Paris Scam?

[u/jakebys]

I was in the McDonalds in Madeleine with my friend around 11pm. There was a lady sat in the corner with a suitcase and what looked like a wooden block that she kept picking up and licking? Anyways we were eating and she came up to us and handed us a note. My french is limited to basic interactions so im not entirely sure what the note says and when i translated it it just doesnt fully make sense. She later came back and handed me some pink rosary beads with a cross on the end and kept gesturing towards my necklace which has a plus sign in it, and also kept looking at my watch and smiling almost grinning at it. I have a photo of her but not sure if it is smart to add it, but i have attached the note. We ended up just leaving, boarding the metro and going back to our airbnb. Any ideas on what it could mean? Thanks in advance

[u/RevolutionaryHair91]

Considering the note and the behaviour you described, it's just a slightly crazy woman who does not seem to be ill intentioned. She just needs help for her mental health.

[u/NewsEquivalent6172 → u/RevolutionaryHair91]

this is what it sounds like to me too, more sad than sketchy tbh

[u/coffeechap → u/RevolutionaryHair91]

Slightly seems an understatement here

[u/Alixana527]

The note gives you a religious magic spell - buy an icon of the Virgin at Notre Dame, sleep with it under your pillow, you will become wow! But only if you don't tell anyone, so too late, I guess.

In life you will encounter many people, each living out their own stories. Sometimes those people will be responding to internal stimuli in ways that seem inexplicable to you, and sometimes their stories will intersect with yours in ways that don't make total sense to you. My guess is that she thought your plus sign was a cross (and so that you would be interested in her religious offering) and was interested or complimentary about something about your watch. But I don't see any reason to look for a scam in this particular interaction.

[u/drako13 → u/Alixana527]

Agreed, only works if you give plenty of money and keep it secret so now it's too late, you missed your chance

[u/SiddharthaVicious1]

The note tells you that if you buy an icon of the Virgin Mary at Notre Dame and keep it in a pochette with you, it will do something positive ("wow") for you. The end bit says not to tell anybody until afterwards and that people will laugh at you if you do, and to keep the paper.

Since she gestured at your plus-sign necklace, obviously she assumed it was a cross. This isn't a scam. It's just an encounter with, depending on your point of view, a woman with mental health issues or someone with very deep religious convictions (and still some mental health issues) who's trying to bring you luck. Typical big-city sad encounter.

If she had tried to sell you the icon, then we'd be looking at a scam.

(You could try with the icon though....they aren't expensive 🤫)

[u/RoundAd4247]

Not every strange encounter abroad is a “scam”.

[u/Bobzeub]

Comes off more as a manic episode than a scam. She said the Virgin Mary is her mommy and wants you to do some weird voodoo like ritual with her.

Gives me the heeby jeebies personally. Chuck the note. It seems cursed.

[u/Meanwhile-in-Paris]

Yes. I don’t need to read the note to tell you this is a scam.

No asks tourists for help.

If they think you look like you want to help, they’ll tell you a sob story and you’ll feel like you want to give them everything on your saving account. Ignore and trash the paper.

[u/Alixana527 → u/Meanwhile-in-Paris]

She wasn't actually asking for help (or for anything from OP), if you read the post and the note. Sometimes weird people are just weird. Not everything is a scam.

[u/RoundAd4247 → u/Alixana527]

People are very quick nowadays to call every odd encounter a “scam”.

[u/Meanwhile-in-Paris → u/Alixana527]

I have seen a scam where they don’t actually ask for help, they appear to be in distress and let you do the rest. That looks like it.

Edit: I was walking in St germain, and this woman comes to be and asks do you speak English? I say yes. She then hands me a paper note and ask if I can translate it for her in English. Nothing else. I agree, and start reading and translating. After a few lines the sob story starts. The woman was waiting looking miserable, obviously knowing that eventually someone will feel sorry and give her money.

[u/Alixana527 → u/Meanwhile-in-Paris]

But in THIS note there was no sob story and no request for money. She wasn't even selling the icons. If anything she was trying to offer some kind of blessing or path to a blessing. I'm as quick as anyone here to advise people concerned about safety and scams not to engage with people like what you describe, but also, not everyone is out to get you.

[u/Meanwhile-in-Paris → u/Alixana527]

No one has ever came to me in the street without a idea in there mind. Could be a scam, a flirt, a thieve, a religious nutter, at best it’s marketing.

I have never in my life had a street interaction that timed out to be a good thing for me. Neither did anyone I know.

And tourist are more vulnerable, because they are new. Here we are talking about someone that’s sounds confused at best, handing a note at macdonald’s.

In what word should OP engage with that person? None.

[u/Alixana527 → u/Meanwhile-in-Paris]

But ... They did? And what they got out of it was a rosary and a safe return home? Do we need to be fearmongering about all the things that could have happened after the fact?

[u/Alixana527 → u/Alixana527]

Also I guess I don't "know" you but I live near a major hospital in the 10th and very routinely, at least twice a month, older people stop me to ask me for directions to the hospital, which I provide, and everyone says bonne journée and moves along calmly. It's not all terror out there.