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PART 2 – The Saigon Bar Scene – The Beginning Of The Seedy End…
Just to be clear – Saigon to this day – has plenty – a vast majority – of excellent and honest bars clubs and entertainment venues. This particular story refers to a small central area of downtown HCM near Pasteur, Ham Nghi, and Nguyen Hue streets – known as the “Golden Triangle” to local ex-pats.
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Just 6 weeks before this post – a foreigner died in one of the seediest of establishments, run by “Miss X” as we will refer to her.
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To date no proof of course, – we will get to that in PART 3.. – but most likely he was drugged with a mix of MDMA, Cocaine and Ketamine, and some other substances which when slipped into your drink stimulates – sure – but also causes total compliance – and complete memory loss of events for hours. Perfect for date rape and credit card fraud – and identical to that as depicted in the recent Hollywood movie “ The Hustlers” – a totally true account of the same underworld tactics used in New York City several years ago. No doubt some crafty Vietnamese have paid a lot of attention and mastered the art… Unfortunately in this case the poor chap probably had an adverse reaction to that – combined with the Nitrous Oxide “Balloons” ( Happy gas ) and complete lack of responsible service of alcohol…- and paid the ultimate price…
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Saigon Bar Scene Rampant Credit Card Fraud
Here below is some email extracts of the run down of an open fraud dispute lodged with American Express in 2019. The guy claimed he was drugged – had no idea about these bills until he saw them on his statement, and signed court declaration to that effect.
Over $20,000 dollars billed on the poor guys card – all from one Miss X associated bars – in the space of two days. On one day alone – more than $17000!! – Thats a hell of a lot of beer!! Guy must be superman!! The fraud squad overseas couldn’t prosecute at the time because it was in a foreign country and needed the local authorities to help out… Hopefully this post and others might help in that!..
Miss X claims the guy was drunk and just somehow spent over $20000 on buying Nitrous Oxide (funky balloons) and staff drinks.
( That equates to around 9250 balloons at bar price by-the-bottle sales. Even with 5 staff in 4 bars that’s still over 450 balloons each. Considering most people can take 5 to 10 before collapsing, its pretty easy to see the basic math is about 100 times out…King Kong would die over and over of laughter.) BLATANT FRAUD FULL STOP.
Truth is, she and her cohorts take advantage and steal card pin and numbers of anyone who even just gets a little drunk. Potential ‘bigger spenders’ are targeted, their drinks spiked, then the fraudsters easily get the pin number and card/s and go to town on them fabricating ludicrous bills without the dude even knowing his card is missing. Guy of course has zero recollection of events – and only sees card statement days later in many instances. When used these drugs just wipe memory and make victims compliant – it doesn’t stop them partially functioning – albeit with no idea and with totally diminished capacity. If you asked a guy to jump from the balcony in such a condition he would gladly do it.
You can even lead him back to a bar he has tried to prosecute the week before – he will have no memory and no clue. Miss X and/or the associates always take videos of the “Party” which no doubt unknowingly goes on, and uses this and other allegations on social media of illegal drug use or other to blackmail the victim and also convince / justify to Police (who are paid by her) she is just the ‘innocent’ bar owner…😇 – If you’re not believing this – watch the “Hustlers” movie! – It’s a movie but its all real life accounts of similar dealings in New York and it’s all 100% TRUE!
Any girl who has been date raped knows the difficulty in proving it. Credit card companies wipe their hands, they say “no proof” of drugging. Sadly remnants only remain 12 – 24 hrs in the system in many cases, and if you cant remember anything – you don’t think to go get a test after the 15 hour sleep you just had…
Oh and here’s a little more hard evidence of the fraud going on in that area just last week! This guys card was stolen in the Golden Triangle while he was at one of the bars. He didn’t even know it was gone until he saw the emails from the credit card company the next day. – ( He thinks he must have been drugged- how else would they even get it? ) Note the number of times attempts were made on his card – for differing amounts at different times. Luckily for him, that particular card was already locked and no money taken. The card fraud squad is investigating…
Nitros Oxide “Happy Gas”
UPDATE…
The Saigon Bar Scene Part 2 – Saga continues!
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This post has been updated – with a more revealing account of a small part of the Miss X and associates’ blatant fraud and social media blackmail tactics. These are used in an attempt to shut down anyone who tries to either go to the police or go public about the theft and fraud.
