Photos of two young Russian women selling prints of their Instagram photos have been circulating on Hong Kong social media this week. The pictures include a sign written by the tourists, asking people to support their trip around the world by purchasing “any photo [for] any price”.
After this post was shared on Facebook, multiple Hongkongers expressed their suspicion, as the women had been spotted in Hong Kong a few months ago. One commenter said he had felt cheated after buying a few postcards from them earlier this year, as he had been told they were travelling around Asia, yet spotted them in Hong Kong not too long afterwards. Others commented that they had seen a man selling the postcards, sometimes with one of the women or alone, leading them to believe that they were all participating in a group con.
While we at Coconuts HQ cannot attest to the sincerity of this postcard business, we don’t think taking turns to man the stand (if it can even be called that) while one person takes a break is exactly evidence of fraud.
After taking a look at both Instagram accounts listed on the prints (@idle_girl and @milanushkina), it does appear that they have been travelling with a male companion, and that they all recently returned to Hong Kong after stints in Malaysia and Korea. So…not schlepping around Hong Kong to bleed people dry of their money, then. Additionally, considering that they are letting people determine the price of each postcard, it hardly seems like they’re in it for the big bucks – printing itself costs money too – lots, as anybody with artist friends will have heard countless times.
Obviously, this doesn’t guarantee that their story is true, but judging from what we’ve seen so far, we’re inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.
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