Maradona (scam)

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A Maradona is a type of confidence trick or scam relatively common in contemporary and more so in the 1990s in Romania, especially in Bucharest. The targeted victim is usually an unsuspecting tourist.

1 Description
2 The name
3 No longer common
4 References

[edit] Description

The scam works as follows. First, one con man approaches the intended victim and engages him or her in conversation. Sometimes the approach will begin with an innocuous question in Romanian, such as asking what time it is, or asking directions to a nearby place. If the intended victim understands enough Romanian to understand the question, matters typically (but not necesarilly) end there, and the con man goes on to try to reel in a different mark. If not, the con man attempts to engage the now "qualified" mark in conversation, most often in English. About a minute later, two confederates approach, either on foot or in a suddenly stopping vehicle, claiming to be plainclothes police, often flashing realistic police badges. They accuse the mark and their colleague of engaging in an illegal transaction, usually an illegal currency exchange, and demand to see wallets and passports. If the mark is foolish enough to hand these over, he or she will probably never get them back; at best he or she may be handed back an empty wallet.

Practitioners of the maradona may make vague threats, but they will not use violence: the Romanian police strictly enforce laws against violent crime, but are relatively lax about non-violent crimes like con games. Professional Romanian con men would never be foolish enough to cross over that line, particularly because prime tourist-hunting turf is relatively small, and they cannot afford to have to avoid a particular neighborhood.

Usually the mark can shut down the entire scam simply by failing to cooperate at any point; if it has advanced as far as the two fake "policemen" becoming involved, it generally suffices to yell, or just to say something like, "I'm not comfortable taking out my wallet and papers here on the street, let's walk over to that hotel over there and do this in the presence of the concierge" or "The police station is only a few blocks away, why don't we all walk over there and take care of the matter there?". However, if threatened to call the real police or with physical resistance once the documents or money are already in their hands, they would try to leave with the victim's money, and things could get very ugly. Quite commonly they are armed, and once they are the ones in possession of the wallet or passport, they have the upper hand.

[edit] The name

This scam was usually practiced on unsuspecting tourists or simple citizens in the 1990s; it continued to be common at least as late as 2001. The name comes from the scam's finesse and complexity, implicitly compared to the greatness of Diego Armando Maradona on the football pitch. The complex street con was seen as an art form by its practitioners, and often viewed as an elaborate (and profitable) practical joke.

[edit] No longer common

Such practices are becoming less and less frequent in Romania, as the Romanian society recovers from the long transition from communism to capitalism. This practice, in particular, has all but disappeared. At the time of its height, cons like this spread all over Europe. In war-torn parts of countries like Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, the fake policemen (who in some cases were actually real police or army officers) would stop tourists and then rob them at gunpoint. In Romania, the police no longer tolerate this kind of action; it is unclear whether they were previously accepting bribes, or simply being lax.