Originally Posted by
PTravel
Rome and Amsterdam aren't in third-world countries.
That's debatable.
I've had groups of suspect kids head my way on my trip to Rome last year. I immediately headed in a different direction. By being forewarned of problems, I think it can only help. This isn't to say that all of Rome is dangerous, but you do need to be cognizant of the problems.
I'm not sure what you mean by, "you have to be careful." You need to be careful wherever you travel because, as a tourist, you're an easy mark. However, common sense precautions are, almost always, all that is necessary, as evidenced by the number of people posting to this thread who, like myself, travel extensively to international destinations and have not been the victim of tourist crime.
Originally Posted by PTravel
Rip you off how? I've had plenty of people try to rip me off. None of them succeeded, because a little education about the tourist scams (which exist the world over) was all that was needed to avoid them.
By running behind me, and trying to pick my pocket. Luckily, I had just started to turn around, since there was another guy headed towards me from the opposite direction. In Bucharest, I caught a gypsy boy with his hand in my pocket.