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Edinburgh Live readers have been getting in touch to warn about a group of individuals who appear to be dressed as Buddhist monks, but who have allegedly been demanding large sums of money from people outside Waverley Station and the Balmoral Hotel on Princes Street - sometimes aggressively.

The group will usually approach passers-by and either hand them a card, or put a bracelet on their wrist. The bracelets have a swastika design. In Buddhism, the swastika is considered to symbolize the auspicious footprints of the Buddha.



One commuter - George Jenkins - emailed us photographs of the items he was pressured to buy.

Mr Jenkins said: "Outside Waverley train station, I was approached by an older man wearing a grey robe, who handed me a plastic token. He shook my hand and slipped a bracelet onto my wrist.

(Image: George Jenkins)

"Slightly surprised, I looked at the token that read 'Work Smoothly, Lifetime Peace'. He then brought out a small notebook and said 'you sign'.

"There was a column for 'Blessing', followed by 'Donation'. Feeling compelled to enter something as I had already written in the notebook (and a little off-balance), I donated £10; the previous 2 entries had been £40 and £20."

Today (18 October), a local Facebook page called I Love Edinburgh shared a photograph of one of the men outside the Balmoral Hotel, saying:



"The scammers are out in force in Edinburgh today, I’ve spotted a few. This chap is a fake monk, trying to con innocent people into parting with their cash.

"I have watched him literally holding onto to people’s arms as they try to walk away, one man has just started shouting at him for holding onto his girlfriends jacket as she tried to walk away.



"I’m just about to let the police know what he is doing as it is illegal to behave this way."

Over four hundred people commented, with many sharing their experiences of the 'monks'.

One woman said: "He did this to my 9 year old son. Forced a bracelet onto his wrist then demanded i pay him. Showed me that people had 'paid him £20' for the bracelets. Unfortunately my son wanted to keep it. I gave him £4 but felt total pressure."

(Image: George Jenkins)

Another commenter - also a woman - said: "I've been caught out by this, thought I'll give the guy a fiver and he handed me a book with all the donations saying 20+ quid before I could answer he slipped this beaded bracelet on my wrist, gave him 20 quid then after it I was like 'I've just been bumped (by) a monk.'"

One person said that a 'monk' took £10 from her boyfriend's wallet: "This guy came up to my boyfriend and I last week when we were in Edinburgh. He give his money before we knew about these fake monks, but that guy the took £10 out my boyfriends wallet and walked off. It is shocking what this world is coming to."

A fourth person claimed that she had first hand experience of observing the group when she was homeless.

"I was homeless and on the streets for a while, and was always around Rose Street. I used to watch these guys every day preying on vulnerable. 9 times out of 10 it was women, and the amount of women that would hand over notes just to get rid of them was really sad. They know exactly how to play people and have been at it for years (well since 2015 at least)."

Edinburgh Live have reached out to Police Scotland for comment.

If you have been affected by this incident let us know, you can tweet us: @edinburghlive_), email us: news@edinburghlive.co.uk, leave a comment below, or drop us a message on Facebook.

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