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12-01-2004, 12:42 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Administrator
Join Date: 08-02-03
Location: Westwood, Los Angeles, California
Country: 
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Friendship token turns into scam
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MONTEREY PARK, California -- Somewhere in China sits a man who paid $100,000 for the American dream. He's now poorer, hopefully smarter, but nowhere near being a U.S. citizen.
He's probably not even an honorary citizen.
The bizarre transaction happened in June when Councilwoman Sharon Martinez, who was mayor at the time, visited Monterey Park's sister city Quanzhou.
She brought along several honorary citizen certificates as a friendly gesture toward Quanzhou officials. According to Chinese media accounts, one certificate worth a dime at most circulated on the black market and was sold to a Chinese industrial magnate in Guangzhou (Canton) for a 1 million- percent profit.
As citizenship papers go, the certificate was meaningless. Martinez said she feels sorry for the unidentified victim, but wonders why he so readily paid for the document before verifying it with an embassy.
"It's just like a greeting card from Monterey Park or whatever,' Martinez said Tuesday. "I'll personally give one to everyone over there. They don't cost more than 5 cents or 10 cents to make. It's a greeting card. It's nothing.'
Chinese detectives broke up a meeting between Martinez and some artists and began interviewing members of Martinez's welcoming committee, she said. Detectives did not interview her, however, and she thinks they would not believe she was the mayor. She went up to her room to watch a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game and found out later what had happened.
Martinez, 38, laughs about the deal, though she was flayed by newspapers in China trying to pin the blame on her. The newspapers even questioned whether Martinez was really a mayor, saying she was too young and pretty to be an official.
"I ate that up,' Martinez laughed.
Local Chinese newspapers are still writing about the incident.
"It's funny,' Martinez said. "I'm just trying to let it die down.'
City Manager Chris Jeffers said it is not uncommon for Monterey Park officials to take certificates to China as tokens of friendship.
"They (some Chinese) don't have good English skills,' Jeffers said. "The word 'citizen' is in there. If that's all they see and that's all they understand, maybe to them it's true.'
When asked if the computer- generated certificates have fancy bordering, like scrolls or gold leaf that could possibly fool immigration authorities in the United States, Jeffers said no.
"There's not even a border around the edge,' he said. "There's just a couple of wavy lines that go through the middle of the document.'
Councilman David Lau also found the incident rather humorous.
"It's very unwise for someone to believe in that kind of (scam),' Lau said. "Any reasonable person would not have believed in that, especially invested so much money. It's an incredible case.'
Lau, who did not go on the trip, said the incident is not common in China.
"It's beyond my imagination,' Lau said. "How would (the victim) believe this is some kind of ... I mean, it's crazy.'
Jeffers said Monterey Park police are not investigating the incident.
"I think the important thing is Sharon had no knowledge,' Jeffers said. "And she doesn't speak Mandarin or Cantonese. There's no way in the world she could have known what was happening or that there was an attempt to do this.'
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http://www.sgvtribune.com/Stories/0,...568378,00.html |
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12-01-2004, 12:55 PM
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#2 (permalink)
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Moderator
Join Date: 08-04-03
Location: Georgia, USA
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If this victim was an industrial magnate with all that money, how could he be so ignorant to believe such a thing? I don't understand, unless the money was paid to one of her welcoming committee members. The article does say the detectives broke up the meeting and questioned her members. Why would they do that?
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12-01-2004, 13:07 PM
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#3 (permalink)
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Administrator
Join Date: 08-02-03
Location: Westwood, Los Angeles, California
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Hahahahah, i found the part about the woman being too pretty and young to be mayor funniest.
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12-01-2004, 15:41 PM
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#4 (permalink)
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Senior Contributor
Join Date: 08-12-03
Location: Long Island, New York, USA
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Nothing pisses me off as much as people that turn on their own friends and backstab them  |
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12-09-2004, 00:39 AM
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#5 (permalink)
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Contributor
Join Date: 08-22-04
Location: Houston, TX
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This story is pretty funny, but I also feel bad for the guy who got suckered out of his money. What he really should be doing is going back to who he bought it from, and asking why the guy represented the certificate as something it was not.
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Originally Posted by ChrisF202
Nothing pisses me off as much as people that turn on their own friends and backstab them
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I totally agree. A poor man with good friends is richer than any man with no friends at all. |
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