The ruse was so convincing that I didn’t knew it was a scam until I google about the story! This happened in Zhangjiajie, China where we were brought to various shopping trips

The group was brought to the jade shop. The staff came into the room telling us that the in charge will come in soon and apologized for the held up. It took longer than usual, so the staff came in to talk a little about the jade.

Then came this young lady was like a relative of the jade shop so that’s why she was there. She started to complain and pour out her feelings at us because she felt affinity with us. She hated to work there. Then she felt that the wait was too long and decided to let us out to the shop.

She told the staff not to follow the price. For instance something which is rmb2000 suddenly becomes rmb200-400? The staff will even act surprised! Who would want to pass up such a good deal right?

Amazingly, nobody in our group bought anything expensive.

I guess the only way that they can sell jade so cheap is because they are fake. The ruse is the same all the time. CEO/Senior staff felt she is comfortable with you and gave you good prices. If you think you got yourself a good deal, you are baited!

Apparently, this happens not only in Zhangjiajie. Read about a variation of the jade scam here: How We Got Scammed Out of $100,000 in Shanghai

Note: this happened in 2015, I hope the situation has improved since then. Although this happened after the Beijing Olympics in 2009 and after a crackdown on the jade scam in 2010, I am surprised this is still around in 2015. This post is meant to educate readers so you don’t get scammed.