Or someone is working on picking your pocket while you're distracted by the people pawing and your hands.

Why don't you just walk off with the bird? macaws are pretty expensive. I don't think that the birdhandler will just let you take their macaw.

I love birds, but I'd pay $5 to get one that big off my shoulder. A macaw could do some real damage.

I heard they taste like chicken, problem solved, and a free meal to boot!

:D:D

The macaw on the shoulder reminds me of a scam that was attempted on me about 15 years ago in Kenya.

I had a guy approach me and ask if he could buy me tea. I'm all for meeting the locals when I travel so I agreed to do so even though I expected it was some unorthodox method of begging. He bought me tea and we had a chat. A few minutes in he starts the expected pitch and tells me he's a Christian from southern Sudan, where the Islamic government is oppressing them etc...and is there any way I can help him out with some cash for the cause.

Within seconds of respectfully declining his request, a second individual approached and flashes a police ID. He tells me that my companion is in the country illegally and has been followed because he is suspected of raising money for terrorist activities in the Sudan. He then tries to get me to admit that this is what the guy was asking me for. I feign ignorance and indicate that although he was asking for money that I didn't know what it was for. At that point the policeman tells my companion that he's under arrest (no cuffs, though), and says he'll need to get a statement from me. Oh, and "give me your passport so I can copy down the necessary information about who he's been contacting."

Until that point I was on board, but the scam alert went off in my head when he asked for my passport. I asked to see the policeman's identification card again, and at that point he made a hasty excuse and walked rapidly out of the cafe along with my tea-drinking companion, holding his hands behind as back as though he were actually under arrest

Later on I asked at my hotel about this and was told that the idea was to take my passport and essentially hold it for ransom (i.e., put me in a situation that I was willing to pay to get out of).

Pick the locals you want to meet, never let them pick you.

I got scammed at a Paris grocery store just a few weeks ago.

It was late at night and my friend wanted to buy some drinks (not necessarily alchohol) to drink in our hotel room. Spain had just defeated Germany in the World Cup and there were tons of Spanish tourists buying food and drinks to toast the occasion so the place was packed.

I was about three people back in line and I saw this woman buy 2 bags of candy but I thought I heard the register ring 3 times and it looked like the clerk scanned the 2 packages 3 times (the extra time the packages were together). I thought to myself "I better keep my eyes open". But the place was so busy and the clerk rang me up so fast that I didn't have a chance to think about it.

The price for 2 Powerades and some chocolate...44 euros

You know, they DO understand the word "no" (non) in France. ;)

^

I know, like I said I should have kept my eyes opened. I didn't realize I was had until after I got back to the hotel room and counted my money. I had just went to the ATM and had only 50's when I went to the grocery store, and when I counted my money I saw I had 6 euros changed and remembered the 44 euros on the register screen.

I'm sure I have fallen for this type of things many times before. It's probably really easy to do this at a restaurant. If the customer ordered the pasta for 15 euros, why not mark it up to 19 euros on the bill? The check is usually in the local language, the menu showing the prices is probably not at the table, and besides most people just want to get out of the restaurant and see the sights.

From your experiences you posted about in the Europe forum in Greece and in France - clearly you are one of the most unfortunate travellers. Not checking your change in a foreign country is an unfortunate habit to get into but remembering 44 euros afterwards but not at the time is strange particularly when you suspected the person in front of you had been scammed. Very strange.

I was leaving from CAI on an early morning flight and walked through the doors of Terminal 1. There I was met by 2 men wearing grey jumpsuits with official looking names on them. I thought they were CAI airport workers that help pax with their bags. I gave them my bags and walked to check in. When I tried to stop to get something to eat before checking in I realized they had nothing to do with the airport and were just trying to get some money.

Don't be a fool, send 'em back to school!
 

Unless you bought a 5kg Toblerone bar, I'd say you got took.

Don't be such a sucker. I often travel in countries that I don't understand more than a few words of the local language. (I'm in China now, and talk about my pitiful Mandarin.)

I make sure I know what the prices are in supermarkets. If it rings up too high, I just have them take it off. I'm sure that sometimes things are marked wrong on the shelf. If it's a person entering it in, and there are Shenanigans happening, I'll just refuse to buy anything.

