Travel scam: My child needs milk

by Diane Kulpinski
(Bend, OR USA)

In Havana, Cuba a young mother and her 4-5-year-old daughter approached me. The mother did not ask me for money, but if I would go down the street to buy a quart of milk for her daughter. If there was a problem, she asked me to say that we were friends. Then the daughter gave me a kiss on the cheek - very sweet. Before I did so, I asked to take a photo of them.

After I returned with the milk, they thanked me & the young girl gave me another kiss.

I went back to shooting some photos and just moments later, the tourist police were putting both the mother and daughter into a police car. (Apparently there are police that monitor Cubans for any activity that might be harmful to the tourist trade.)

I went to the police car to tell them that it was ok - they were friends of mine. But the police would have nothing of it & took them away.

I relayed my story to the locals I was staying with and they explained that the government provides everyone with milk. They figured she was probably going to try to sell it to make some extra money. Someone always needs more than what's provided by the government.

I have no idea what happened to the mother & child.

While I personally didn't feel ripped off, it certainly was a scam, and I felt sorry for the Cubans. It was 2006 and Fidel was still running the country. Not sure much has changed since then though.

Ed. note: Unfortunately as long as we face poverty we'll come across people trying to make more money than they have in ways that are less than honest. I recognize the Cuba you're referring to and while I was there a few years before you were, poverty-related tricks were also around then.

These days the economy is being freed and much is changing, although I'd bet this is the kind of scam you might still find - fueled by a combination of want and need.

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Travel scam: My child needs milk

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scam?
by: Anonymous

Not really sure why you are classifying this as a scam. This sort of thing happens all the time-kids in india often sell the 'treats' the tourists give them. Its rather enterprising-perhaps money is more useful than a ball point pen. Begging is begging-whether ppl beg for $$ or 'stuff' doesn't really matter does it? I wonder why though, as tourists we will be ok with buying a kid a sandwich for example--yet not be ok with giving the kid a few rupees to take home to his mom. (Or why its ok to buy milk for someone yet its not ok to give them a few pesos) The whole concept of ' hand outs' and begging and helping is a very difficult one--but poverty is poverty and we have no right to judge how the poor people survive. A scam to me is something different--you are being ripped off and your money is stolen or you are the victim of a con..in this case, whether the woman would have sold the milk or not is irrelevant. Perhaps her govt allotted milk had not arrived? Perhaps it wasn't enough? If the govt gave everyone milk-how would she sell the milk you gave her? Interesting questions all....

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