I've had this happen a few times, and I always say, "I'll pay what the meter says at the end". If it's off, then obviously it was a free ride. They tend to turn it back on, and not mess around with it after that.

As I stated earlier in this thread, it's usually a bad idea to take a taxi that's waiting. Now your wife knows. :)

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Most guidebooks mention little or nothing about common scams, but the Internet mentions a lot!
Thank you, Internet.

In reading about scams on the Internet, the first pattern that jumps out is that most cams begin with locals approaching travelers in public places.
If travelers would simply ignore strangers in public places, 80% of the scams could not occur.

More Internet reading reveals that the second most common are taxi scams.
That's why I've learned to always arrange for a private car with driver to meet me at the airport when arriving in a city for the first time.
I'd rather pay more for a private car -- and be sure of arriving safely at my hotel -- than take a chance of being scammed by a taxi.

Of course, plenty of taxi scams have no connection with airport arrivals.
I'm still looking for ways to avoid other taxi scams.

But what is most intriguing are the subtle scams, the soft, quiet, ways of taking a traveler's money, without the traveler noticing, until he is far away.
I wrote about one such scam above -- the hotel "give-and-take" scam.
Now I'll write about another.
I call it, the "mini-bar robbery scam".
It was tried on me in Bangkok.
In a nutshell, the hotel staff steals from the mini-bar in your room, and then returns the items once you have paid your bill.
Here's how it played out with me:

I booked into a very respectable, well-established, business-class hotel in Bangkok.
Booked in for several months.
The hotel came equipped with the usual mini-bar: bottles of whiskey, cans of soft drinks, snacks, candy.
I almost never take anything from hotel mini-bars.
The pricing, you know.
A can of Coke which is 120 somethings at the minibar, will be 10 or 12 at the convenience store around the corner.

After a week I went to the front desk to pay my weekly hotel bill.
There was a charge for one Coke from the mini-bar: 120.
I thought about it for a moment, paid the bill, and didn't say anything.
I wanted to learn if this was a simple, one-time mistake, or something more.
It turned out to be something more.
120 was cheap tuition for the lesson.

During this time I had become somewhat friendly with the room maid.
My consistent and generous tips certainly helped.
The maid started bringing me extra towels, providing two bathrobes and two pairs of slippers, etc.
In other words, she was taking good care of me in any way she could.

Midway into the second week, she came in with a strange look on her face.
It was an intense stare, directly into my eyes.
This is NOT polite from an Asian maid, to an older, high-status, foreign man.
I didn't know it then, but more experience has taught me that this face is the Asian way of saying, "I have something I want you to know, but I can not tell you, so please try to read my mind."
Her actual words were something like,
"I am sorry, but it is my job. I must report one can of ginger ale missing from mini-bar. I am very sorry about this, Mr. Peter."
And more intense staring right into my eyes, as if she was trying to communicate by telepathy.

I'd never taken anything from the mini-bar, so I was on alert.
I told the maid to wait a few minutes before reporting anything.
It was a simple matter to walk over to the convenience store around the corner, buy a matching can, and return to the hotel.

Then came my first real clue into the scam:
When I returned, I met the maid in the hall and showed her the replacement can.
She followed me into the room.
As I placed it on the mini-bar shelf, she became happily excited.
At the time I wondered why she would be so excited, but now I realize that she was pleased someone had seen through management's scheme.

She must have talked to the other staff, because, starting the next day, many of the other hotel staff smiled and said hello to me, using my name.
Apparently, something was going on, and I was wondering what it was.

The staff was in on the secret of the mini-bar robbery, but the management was not clever enough to tell them to avoid it for long-stay guests like me.
Not clever enough at all.

A few days later, I returned to the room to find a candy bar gone.
10 minutes later I replaced it with a matching one from the nearby convenience store.

But by then, I'd had enough.
Before the maid came the next morning, I took everything from the mini-bar shelf and spread it all out on the desk.
Then I set up my camera and tripod next to the desk, to photograph the entire display.
I made a little production out of it.
When the maid arrived, she noticed and asked, "What you do?"
I said, "Someone steal from mini-bar. I am taking photos."
With that she rushed out of the room and soon returned with two other maids to view my photo set-up.
Word must have spread quickly.
Soon, a supervisor appeared, carrying a large box, asking politely if I wanted to have the mini-bar removed from the room.
I agreed that was a good idea.

I can not be certain, but I suspect the hotel was sending around it's own staff, to remove items from the mini-bars.
At check-out, rushing to catch a flight, most travelers would not argue about the cost of a can of Coke or a candy bar, even at inflated mini-bar prices.
Then the hotel would merely replace the missing items, to be in place for the next occupants.

The stranger-in-the-street scams are so easy to avoid.
The taxi scams are easy to recognize, and, with some preparation, most can be avoided.
What are more difficult to notice, are the subtle scams that play out quietly, like this "mini-bar robbery scam".

