iquitos

- Filipinos male and female different ages accost you on the street by complimenting an item of clothing and asking where you are from. if you bite they lure you into a gambling scheme you eventually lose. i have been to sgn twice and met them every morning. the guys who pedal you around name one price then jack it up on arrival (they drop you in an isolated place where they become hostile and violent when the 15 (thousand) becomes 150 (thousand).

- BA has the smeared stuff on the back too. mustard from squeeze bottle, ice cream, etc.

- Istanbul has a dark side but you usually have to look for it.

rjw242

In Istanbul a couple years back I was walking alone down the street when a well-dressed man a few meters ahead of me muttered something in my general direction. I said I didn't understand, and he turned to look at me saying "Oh, sorry, didn't realize you weren't Turkish." Had a nice conversation for the next several minutes until we reached a square with taxis, at which point he said he was on his way to a bar "just a few minutes away by taxi" and invited me to join. I felt uncomfortable getting into a cab with a stranger and declined; we shook hands and he left. For the next couple hours I felt guilty about being all suspicious-alouicious about the situation, but after doing some reading learned that this was likely the prelude to a textbook Istanbul scam. Glad I didn't bite in retrospect, but it would've been really easy to fall for.

Pup

Just found this thread when it was mentioned in another one. Great stories.

This incident has puzzled me for a few years. Anyone know if it was the start of a standard scam or what?

I'm American, but look like a country boy, so might be seen as a target in a city. I was alone in downtown Atlanta, walking from my hotel to the bus station with a suitcase, far enough from the bus station that it was still a nice commercial neighborhood, middle of the afternoon.

I noticed a guy who was just hanging out alone, start to follow me as I passed him. I watched him in the reflections of the glass windows without making it obvious I was watching him. I'd slow down, he'd slow down. I'd speed up, he'd speed up. Finally I slowed way down so he had no choice but to pass me, then he stopped ahead of me and took out a cigar. As I passed, he asked me for a light. Apparently he'd picked me out as a mark and wanted to engage.

I was walking a normal pace by then, so I just said, "Sorry, don't have one," without breaking stride and kept on going, keeping an eye on the reflections to make sure he wasn't following again, but he stayed put, looking like he was hanging out again waiting for another mark.

What was that all about?

EuropeanPete

Interesting. I was in Cape Town mid 2010 and had a guy come up to me on Long St complimenting me on my shoes and asking whether they were South African. He eventually reached down and grabbed one of my shoes at which point myself and my friend yelled at him very loudly to go away.

Pretty sure there was a scam in there somewhere, but not sure what. Potentially an attempted wallet-swipe.

Braindrain

Maybe he'd grab you by the ball$ and not let go until you paid up?

weather

My guess is he admired you

PhlyingRPh

What does this mean, exactly? (the bold text)

Jaimito Cartero

Country boy. Yokel. Not used to the big city. Jethro Bodine, perhaps?

QueenOfCoach

My instincts say he was up to no good. Your instincts told you the same thing, and you avoided possible trouble by following your instincts.

fife

Our hotel in Prague had posted special taxi rates to the airport (fixed fee rather than meter). The hotel called a taxi for me and my pal, and we headed out to the airport.

About half way there the taxi driver asked us if we had the hotel flat fare, and proceeded to insist that the flat fare was years out of date.

We gave him an option: stop the car now (at the side of a busy road, we will not pay him a penny, and flag down to nearest policeman) or continue the journey for the flat rate posted at the hotel.

Eventually, when he realised we were quite prepared to stand at the roadside with our bags, he continued the journey.

Braindrain

Prague is also one of the worst (European) cities for getting ripped off. I felt like everyone there, down to the cashiers at the supermarket, were out to rip tourists off.

PTravel

That wasn't my experience. Aside from a couple of money-changer scammers who were always at the same place, we spent a wonderful week there. No problems with taxis, restaurants (we usually ate in locals places) or merchants, and absolutely no problem with the people, who were friendly and helpful. I'm not saying that scams don't exist -- I'm sure they do, as in any tourist destination. However, we certainly didn't have any problems.

Witold

This is my personal rule of thumb for travel:

Do not trust random people who start talking to you, and want to take you somewhere/show you something. EVER. You would never let strangers lead you around at your home town, but somehow people think that just because they are abroad they are somehow special, and random people actually want to talk to them and waste their time doing stuff with you. If you are not a hot young woman, forget it, they are not there to make friends with you.

This advice goes double, triple and quadruple if they are African in non African country.

If you want to 'engage' with locals, get out of the tourist trap areas you're in, and YOU approach people YOU select as good candidates.

Pup

Exactly. I have that look, like I don't fit in, in a city. As you can tell from the story, I'm not really that way, but I might look like a tourist and therefore "fleece-able" to someone used to pulling scams in a city, even though I'm not a foreigner.

@weather LOL! My gaydar is very poorly tuned, but I didn't get that impression from him, and I don't think I was sending out gay vibes to him, but my wife wasn't with me, so you never know.

evj

This is a very interesting thread and thanks to everyone who had shared their tips and experiences. It reminds me that I always have to be alert to such things when traveling.

As someone who grew up in Eastern Europe and now live in US I have noticed a different level of comfort when approached by strangers. I realize there are scammers in every country and I am making a broad generalization here, so please don't shoot me. When I lived in Europe it was generally not accepted to be approached by a random stranger. It was considered fishy and we were always very suspicious of it. When I first moved to the US, I was very stand-offish and pretty much ran away screaming every time someone said hello to me, which in retrospect was probably a bit over the top