then opened his
anti venom kit. As I held onto the man's arm for dear life, I thought I could
see the dark shadow of the venom traveling up his arm.
The
"victim" quickly swallowed several anti-venom pills, while his
companion poured cold water on his arm to slow his blood circulation and the
progress of the venom toward his heart. Even so, the bitten man collapsed to
the ground, apparently in great pain and suffering from nausea. But I was
assured by his companion that since he had taken the anti venom pills, and with
the help of my makeshift tourniquet, he should recover soon.
After
more than half an hour of elaborate acting, the "sting" was put into
motion. The men gave me several anti-venom pills as a gesture, they said, of
their gratitude for saving the bitten man's life. They explained that the pills
were also effective for reducing the effects of hangovers, food poisoning and
other medical problems, though they added that one or two pills might not be
enough.
For
all its implausible details, I confess that I was absolutely convinced I had
helped save the man's life. My euphoric self-congratulation was interrupted
when, five minutes after leaving the men, I encountered another team working on
an elderly couple with an identical story of having caught one snake and being
bitten by another. The elderly couple, both doctors, bought an entire bottle of
the anti-venom medicine.
This
is just one of many scams I have heard about in
In
his classic 1940 book "The Big Con," David Maurer described in detail
the Golden Age of the confidence game in the
Many
foreign executives and traders have described doing business today in China,
especially in places like Guangdong and Fujian provinces, as being like the
"Wild West." There is the same sense of unrestrained capitalism,
caveat emptor and "grab all while you can."
Yet
the same lust for money, creative energy and salesman's chutzpah animate both
the Chinese con artist and the entrepreneur. Among the hucksters and snake oil
salesmen roaming the country today may be the future Vanderbilts
and robber barons of
*Mr. Chang is a
partner in the New York office of Zhong Lun Law Firm,
a global law firm based in China, with over 700 lawyers located in 10 offices
worldwide, including London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and New York. For more information concerning Mr. Chang,
please go to: http://www.zhonglun.com/en/lawyer_246.aspx