Does anyone else have travel experience with quiet, subtle, scams like that?

-- Peter
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Even if it hadn't, it still would have been illegal for you to use it.

Not sure why your account of the "mini-bar scam" was so long-winded. :confused: Bogus mini-bar charges happen from time to time, both in the U.S. and abroad. I have found that whenever I have questioned such charges, they are quickly removed. I've never felt it necessary to go out and purchase a replacement -- I would only be inclined to do so if I HAD actually consumed the item, not if I had not! :D (I rarely raid the mini-bar, but once in a while, if I have the munchies and there's no convenient alternative, I give in to temptation. In such cases, the convenience is worth the price to me.)

I appreciated all the details and the effort put into writing them up. Educational.

And, just because a scam artist backs down when confronted doesn't mean everything is oky dooky. It may just mean that they take the easy money from the unaware or those who dion't want to hassle or who are in a rush. This can be a very profitable scam approach. The scamster just tell the cops (if they ever come around) that we always give back the charge if anyone complains. Meanwhile, they keep, say, 20 bucks from ten thousand customers and are in fat city.

taxi scam
 

St. Petersburg (Russia) last week: want to go from Sts. Peter & Paul to Church on Spilled Blood. Time is short and though we can see church, looks like just a little further than we want to walk...but there is taxi, ask "how much?"...he has meter. OK!

in the 2 miles or so, meter jumps up about every 3 seconds....we are at about $20 by the time we get there! Knowing no Russian nor chances of success at arguing (figure we are foreigners therefore automatically in the wrong), we pay up...as we exit "taxi", realize that the thing on the roof does not say "taxi". it's just some box the guy has stuck to his roof to appear legit.

Not life threatening nor depriving us of our last roubles, but giving that annoying "SUCKER!" feeling, and a bad impression of his country.

Oh, and as we are about to exit the taxi, he tries the "wait, it's Monday, it's closed today" line--so he can take us somewhere else and rip us off some more!

Chicago driver tried to rip me off, but I got him back
 

It was snow-storming in Chicago and the cab that I booked arrived at my place some 30 minutes late. I had a few hours before my flight, so that was no sweat. I've caught a cab to ORD numerous times over a period of 3 yrs and I know very well that it is a flat-rate fee of around $28 from my place.

I hopped on the cab and the meter started ticking by miles. I asked the driver "Isn't it flat-rate, as promised when I booked the cab over the phone?" and he said "Due to bad weather, it's going to be meter-charged. You won't find a cab anywhere else (which was true). Don't worry, the cost will be about the same." So I said "OK, fine."

We finally arrive in ORD and the meter is about $45. Knowing Chicago cab drivers prefer cash over credit card, I whipped out my United Mileage Plus Visa card. He frowned and asked "Don't you have any cash? How much cash do you have?" I looked down at my wallet, saw that I had about $400, and then looked up and said "I only have $32". He goes "Fine, I'll take that." Moral of the story: If a Chicago cab driver tries to scam you, whip out your credit card -- that way, the money you pay will go directly to the cab company first. :D

And a non-scam story: First time we were in Chicago, we caught a cab from ORD to hotel in outer suburbs. The cab driver said it'll cost us slightly more because it's outside the Chicago-zone. "No problem," we said.

We arrived at hotel, checked-in, and rested briefly. We walked out the hotel some 30 minutes later and saw the same cab driver pull up next to us to give us a $10 note. He said he spoke to his boss and said he shouldn't have charged us the extra $10. We were really surprised that he waited for about 30 minutes (while we were in the hotel) just to give us our money back, which we weren't even concerned about. ^

Not to be racist or offending, but for those interested, the driver who scammed me was some Eastern European immigrant while the nice guy who gave us our money back was black.

More taxi scams
 

Houston taxi: charged meter instead of flat rate, made about $10 extra in the process.

Montreal taxi: informed us of $10 fee for "excess luggage" after we'd left the airport. There is no such fee, so I argued a bit with him. He even stopped by the side of the road before getting on the highway to argue, and threatened to take us back to the airport.

I asked him how long he had been waiting, and he said two hours. I asked him if he'd prefer to drive us home or wait another two hours for the fare. Insisted on a receipt showing $10 charge. Took all details down and complained the taxi bureau.

They apparently take these things very seriously, as two taxi inspectors came by, took copious notes, had me ID the guy, and finally charged him with ripping me off. He ended up having to pay a $170 fine, and didn't even show up in court, though I made a point of going to testify. It's too bad these things happen even to locals; I can't imagine how many times he gets away with it with visitors.

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In most of our Western countries, the victim of a scam would call the police.
But in some countries, the police can be the cause of scams.
Here is an example which I have observed many times, always from a distance.
I call it, the "$50-cigarette-butt-scam".
It works like this:

In many countries in Asia, city streets are much dirtier than in Western countries.
Bangkok must be among the dirtiest.
There are laws against littering, of course, but, around here, laws are ... well ... more like suggestions of a starting point for negotiations with the police.

