Attempt experienced today.

Prelude - I tore a calf muscle yesterday running after my camera in a cab. Didn't catch the cab but my hotel was able to connect with the cab driver by contacting the hotel I had gotten the cab at originally. Unfortunately for me, my attempt at recovery caused me some injury. Great example of really good cab drivers in Istanbul.

Event - so today, after a visit to the American Hospital, I used some walkers to get around a bit after lunch. When I got tired, I got in a cab near the Grand Bazaar and the driver warned me that the fare would be a lot as traffic was bad and I suspected I was going to get ripped off a bit but, frankly, it didn't really matter to me and I was tired so my wife and I took the cab.

When we got to the hotel (Conrad), the driver went into a song and dance about how he couldn't go up to the hotel as it was forbidden at that hour... but he could drop us at the street and we could walk through the park. I'd done the walk before tearing my calf so I said OK but I was already suspicious as I had spotted the meter and it was 107 TL ($43). I knew that was probably 3X what it should have been but, frankly, it didn't matter as I had pretty much expected it. So, I handed him a 100 and a 10 and got ready to leave. Then the guy got greedy and went into the "you didn't give me the correct amount rap" and handed me back a 20 and a 10. I looked at it and checked my cash - I knew I only had 1 100 with me and when I couldn't find it I knew he was trying to hustle me. I handed him back the 20 & 10, told him I had given him the correct amount and that if he had a problem with that, he could come to the hotel, got out of the cab and limped off with my walker.

So, definitely need to get cabs from safe spots.

Added: Link to some info on Istanbul taxis
http://www.wittistanbul.com/magazine...ul-taxi-scams/

Relative to my initial post on security, things are fine but there are clearly precautions (trunk searches, checks under cars with mirrors, metal detectors at hotels...). Better they do them and expect them - its a higher level of precaution than we've seen recently in other European cities.