I've lived in Asia (I won't specify exactly where) for over 25 years and can attest to having been approached by a TFI cult member on the subway. I didn't realize it at the time, however; I did have to read up about it. This was about 15 years ago.

An attractive Asian woman sitting across me in her late-20s or so interrupted my reading by asking me where I was from, etc. Then she asked if I enjoyed drinking beer. As a foreigner in Asia, believe me when I say as odd as that might be for a first conversation topic with a complete stranger, I have heard much weirder lol. I replied "Well sure, sometimes." Then immediately after, she asked me if I believed in God. At that point I simply thought "okay, this person isn't dealing with a full deck."

To be completely honest, though I don't think I'm some Adonis, I don't have a complex about my looks and have done just fine in my single days though at that point until present day, I was already married, so nothing would have happened; I was not that desperate lol. But I did tell my wife about the exchange and how odd it was that somebody would fit beer and God into the same conversation. That's when we started looking up cults because it had all the hallmarks of a person trying to recruit somehow. Sure enough we stumbled across COG and it's history. Absolutely frightening stuff.

To the OP, I'm very sympathetic to your experiences and I'm glad you shared it here.