Whilst I admire Charles Pollard standing up for the handlers, anyone going through Indonesian airports on a regular basis can see the scams being played out in front of your eyes, but they happen all over Asia, and as regular flyers we should involve ourselves, but we don't. I suppose I should say, I don't.
It is just not Denpasar, in Bangkok the well dressed gentleman on the street approaches an awkward tourist with a unfolded map, you know what happens next, in Shenzhen a uniform man at immigration takes your bag and says taxi to the hotel, once more you realise once you pass the taxi stands that all is not right. It happens in KL, Singapore, the Cambodian docks and all along Vietnam's coastline, but the beggars in Europe have been throwing baby dolls to tourist for years as they fleece their prey.
As each new generation learns about the travel scams, another generation comes up, the scammers don't even have to change.
Even after years of travel, you still get caught, I smile to myself when it happens and comment, that was smart, I always like to work out how a good con works and quickly move on. It is part of travel and you cannot afford to waste too much time on them as in most cases it is only small change to you anyway
