A word of caution for female tourists visiting Egypt: be careful of the many of the men working in tourist areas in Egypt.
Although the vast majority of Egyptians have a high sense of honor and good conduct, it seems that tourist areas seem to attract a relatively high concentration of people with lax morals, who would exploit tourists in many ways. It can manifest itself as persistent aggressive begging, peddling cheap goods, charging 10X the normal prices for services and goods, and what this article focuses on: exploiting female tourists.
Looking at the bulk of the comments on my notes on compulsory army service in egypt they are mostly from non-Egyptian women who married (or intend to marry) an Egyptian man, and army service has become an obstacle.
So, once you here the word "habibti" (meaning "my love" in Arabic), and before you call him "Habibi", let alone go down the marriage route, read on below for more information.
The exploitation happens in many forms, but is normally centered around one of the following:
Easy and Free Sex
Many tourists come from countries where sex is more freely practiced outside of marriage. Youn g Egyptian men working in tourist areas who
are not married see this as an opportunity, and are met with acceptance from the female tourists.
A source for Money
Many Egyptian men who practice this scam view the "wealthy" tourist as a source of income. They keep asking their "girl friend", "fiance" or "wife" for money for various excuses, just like a professional scammer would play a confidence game on a victim.
An Opporunity for Immigration
Some of those men want to get out of Egypt, and see their marriage as a way to gain residence and citizenship in a Western country. The economy in Egypt has been stagnant for decades, and poverty, lack of opportunity and the high cost of marriage lures some youth to trying these tricks.
Why it works?
There are several factors that work in favor of the Egyptian scammers here.
One factor that helps is that most Egyptian men look desirable to Western women, being of darker complexion than their compatriots. The fact that the foreigners are white blonds work in making the women attractive and desirable for Egyptian men.
Another factor is that the woman is coming to the tourist place to have a good time. It may be a break from stressful work or study, or perhaps a past relationship. This helps blind her to what is happening.
Yet another factor is the cultural differences which also create temporary blindness.
Moreover, those workers being away from their village or city of origin, where they would be observed by their extended family and friends tend to make it easier for them to engage in sexual relationships and scams without being scrutinized by acquaintenaces, and no stigma is attached to these behaviors.
Finally, the scammers have perfected their techniques over the years, and are very skillful at what they do.
Blacklists
Blacklists have emerged on the internet, to warn potential female tourists from known exploiters. These have all the faults of user contributed content on the internet in that they can be innacurate, biased, or even rigged by rivals or pranksters. However, in the absence of any other information, they can be useful, provided they are taken with a good deal of skepticism and research and common sense applied.
- An overview article on what a "black list" is, at Arabia.pl.
- Dezy House: Blacklist for Hurghada, in English.
- Dezy House: Blacklist for Sharm El Sheikh, in English.
- Wanted List of Egypt.
- Egyptian Blacklist on Topix.
- KunstKamera blacklist.
Happens everywhere, not only Egypt
Before someone gets the impression that Egypt is a cesspool, and Egyptians are crooks, let me say it is neither.
The problem above is not limited to Egypt by any means. Any country where tourists come in to spend money has its share of exploiters. The above black lists have a Turkish one, and a Tunisian one, and there are lots of stories about French, Italian and Spanish men exploiting women tourists as well.
Of course, there is also the Russian bride fraud targeting well to do men in the West.
So, the problem is universal, although this article focuses on female tourists to Egypt.
Final Thoughts
There are many non-Egyptian women married to Egyptian men happily, so over-generalizing from the cases mentioned, or from workers at tourist resort is wrong. Chances are you will be happy with an Egyptian as a husband if you met him in a more natural settings, e.g. while studying or working, and getting to meet his family as well.
The "artificial" environment in resorts, being on holiday, and surrounded by some scammers lend itself to the disasters described.
So, beware ...
Further Reading
- Marwa Rakha: Relationship Warning: Do not get involved with Egyptian Men (also here).
- Global Voices: "Beware of Egyptian Men" says Canadian Embassy, also by Marwa Rakha.
- Trailing Grouse: Egyptian men marrying women for money.
