It's a scam!

It was 10:10am on a normal Wednesday morning. I was still in dreamland.

The phone rang. I picked it up, thinking it was Mother. (She seems to enjoy bombarding the phone with a myriad of requests/instructions on those mornings that I sleep in...)

Me: (Still half-asleep, in a sleepy drone) Hello...
Girl-speaking-in-Mandarin-with-a-hint-of-a-Chinese-accent (GSMHCA): (Sobbing) Pa pa! Kuai lai jiu wo! (Translation: Dad! Save me!)

Me: (Still half-asleep, in a sleepy drone) Huh?? (I didn't quite catch what she said)
GSMHCA: (Sobbing) Pa pa! Kuai lai jiu wo!

Me: (Slightly more awake, in a sleepy drone) Ni shi shui? (Translation: Who are you?)
GSMHCA: (Sobbing) Pa pa! Kuai lai jiu wo!

Me: (A little more awake, in a sleepy drone) Ni shi shui?
GSMHCA: (Sobbing) Pa pa! Kuai lai jiu wo!

Me: (Awake now) Ni shi shui?
The girl hung up.

Damn! My brain was just starting to function and I thought I could elicit more information from her and spoil her fun with a police report. I regretted asking “Ni shi shui?” a third time. It came out from my mouth too fast, like a conditioned reflex. The first time I asked, I thought that perhaps someone I know was really in trouble and had said “Wo hen pa” - I'm scared, rather than called me “Pa pa”, which is why I asked a second time. I wonder if she thinks I'm retarded. (Hmm...)

Interestingly, I only just read about one of these scam calls last night from an online forum. Someone from an English-speaking family wrote that his mum received a call from a Chinese claiming to be him (her son), saying that he had been kidnapped. Haha!





P.S.: Hmm... I didn't know I have a daughter... Should I be happy or worried? Or maybe my dad has a daughter! ;-p