A scam artist called us from overseas and we had a bittersweet conversation about fried rice

“Do you guys have fried rice in Mongolia?”

Within the past 12 months, our Japanese-language reporter Go Hatori has received phone calls from Hong Kong, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Iraq, and even the African and Micronesian republics of Seychelles and Kiribati. Here’s the thing, though: Go doesn’t have any personal or professional acquaintances in those places.

Now it could be that Go, though his work here at SoraNews24, has suddenly acquired an international fanbase in those nations that’s so passionate that not only did they want to reach out to him to express their admiration, they also somehow tracked down his phone number. Or maybe, and this seems like the more likely explanation, Go is being targeted by overseas scam artists.

As most technologically savvy people these days know, it’s generally a bad idea to pick up when you see a random overseas number on your phone’s incoming call screen. Unfortunately, some scam artists have now taken to blocking their number from display when they make calls. If you’re using a Japanese-language phone, for example, you might get an incoming call with the notice 非通知設定 (“number display blocked”), like Go did when he took the picture below.

As with unfamiliar overseas numbers, it’s best to just ignore these calls, since it’s a pretty sure bet that whoever is calling you is doing so because they want your money. But as long-time readers of SoraNews24 know, Go is sometimes up for a battle of wits with would-be con artists, so when he saw he had a blocked-number call coming in, he decided to pick up. No sooner had he answered than the voice on the other end of the call asked “Am I speaking to Go Hatori?”

The realization that someone had gotten ahold of his phone number and linked it to his name would ordinarily have filled Go with dread, but there’s a bit of backstory here. See, part of the reason Go periodically spars with con artists is because in addition to writing for SoraNews24, he also conducts public service lessons on how to protect yourself from online, telephone, and other sorts of technology-related scams. He actually has a phone he uses exclusively for such research, one that’s not linked to any other sensitive personal information or accounts so that he can use it for navigating through shady websites and taking suspicious phone calls. In other words, there are a lot of places where one could possibly find this phone’s number and attach it to Go’s name, so the fact that the caller knew who Go was, and had also found the dedicated email address he uses for scam investigations, didn’t shake him too badly.

After telling the caller that yes, he had reached Go Hatori, Go asked who was calling and from where. The caller identified himself as “Payan” (or a differently spelled name pronounced along those lines) and said that he was calling from Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, with an investment opportunity. Ulaanbaatar isn’t exactly known as a hotbed of international financial action, but when Go asked for further details, Payan claimed that he was calling on behalf of a British institution, but that he was calling from Mongolia because of the time difference between the U.K. and Japan.

That sounded pretty fishy, and the pitch didn’t get any less figuratively piscine when Payan, speaking in accented and somewhat unnatural but still understandable Japanese, told Go that if he would just create an account on a certain website and transfer US$250 worth of funds into it, then his service’s AI program would automatically select investments which would earn Go a huge profit.

It was obviously a scam, and Go had no interest in giving Payang or his employers a single cent, yen, or any other minimum-denomination form of currency. But there was something Go was interested in, and so as soon as Payan paused and there was a momentary silence in the conversation, Go said:

“Do you guys have fried rice in Mongolia?”

If you’re wondering why Go was forcing this specific sudden turn in the conversation, back in his student days he used to work part-time as a chef in a Chinese restaurant. He’s got a lot of confidence in his ability to make gyoza, but fried rice is something he’s not quite satisfied with his skills in. A few years ago, while playing along with an online scammer, who claimed to be an attractive young lady named Mizuho Ishikawa, Go managed to get her to teach him an incredibly tasty fried rice recipe. With Mongolia bordering China, Go wondered if maybe there’s some blending of the two countries’ cuisines, so who better to ask than his new pal Payan?

▼ Go turns the tables and initiates the fried rice talk at the point cued in the video here.

Go: “Excuse me, Payan, it’s not about the investment, but can I ask you a question? Do you guys have fried rice in Mongolia?”

Payan: “We have something similar to it. It’s a little bit different, though…it’s called otatehoru. It’s rice, you put in meat too and mix them…Do you like fried rice, sir?”

Go isn’t sure if he’s got the dish’s name rendered correctly, as when he tried to repeat it back, Payan told him that his pronunciation was a little off, while gently adding that it’s a hard word to pronounce, in order to spare Go’s feelings. As they continued talking about the dish, Go noticed that Payan suddenly sounded much more cheerful than he had when discussing the supposed investment.

Go: “So in the Mongolian fried rice, there’s beef too? Do you cook it together with the rice?”

Payan: “Yeah, that’s right.”

Go: “Do you put vegetables in too?”

Payan: “Yeah, you do…green onions and potato…carrots. You mix them all together.”

Go was deeply intrigued. Unfortunately, as he took a moment to imagine how “otatehoru” would look and taste, Payan then tried to shift the conversation back to the investment scam. Being a seasoned veteran of these kinds of conversations, though, Go kept steering their talk back to otatehoru. In total, he spent about 30 minutes chatting with Payan, and told him that if he ever had a chance to go to Ulaanbaatar, he looked forward to trying the dish in its authentic flavor. Go then explained to Payan that he had to get back to work.

Before Go ended the call, Payan said that he would call again, but he hasn’t so far. Honestly, that’s fine by us, but Go can’t help feeling a little bittersweetness at the situation. Payan didn’t seem like a bad guy, personality-wise, yet he’s clearly running a scam, or at least working for people who’re running one. Perhaps he’s dealing with circumstances in his life where he doesn’t see any other way to earn a living, but Go can’t help but feel sad that the guy, who’s clearly put in a lot of effort to learn how to communicate in Japanese as well as he does, is using those skills to try to trick people into bogus investments.

So hopefully the next time Payan sits down for a plate of otatehoru, or whatever the dish is properly called, he’ll remember that he and a stranger in another country had a friendly conversation about good food, and maybe it’ll help serve as inspiration for him to start looking for a more scrupulous lifestyle.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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