I have heard stories of antiquities dealers selling to the tourist, and then turning the tourist into the local law enforcement. If that happens, you better hope that whatever you bought was a forgery. I would not want to be caught in some 'third world' jail. The stories, I am sure are largely apocryphal, but I am sure something like that has happened at least once, and I would hate to be there when it happened again.
A well known dealer wanted to get some Syracusan dekadrachms, and related coins and went to Sicily. He was successful, but in the process he pissed someone off in the Mafia (probably for cutting out the middle man), and when he returned someone had tipped off customs. He had to get a lawyer to get out of the predicament.
I would second JBF. Having career-long professional dealing with crooks, I would recommend viewing one's dubious potential interaction as the LEAST crooked thing the other person is doing that day, and act accordingly.
Sage observations and advice from JBF and PMah
I know this happens with many illegal things; gems, drugs,
antiquities.
Some of the scams are quite sophisticated. I've been worked in
India on a number of occasions by people running
gem scams. I never fell for this, and was never tempted to, but I was impressed by how sophisticated they are. Some scams are worked over days and even weeks to set up the mark.
I suspect that some of the cases involving high value
antiquities, where a museum has purchased a
sculpture and then later
had to return it to its country of origin, have been scams. 'How to sell your
antiquity and then have it returned to you'. Obviously not all of these cases are scams, but I suspect some are.
On a different twist, there are documented cases in
India, where people have been intentionally poisoned so that they can then be taken to the doctor for treatment. These scams, run by both the restaurant and doctor. One of these was discovered when marks died from the poisoning, causing authorities to take a close look.
In Nepal, in the recent past, it was discovered that some helicopter pilots and some hospitals were in cahoots with trekking guides to cause clients to be in need of evacuation for medical treatment. Maladies were caused by poisoning and ascending too quickly causing altitude sickness. This was discovered by an undercover investigation run by an insurance company when there was a surge in claims. In some documented cases, tourists in need of immediate evacuation died, because the scammers waited for one of the helicopters that would pay the kickback to be available. Not all helicopter pilots were dirty, so the guides would not call a legitimate operator. The wait caused the evacuee's death.
The above give an idea of what kind of people you can be dealing with. Closer to
home:
Trapped in a Turkish prison
https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/editorials/ct-turkey-antiquities-20150318-story.htmlThe story of a tourist who thought he was
buying a modern made souvenir, was thrown into prison for trying to take it out of the country when it was reported to be old, then after
his family spent thousands to get him back
home, he was told that
his souvenir was modern after all. All just an honest mistake. Yea right.
Fake Coins and Notorious Fake Sellers
