'Turkish' Conmen on the A4/E40 Krakow-Wrocław stretch....

There I was, foot flat on the gas, enjoying the lovely sunny afternoon on the A4/E40 stretch. It must have been about 40/50 km before Wrocław, when suddenly a rather shubbily dressed bloke in a sleek C320 Mercedes (with tinted rear windows) flagged me quite desperately. I thought i had been nicked for speeding, so foot off the gas and pulled over on the hard shoulder. The missus immediately demanded for an answer as to why i had pulled over, I think it's the Police, i answered. Her next 5 words were sandwiched with 3 k****as (She's a very nervous woman!). Anyhow, here's the guy's story - he introduced himself as Mustafa, a Turkish-German businessman who is in the Exports and Imports car industry dealing mainly in German cars (amateurish business card in hand). Apparently he had run out of petrol, lost all his credit cards and being a Sunday, his offices in Berlin were closed, so he couldn't get any immediate help. I then signals to his car and all hell broke loose. A woman with a kid (the bait) jumped out of the car and started being too dramatic, shouting and arguing in Kurdish. My wife, was now getting sucked into the con, she started feeling sorry for the woman and the kid, obviously putting herself in their shoes....'Be cool woman, this is a con' i said to her. Then, Mr Mustafa turns back to us with 3 big FAKE gold coated rings and he said, Listen, i have these 3 carat gold rings, i can give them to you as bond, just give me any money you've got, there's my details, i'll give your money back in exchange for my rings! That was it, i had had enough, i detaste people who insult my intelligence plus the missus was becoming hyptonised by the whole episode. I told him to f off to the cash converters.

And guess what, 20km down the road, yes u guessed it - another flag. This time a black A8 audi (where do they get these cars from?!). I gave him the meanest of looks accompanied by a 'nice' hand gesture! So i asked myself, why us?! there's hundreds of cars on the road...and the missus wisely pointed out that we were marked because we had a foreign car with GB license plates. Is this some kind of organised criminal gang? Are the Woman and kid part of the scam or forced to do it? Has it happened to anyone before?, i'm keen to hear your story.

I advise anyone who experiences this to be extra helpful and call the police to the scene to offer assistance.

First of all, I am glad you are fine.

I don't have any idea. But you have to change the title I think. Not Turkish, Kurdish.

Maybe you do not know but Kurds are the criminals ( not a good defination but we can say the blacks) of Turkey and they willingly say they are Turkish when they are doing dirty business.

No question about it - never pull over for anyone, and if you see someone that's in distress, call the police and let them deal with it.

Lots of noise, "family" - it's quite obviously a scam.

And if you're in a remote place with few people around, that includes the police!

lol just like in Greece...everytime something bad like this happen, "It was the Albanians, the blacks of Greece". Let's be real...the criminals could have been Turkish, and if some Turkish nationalist deny the existence of Kurds well then wouldn't that make them one in the same? I think it's racist for Greeks and Turks to constantly blame their minorities for crimes when they do little to no investigations to come to such conclusions. :-)

You should have called the police and told them that they tried robbing you (over exaggerate).

If I saw a turk on the side of the road, I would have never stopped. But that's me, I like to play it safe.

George I see your point. But believe me this is like that. Of course there may be Turkish criminals too but if I give a ratio it can be % 80 Kurdish, % 20 Turkish. Most of the Turks in Turkey come to a point let them their state in south east of Turkey if they all leave the rest of Turkey.

Delph, you're absolutely spot on mate! It was naivety on my part as i thought i had committed a traffic offence! I could have exposed our lives to great danger, i now know better. Do Polish Police patrol motorways in unmarked cars?! It's quite common here in the UK.


Rock, it's a tough one to call..the bloke introduced himself as Turkish, but yeah, i understand what you're saying.

A trick as old as the hills.

The first time I encountered such a con act was in mid 1995. Next, a few more. Always the same scenario - apparently broken car on the side of the road, and a dark skinned man offering mock gold.

The guys aren`t Turkish, they are mostly gypsies, I suppose.

yes on the M1 in UK, I am embarrassed to say I got ripped for 30 quid, exactly the same scam. I had been driving alone with two kids for hours, is my only excuse. It was the hungry wife and kids thing that got me......

yes they do but definitely not on the scale of the British police and I am pretty sure black mercedeses on the shoulder of the motorway can pretty often escape their attention as they are after speed drivers (actually they are after cash - you must have heard of 'temporary financial difficulties' in the Polish police)

don't imagine they make that much out of scamming people like this over there...

Ive experienced that in Poland an old BMW full of what i assumed were Roma gypsies, flashing me like mad from behind, so i pulled over. This one guy started to talk about fuel and by that time id had enough so i just left. It was obviously a scam of some sort so i just drove off. I too was in a GB plated car.

Reminds me of those guys in the UK that used to drive around in brand new Merc's and Audi's selling fake gold and watches.

I feel sorry for them really.

it was at a service station though, wouldn't pull up on M1 hard shoulder unless my engine exploded or something.....

Not really, but if they do, they'll be clearly marked if they want to pull you over. In general though, unmarked cars are pretty rare in Poland - it's unlikely that they'd just be patrolling on the motorway for the hell of it.


It wouldn't have been great danger - apart from to your wallet ;)


They're doing a crap job of getting it - they keep sitting in the same old places in Poznan that anyone with half a brain avoids speeding in. Mind you, there's always cars pulled over...