Recent defamatory posts have been circulated by Miss X and co. on virtually all Social media groups in Saigon.
A main author of the truth about whats going on went to Kim’s Tavern – assuming it safe – with a friend just over a week ago. Four lite beers and 3 soda waters later, they briefly went next door to an opening of a new bar before intending to go home.
An obvious target, the next 18 hours for him and his friend – are completely missing from both men’s memory, along with thousands more dollars from his friends card.
A total setup. Be warned! – Spiked drinks are virtually impossible to stop in these places.
Videos were taken and posted from INSIDE one of the bars crucified in his post – “Bonnie Bar “ – at around 3pm the following day!! – Now why would anyone go – knowingly – to a place where just one week prior they have named, shamed and posted in an article as a totally dangerous place where the boss even admitted to spiking drinks??? How can anyone go without sleep for so long without some form of stimulant? – Funky balloons are an anaesthetic after all. Alcohol eventually puts one to sleep too.
Whilst completely unaware of his surrounds, he was – as can be clearly heard on the video “offered” “ Candy” ( Assume meaning some illegal drug). The video was rolling – he is clearly out of it – and said “OK – sure whatever…” – Planned, they said “Oh no we don’t provide that so sorry!”
Total setup. Posted on all Saigon groups in an attempt to shut down the truth about what is occurring in all these bars… This is what you are up against. Most of the area is in on the fraud. They will try anything to discredit those who stand up to them. It’s nasty stuff. The friend has lodged a police report – but as we all know… that will likely amount to nothing…Be very careful in that area!!
The agenda of the authors is most certainly not to blackmail Miss X and her mob (as she claimed.🙄) – It’s to make Saigon’s expat community – and tourists when they return – aware of the real dangers now present in that particular area.
The Central Saigon Bar Scene – How it all Started…
Bar 5, Kim’s Tavern and Phatty’s…
Right now there are really only three honest bars in the area where you can be sure to be safe. They are the original icons of the region, and were, ironically, the reason the whole place started to become popular.
Long-term thinking is not an uneducated Vietnamese person’s forte – the idea of looking after customers today and they’ll return again and again is a totally foreign concept to most.
Kim’s Tavern, Bar 5, and Phatty’s Sports Bar embraced the concept early on, and are still now amongst the very few bars in the Golden Triangle that haven’t resorted to the seedy side. Druggings, fraud, and muggings are commonplace now in the majority of the others.
Bar5 – the most successful – is owned by a Swiss guy – who gets it. His place is an icon in central Saigon for Expats and tourists alike. For over 20 years – 100,000 VND (now 130) you get free flow draught beer from 3:00 to 7:00 pm – that’s around $6.00 – every single day. He has a fleet of around 20 gorgeous young Vietnamese waitresses trained to serve – and drink with customers if requested – always dressed immaculately and eager to please. No prostitution. Nothing illegal. Just a high turnover of beer, grub, pool games, and staff. – The girls either learn English and move on to more sustainable vocations or end up as girlfriends/ wives supported by the mesmerised punters. The bill is never fiddled. Its an incredibly cheap watering hole where you can guarantee keeping at the very least – the contents of your wallet.
Phattys is owned by an Australian. He also understands. A more conventional sports bar/ restaurant – he remains firmly entrenched and in business – because his bar is honest to customers. No coke- laced limes sneakily dropped into your beer in Phattys!
A small speakeasy in the heart of Saigon’s CBD – Kim’s Tavern was the original pure “hostess bar” and is owned by an unusually savvy Vietnamese lady. ( Kim ) – Kim’s invented and started with the concept of many (very) cute young girls in uniform serving drinks – trained to say “Helloooh” in unison to every new customer of any gender entering the premise. It soon grew enormously popular with ex-pats and tourists – gained a reputation as a fun and respectable place – and until recently ( COVID )- was still crowded almost every night. Kim has grown to despise the new owners of the surrounding bars due to their ignorance and lack of sustainable business models. Ironically it was Kim’s bar where an infamous few of the new bar owners were trained, and in the name of greed – ultimately ventured out on their own to slowly poison and destroy the area. For ease, let’s call one of the biggest offenders – Miss X, (not her real name of course.)
The Rise of Miss X and her Cohorts.
Saigon has bloomed in the last decade as both a tourism destination and business hub.
