Have You Heard of the Guangdong “Somali Highway” ?

The scammers usually work in groups of three or five, and drive in luxury cars down the highway . When they notice someone driving alone, they will immediately follow and drive side-by-side.

Then, one of the crooks will roll down the window, holding a slingshot in his hand, and when he notices that their victim changes lanes towards them, they will immediately catapults the vehicle with a slingshot .

At this point, the victim gets a “bang” inside the car, and most people will wonder if they hit something. The scammers will quickly catch up and force the victim to stop, claiming that their car has been hit and demand for compensation.

The scammers tend to be big men, and the vehicles they extort are mainly those with out of the province license plates and only driven by a single person.

They have a high success rate extort people for more than a thousand yuan each time.

Over the past two years, there have been many “beckoning” scams on highways, usually by beautiful or well-dressed women who park their luxury cars in the emergency lane on the side of the road and wave to passing vehicles.

When you stop, they come forward to ask for help.

They will claim that they are in a hurry to get home, but while passing through a service area, their windows were not closed and their mobile phone and wallet were stolen, and now they have no money to get off the highway.

They will tell these similar stories in a very awkward tone, and borrow not much money, usually only a few hundred yuan, and will leave you a phone number or WeChat indicating that they will pay it back as soon as they get home

Most people see that they drive luxury cars, speak very politely, and don’t ask for much money, so they help, which makes these scammers succeed time and again.

When driving on the highway, sometimes there will inevitably be some problems, breakdown, no fuel, flat tires, etc., at this time it may be necessary to ask for help from a stranger.

Many drivers who encounter this situation for the first time may choose to search online, at which point you may find a large number of roadside assistance platform websites.

When you call one of the sites, they will make you an offer, and then ask for a deposit.

If you think it’s too expensive and disagree, they will intimidate telling you that you will get fined and points deducted for occupying the emergency lane for too long.

If you agree, they will add your WeChat, let you transfer the deposit , and send them your vehicle information and location.

Actually , these roadside assistance sites are just “middlemen” who simply help you contact local roadside assistance (sometimes maybe not a professional team), and the “deposit” you payed is what they earn.

These so-called high-speed rescue platforms don’t have do anything, they spend money to advertise, wait for calls, and then collect this so-called “deposit”.

In fact, the high-speed rescue team is a professional team formed by highway operators, and no money is charged in advance, but according to the standard fee after the rescue is over.

The amount of this scam is not much, 100 to 500, but as long as you search online, it is easy to fall into the trap of scammers, because now Baidu searches for “high-speed rescue” related content will still pop up this kind of ad.

The high-speed service area is a gathering place for many scammers and thieves, so you need to be careful when someone approaches you while resting in the service area.

These people usually talk to you first, and when you let your guard down, they or someone else may recommend you some expensive items.

Earlier it was reported that many scammers sell cordyceps in service areas, which are actually sun-dried bugs.