In restaurants, I often have bills not add up. I'll ask to see the menu again, and compare it to whats on the menu. If it's not right, I'll bring it to their attention. I recall one time over 20 years ago on my first trip to Costa Rica. At a touristy place on the Atlantic side, not one item on the bill matched the menu. None were was low priced as the menu. It took three times for them to fix it right.

It does seem strange that 90% of the time, restaurant bills turn out to be higher than they should. instead of a 50/50 high/low ratio, eh?

Scammed In Qingdao
 

Wow.....Great reading here. I always considered myself a saavy traveller, until this happened to me a few years ago.

Land in Qingdao, PRC and had already arranged for a car from the Shangri-La to pick me up at the airport. I arrive and see the gentlemen with a sports coat holding up the Shangi-La sign with my name. So much easier to have a hotel car pick me up than to have to worry about taxi scams.

He walks with me outside and we find the car waiting. That was the first clue since the car wasn't too nice and his 'driver' friend was shabby as well.

5 minutes into the ride, the guys ask to be paid first, since they are on commission or something. I kept saying, put it on the hotel bill since I don't have money. Well, we can take you to the ATM, blah, blah, blah they get pretty pushy and insistent, and ultimately we pull over to talk. Convince the guys that when we get to the hotel, I'll use the ATM there (told them my card was from the US and needed a major hotel ATM) to give them a big tip and they agreed. In the meantime, I'm extracting my important things from the bags in case I have to bail.

Finally get to the hotel and they follow me in. They were actually nice enough to carry my stuff in and I grab it and walk to the front desk. I ask the front desk to call the PSB (Police) and we are all yelling...Front Desk, Me, those Guys. Hotel figures it a good time to get ride of me and sends me off to my room to get out of there.

I put my stuff down, and then wander back downstairs. No police come...The hotel sent them on their way, and believe it or not, paid them for me!

The reason...and maybe this is why the Shangri-La is a top hotel brand...If they didn't pay them, what would happen to the next customer? They had to make sure that there was some incentive to ultimately deliver the customer somewhere safe.

At the end of the day, the hotel manager asked, and I can't make this up, would I like some free company for the evening (hotel had scores of paid company in the lobby). I politely declined, and then 15 minutes later, somebody is at my door. It's the hotel staff singing Happy Birthday. All of this time, I had forgotten that it was my birthday!

And oh, from what we figured out, the airport greeter guy left the signs with the arriving guests names on it (and flight # / time) on the airport counter so those enterprising young men grabbed them and went to work.

George

I would like to think I'm a fairy savvy traveller. I have travelled the world on business and pleasure and usually pride myself on not being caught out by scams. However, I got caught when landing in Mumbai, my first time in India, jet lagged and overcome by the heat.

A guy approached me, waving some kind of ID and asked if I was making a connection. "Yes", I said, "to Bangalore in 6 hours". He said that he worked for the airport and would take me to their transit facilities so that I could rest and have a shower. Thinking he was being helpful I followed him. He guided me to a minibus and set off into the darkness driving down back streets and heading away from the airport. We get to this backstreet "hotel" where i am shown to a very basic room with no shower or any real facilities at all. I hadn't spelt wink when they knocked on the door 4 hours later to take me back to the airport

I am then told it would be US$100 for the use of the room and transport to and from the airport! I didn't want to give them my credit card number and told them I didn't have that much cash on so but we eventually settled on about $50 in a mix of dollars and Sterling. The room was probably worth $5.

The driver then says he will take me back to the airport (time is ticking now) but starts driving in the wrong direction "Ah, I need to see my brother first. You will meet him" but if I want to go direct to the airport it will be an extra $50. Now I'm worried that not only will I miss my connection but I will be dumped in some backstreet in Mumbai in the middle of the night.

I say I will give him $20 which he agrees to and then takes me to the airport. I get out of the car and walk to the terminal - and then the most amazing thing happens. The driver runs after me saying that I had left my passport on the back seat of the car! From scammer to honest driver in the space of a few moments.

I then go to Bangalore where everyone was wonderful. I really wouldn't want to go back to Mumbai again.

The moral: India can be an amazing place with fantastic people, but you have to have your wits about you when you first land. Scammers prey on arriving Westerners.

No surprise as that happens all the time in China, regardless of the number of stars a hotel has.

Actually, I would've probably fallen for this too as I often arrange for hotel transportation.