- Yahoo Answers: Egyptian Men marrying foreign women to get out from Egypt.
- Sex, Sun, Stupidity and Gigolos.
- Amy Robson: n English girl who keeps falling in false love with Egyptian men (she finally returned to Britain).
- Someone searching on KunstKamera: for Honest Egyptian Boys?
- List if sites on Romance Fraud in German, and other languages.
- A movie documentary in the making on holiday romance, specially Hurghada.
- Female Sex Tourism on Wikipedia, has lots of links to extensive articles. While Turkey is listed as a major destination, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco are listed as "minor destinations".
- An article from a Canadian perspective: Sex tourism in full boom. Jamaica, Barbados, Dominican Republic and the Caribbean are the major destination for Canadian women.
Comments
Tara (not verified)
The lies will keep coming
Sat, 2015/12/26 - 08:24I feel for you as I read your words. It is a long time since I was in this page. At one time I was here to read every post, while I was disentangling from my Egyptian 'husband' In hindsight, it was all a grand scam. In the end, he did not get a huge amount of money from me, however, there were many problems he wanted me to fix: car problems, apartment problems, an operation to his ears (that post-op he told me could have saved his life) including pics sent by one of his brothers, send money because his father was dying - even his brothers wives were selling their gold I was told, send money because his mother was dying and a family feud that put all squarely on his shoulders although he was the youngest of four brothers, and had hundreds of cousins. More recently he has been married, he says, had a baby, he says and provided photographs, and looking for wedding gifts and baby gifts (gold coins are the currency in post Arab Spring Egypt). Fortunately I had Egyptian friends who advised me. I wish him no harm, hard times can make people ruthless.
Trust your instincts, if he senses you waiver, he will play your hard.
Good luck in cutting free.
Samuel (not verified)
Terrorist activity from Mohamed Hamdy
Sat, 2016/02/13 - 08:42Mohamed Hamdy, It's name of person who threatens, hurts and make offensive criminal activities to innocent people from different countries in whole world. He was a doctor for tourist in Egypt resort: Hurghada. Except this, he have good contacts in Egypt goverment where he worked as well. He thinks he have power to manipulate and threats people even psychically to rent contracts kill to other persons ( for example with applying acid as call" WaterFire" on the face of victims. We have evidence of his criminal activities ( can be called as "terrorists"). His activities lead us in dangerous situation where we can't move freely in resort Hurghada and whole Egypt as well. It's not problem of 1 or 3 persons but dozens of people. We must stop his activity in resort Hurghada and others resorts as well.
Please contact me in order to get photo of this person
Ahmad (not verified)
it is not the truth
Sun, 2016/02/28 - 23:14you can find cheaters deceivers scammers players unfaithful unworthy men everywhere in the world ..every country has the best and the worst no country is perfect you cant just generalize all faults on Egyptians! if you had a bad experience with some random egyptian guy this does not mean they re ll that bad..
Khalid
Where is the generalization?
Mon, 2016/02/29 - 09:26Where did I generalize?
I said that the the likelyhood that workers in tourist areas being scammers is higher than elsewhere, and women should be careful around such workers who make romantic advances.
This is not about most Egypt men or men elsewhere in Egypt ...
Faraula (not verified)
Khalid, what u think about?
Sat, 2016/03/05 - 16:49Egyptians are back in the cairn, working previously at the hotel) Like my husband, I with a buyout srobirayus divorce, but he does not hurry, he says Venuto I need to complete the divorce. Either he does not want to spend money, or he hopes that I will return to it. But I know that it can dissolve the marriage quickly, without financial loss. I'm from Russia, he probably does not want to send me the divorce papers, but he started divorce. The initiator was me.
He did not care about me financially and promised that we will live separately. I believed, and flew to him at his own expense immediately passed as the last exams and a diploma, but a separate apartment, he did not take off. He said that his mother washed the money, which he put in the clothes) lol. I waited for a while and decided to fly home, I thought that only time will tell. He cried in a taxi, asked me to cancel the ticket, buyout I bought at his own expense, he has promised to change everything, and very quickly. It was the end of July. for now I have not changed anything. He did not remove a single apartment, he said that, if I come, then we will choose together. At his own expense, I was not going to fly (now at his own expense, too, do not want to - it's disrespectful to me). When he realized that I really want to get a divorce - he sent $ 100, 2 weeks ago. This is for 7 months! Take "good care" of his wife.