(I'm very much of the impression that the police presence on the roads needs strengthened, significantly, even if it takes away my ability to do 100km/h on a 70km/h road late at night...)


For me, that's just an instant reason not to stop - too many scams involving cars inviting people to pull over. Another variant involves pointing at your wheels as if there's a problem - like anyone on the motorway would bother looking at other cars wheels.

Unfortunately, in 1990s several people, including German tourists, lost their expensive cars in that way.

i'd argue that there are loads of unmarked police cars.

there's enough - one of those buggers grabbed me last year, i got away lightly though 100PLN down from 300PLN for speeding. He said "do you speak English?" i said "yeah" he said "you too fast drive" i had to stop myself from bursting out laughing.

There are unmarked Police cars on the A4 and A1/E75, if they pull you over they will flash a Policja on the back of the car ( they do not drive BMW or Mercedes ) The only Mercedes( black ) you will see driving with flashing lights are the Government security transporting ministers or accompanying foreign diplomats, they would not pull you over as they are normally traveling in excess of 120 klm.

pawian observed:


Just what I was thinking.

Saw the same guy today again at entry to M40 towards London at High Wycombe East just after the round about at Tesco. He is eastern European looking, small, but rounded figure.

Actually I had stopped for him in February 2014, but did not give him any money. He turned out to be a business men, wearing a business suit, tie and working for import / export of cars between UK and Germany. He spoke German but probably from Turkish background and lives in Berlin. He gave me his business card which stated a Berlin and Manchester address as well as being a Manager for Import/Export etc. The car he was using a black Ford Focus was driven by 2 friends. He seemed genuine, but proposing him to pay for petrol he kind of swiveled away on the topic. He even gave me his 3 gold rings from the family etc. and promised to pay back £1000 if I help him out.

Both times reported to the police. The police mentioned he is "known"....well he should be nicked !!

Hi IT is happening in Englad too. I was one of 60 Scammed on the M25 on my way back to Germany. And these were Turks, supposedly speakin gto me in German. This needs to be published world wide.

I have learned my lesson. The next one will not get a penny.

Hallo MEN Newsdesk
It seems that this Turkish Gold scam is becoming much more prolific, with roughly 1000 Hits per Month. Sadly, the police are not interested in capturing or stopping the Scam.

On Friday, I was stopped by a young family in distress, that they had run out of petrol, and maxed out their credit cards, and could I please help. They could offer me gold rings and trinkets that the wife was carrying for money, to the value of 5000 pounds for 1000-pound funding to get them back to Berlin where the Father of the young man had died and they were trying to get to the funeral, as Muslim members need to be buried within 24 hours of the death. Seeing the very distressed child, and mother, I accepted the Gold and handed 1000€ over (I was travelling back to Europe). They were not really happy with Euro, but it would have to do.

They gave me their credentials to check and a business card, and it all seemed above board.

I was to ring their number and contact them as soon as I was back in Germany, and they would pick up the gold (about 15 oz Gold) and bring back the money with interest.

Since returning to my Home here in Munich, I have contacted them many times, and waited for them to pick up the gold. They never have. So I checked out the Address on the card. It belongs to a Car Polishing company Markus Iffland, who knows nothing about the Family.

Google Map Details.
google.de/maps/place/Hindenburgdamm+67,+12203+Berlin/@52.4526138,13.315485,3a,30y,268h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s3Gre3TnKP4Sr7y-pcJ5K0A!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D3Gre3TnKP4Sr7y-pcJ5K0A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.t actile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D268.20184%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x47a85a8900974fb7:0xbdf42c521944eab5!8m2!3d52.4526712!4d13.31532?hl=en

The incident happened directly where the M1 joins the M25 Eastbound and we parked under a camera Gantry. I informed the Metropolitan Police After I found an Article in the Daily Mail from 2015 about these scams. The Met informed me that this is not their patch and they have no time to investigate these incidents as there are over 60 per day, mainly involving foreign tourists to England. They suggested that I contact the Thames Valley Police for an Incident number, where they informed me that if it is M25 then this is the jurisdiction of the metropolitan Police.

No Help there then.

I have since found out that this summer the same scam is happening to British tourists here on the A9 (Busiest Motorway in Europe) on their way to their holiday resorts here in the Alps and Austria. The incident level here is also around 100 per day, here the police have been prosecuting the perpetrators (unlike in England).

I know I was stupid. And I know I will never get the money back, But I feel that someone should publicise the Scam in England (There is no notice of it there). Here in Germany, Motorway Signs and articles in various papers are making very large headlines, as Big Money is being Stolen from British Holidaymakers here in the Holiday region.

I have since found out that These Scams are now happening In Manchester, Chester, Leeds, Birmingham, and of course all over the M1
The perpetrators drive a Grey Opel, with number plates dirtied. The Family is a Father, with Married son and his wife and child.
Police have not been able to do anything, as they claim that they can only prosecute if they themselves witness the transaction (During the 3 Weeks I was in England I didn't once ce a policeman)

Perhaps it would be wise of your newspaper to publish these details, as the Police seem to be clueless, and inform as many travellers as possible on British Motorways.

I will, of course also be writing to other Newspapers to create people awareness.

Yours Faithfully
Hans M. Field
Touring Musician
Chateu Neuf Studios
Untere Hauptstrasse 9
85386 Eching
Bavaria, Germany

Very old scam with many variants. But basically, offer something of apparent worth as collateral in return for a loan.

Just remember, there are banks and pawn shops for legitimate people to use. Crooks come to you.