Vietnam’s economy has exploded – cheap labor has driven manufacturing into overdrive and a construction boom has followed. Fertile soils in semitropical surroundings mean agricultural assets have taken off. Untouched beaches line the coast between tourist hubs such as Nha Trang and Danang. Remarkably cheap living, smiling local faces along with the allure of Vietnam to both tourists and business attracted an exponential influx of ex-pat and tourists – until Covid19 hit early 2020.
Miss X – an uneducated waitress at Kim’s bar, started out as a fun girl trying to make a buck.
Attractive, pocket-size, and driven, she quickly learned good English, befriended many ex-pats – married one in fact for a very short time – and soon had a strong list of regular clientele. Seeing opportunity, she broke away from Kim’s and opened her own bar nearby, initially with a similarly successful pretty much honest business model.
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The influx of foreign tourists and ex-pats fuelled demand for more of the same, and within a few years bars were popping up like tulips in bloom. Miss X basked in the sun of success and wanted more and more of it – and before long was regularly posting her glorious rise on Facebook and Instagram as a part-owner in yet another new bar. Most of her partners were staff from her first bar – convinced to venture out with the promise of similar riches. The bars grew, the money flowed and the Facebook posts became more and more extravagant. Five-star restaurant dinners and resort holidays, luxury outings to the wealthy upper-class clubs and rooftop bars of Saigon, – with each post the ego grew, and the greed was fed. To Asians “face” is everything – and Miss X had an ego exponentially disproportionate to her tiny frame. To her – an image of incredible success was paramount – and needed to be posted. Her starry-eyed followers looked upon in wanting awe – as the girl from nothing posted bragging pictures of herself and the newly acquired red Porsche in front of her bars and the luxury newly built apartment.
Problem was – it was all exaggerated BS. Yes, there was honest money in the bars to start with, but nowhere near the honest amount of profits to afford the Facebook life of Miss X and her associates. In actual fact – just a few years into the boom the market was already saturated – Vietnamese landlords had upped the rents ( short term money grab no long term thinking ) and soon even meager honest profits were hard to come by. Bars kept popping up regardless, most with the dream of emulating Miss X, and many with Miss X as part of the plan. Blinded by greed, new “Poison Ivy” bars were opening en masse – also in full bloom – uneducated new owners with ill-thought-out business plans at the helm.
Hence well before Covid19 hit – the real Rot was already setting in. Some bars with silent foreign owners could sustain the “short term losses”, funded by the unwitting “sponsor” suckers. ( Older foreign boyfriends of usually unscrupulous scamming – very attractive Viet women who often had several on the go at once.) Most of the others however, had to start doing things differently to survive – and most importantly – to keep “face”.
Miss X was at the very least – initially resourceful in her tactics. Seeing her fantasy world of wealth and riches disappearing before its chance to climax, she slowly sunk into a whirlpool of greed and deception.
She started by pretending to be helpful and considerate, lending new innocent -poor young staff money and accommodation – which unknowingly – they could never realistically hope to honestly repay on a meager wage of 3.5million VND/month. (150USD/month) With only very diluted customer tips and commissions, soon her staff were indebted so much they had to go along with – and comply, – and whatever Miss X wanted doing was done – there was simply no choice for them…
Miss X needed more and more and borrowed money from the local mafia – at exorbitant short-term interest rates of course. (Another classic habitual Vietnamese example of “no thought for tomorrow” thinking.) The mounting thirst for cash also led to X deceiving her family into selling land to fund high-return “investments” to be paid back in the future. The Facebook posts continued to shine and glow. More money was needed – the Porsche – the apartment repayments, the numerous expensive bar rents, and glamorous parties needed servicing. Soon her family was almost out of resources – but the rags to riches image needed to be maintained at all costs.
Desperation and honesty go hand in hand – one at the expense of the other. The Mafia needed their money – that was non-negotiable. No doubt they came up with some suggestions and were soon aligned with X, who in turn aligned her staff.
Other struggling owners – with similar financial problems due to the ever-increasing saturation and increasing rents – also wanted – needed – to save face. Out of ideas for an honest solution, many – well… – most – resorted to the tactics they saw and heard about that miss X was using with such “success”. Close up shop and lose face or join the race to the bottom. No one closed up shop…a few smart ones sold out to the ill-informed. Hence the Rot set in – and the corruption, deception, standover tactics, blatant credit card theft ( Miss X’s forte), and eventually druggings and drug sales went hand in hand with brutal muggings and eventually – a world of hurt for almost every bar in the area.