He did not care what I eat what I wear - I'm far away. But when I lived with him, he did not spend money on my clothes. He loved to buy a lot myself, because he wanted to look good at work) lol He said that "I'm buying food") Oh, thank you, my king) With his hands I got 100 pounds at the airport when I was flying home, for all time .
Egyptian w man (not verified)
Women scammers
Mon, 2016/04/18 - 06:49Not only foreign women are scammed in Egypt. I am Egyptian man, stupid enough to marry older Hungarian woman from online.She was all lies. Some days married, accuse me of nonsense, soon leave Egypt. One year later, brief return, more screaming, accusing. She asks for divorce. I give gladly.I think she has boyfriend at home, maybe married. She marries me to make him jealous.Then he is free, or she has another, so she needs divorce. This is not the only one. Hungarian women are liars scammers and crazy. Avoid them! I wish I never write to this crazy kurva. She almost destroy my life and reputation.Now I am happy with normal loving wife and I forget all.
Scammed (not verified)
Ahmed M Raslan Las Vegas
Sun, 2016/12/18 - 22:22Ahmed M Raslan Las Vegas has prior employment in Egypt at bp.oil about 5 years ago he arrived in the United States to marry first wife. Raslan Las Vegas has been married for four different wives within five years from entering the United States. He owes thousands of dollars to me and stopped making payments in 2016. His behavior is indicator of marriage fraud scams and appears to be in violation of the US immigration laws. Major red flag!
UmmHurayra (not verified)
Please assist
Tue, 2017/10/31 - 10:27Can anyone please tell me how do I contact the Canadian Embassy, as well as U.S embassy and British embassy. I would like to give them a warning of an Egyptian man who has scammed me and he is now busy with a Canadian female. It is my duty to try and prevent that other females are scammed out of their money and that they too don't end up with broken hearts. I have his name, photos and messages. I know he also was in contact with a British woman, and he dumped an American woman after she went to him in Egypt and he had an Orfi done. I didn't know what it was and he didn't want to explain , then I found out it is an illegal marriage contract, so he wanted to use the woman and then he chased her away. The American and British females are middle aged white women. I am not sure about the current Canadian female, but I am a Malaysian descent Muslim female from South Africa. Yes he wanted visa here and he scammed me and lied for a long time , and he didn't feel remorse for lying to me. He pushed blame onto me. Please assist and tell me how can I report this man and send out a warning so I can help save the vulnerable women out there, because I know he won't stop.
Khalid
Unfortunate ...
Tue, 2017/10/31 - 11:49Unfortunately, Orfi is still legal for historical reasons, when people in rural areas did not register their marriage with the government, but everyone in their village knew who married whom. Now it is being abused by people going into short term relations to give the tryst a legal veneer. The government should ban Orfi because a) it is secret, one's parents and family do not know of it, and b) it is being misused. But this is way down on the priority for current governments in Egypt.
Embassies will not do anything. Women go into this willingly, and with full consent.
That is why I started this page, because until a woman is defrauded, no crime has been committed. You can go to previous comments and see women who are in total denial about what is going on, they would say "my Ahmed is different", ...etc. Read about the Australian woman whose daughter detected the fraud early on and posted here, while the woman was totally oblivious and blinded by false romance.
Sad, but people should smarten up and use their brains.
Khalid
Another apparent case ...
Sat, 2017/11/11 - 18:35Here is another case of Western women getting romantically involved with men in tourist resorts, and ending up in prison.
Laura Plummer was romantically involved with an Egyptian man working in tourists resorts in Hurghada. He asked her to pick up Tramadol from the UK and bring it to Egypt, only to be arrested for drug smuggling, and waiting for trial while in prison.
The man told her that he needs the drug for his back, which may be true. It is likely that he would have sold it and made a pretty profit on it.
She can be in prison for two years pending a trial. Not a nice experience at all.
Pages