In my neighborhood, there is a shopping area that attracts foreign tourists, mostly Asians from Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Those visitors tend to smoke a lot, and tend to throw their cigarette butts into the street.
The local police seem well aware of this tendency.

In the shopping area there is a police box -- a small pavilion, with a desk and a roof to protect from sun and rain.
Many days, there will be three policemen working there.
Two of them have bicycles.
The third stays at the desk to collect the money in the "$50-cigarette-butt-scam".

The two on bicycles ride slowly back and forth along the main street in this shopping area.
When they see a foreigner/tourist who is smoking, they follow at a distance.
As soon as he discards a cigarette butt in the street, the police pedal up and apprehend him, and take him back to the police box.
I've observed the police doing this many times over several years.
I've never seen the police apprehend a local person who discards a cigarette butt, or even a candy wrapper.
I've never seen those police do anything else, not even direct traffic.
All they do -- from what I can see -- is hunt for foreigner/tourists who are smoking.

I don't smoke, so this has never happened to me personally.
But I have seen the "guilty party" standing in front of the police box, trying to understand why he is suddenly the object of police attention.

This is a common scam around Bangkok, and the procedure is well-known among expats here.
The guilty is given a choice:
Go to the police station and pay a very big fine and have a lot of aggravation, or pay US$ 50.00 right there at the desk on the street.
And, I'm sure, only cash is accepted.

I've never seen a local person caught up in this.
US$ 50.00 (2,000 Thai baht), would be an entire week's wages for a working class person in Bangkok.

Has anyone else observed other scams run by police?

- Peter
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Their warranty says something like "it would be HELPFUL[emphasis mine] if you return it within a year." but not required. I heard of people returning things after a year, but I don't abuse the policy :)

You can call it whatever you like, but why would this be a "scam"? :confused: They're enforcing the law, and the people getting fined actually are littering; it's not like they're being framed for a crime they didn't commit. IIRC there are even signs along Sukhumvit warning of the heavy fines for littering. You can call it selective enforcement, you could even call it a little unfair, but it's not a scam.

I believe the previous poster is insinuating that the police are just pocketing the $50.

Couple more thoughts come to mind.

1. In India I was getting so sick of being hassled by little kids wanting money, I took the approach of talking like a mad man some of the time when they came up to me. Shouting in a language that made no sense, moving my head violently from side to side. It completely freaked the kids out and was the most effective tactic. As anyone who has been to India would know, saying "no" to these kids just doesn't work. Probably not the most politically-correct method, but boy does it work. You should have seen those kids run away from the crazy person :D

2. In Bangkok a few weeks ago, I was walking down Sukhumvit Road at about 10pm at night, when two "cops" on a motorcycle drove up the footpath and stopped me. They asked to see my passport, and I explained I did not have it on me. I then remembered reading about a scam where "fake cops" approach tourists, and I walked off in a hurry.

The cops did NOT like that and rode after me and shouting at me. I then did a second-take, noticed their walkie-talkie things, and realised they were in fact cops. Whoops. Anyway, they checked my driver's license, went through all my pockets and then my bag. One has to presume they were looking for drugs. Anyway, this was right in the heart of Sukhumvit Road, not far from the Marriott. So a word of caution to Bangkok travellers -> Be careful if you plan on partaking in anything illegal. Goodness knows what would have happened if I was into that scene, and had something in my pockets... Just as well I'm a boring old fuddy-duddy these days.

I thought about arguing with the cops, but then the thought crossed my mind that these guys could so easily plant something in my pocket, it's just not worth arguing with them. Even if I do question their right to stop and search someone in the middle of a major road for no reason.

Afterwards, I remembered that the fake cop scam I had read about was in Tehran, not Bangkok.

Certainly a scam
 

It certainly is a scam in one form or another. I know many farang in Thailand who don't smoke at all. That doesn't stop the police from trying to say that they threw a cigarette butt. If someone did litter, no problem, but if they only enforce it against farang, then it's certainly not reasonable.

The Thai police do the same thing on the freeways, pulling over farang drivers and saying they were radared 2K back going 20 over the limit, when it's not the case. It's way too common, unfortunately.

Yup I got caught on this, the return ride was much more direct and took about 4 minutes. Gah.

Friends of mine and I were waiting for a cab at the rank at LGA when a guy approached us. "need a van?" My NYC local friend inquired the rate, just out of curiousity to see how much the scam was. Needless to say we refused it and stayed in the official line.

Other scams - Trenitalia in Italy, husband went to get some food, and came back with food in a Spar bag. Just some random person selling food on the train at highly inflated prices. Train staff were chatting with him, didn't care. Wait for the food cart.

Shoe shine in Chicago - sob story about how the guy had reformed from drugs and needed to raise money for a shelter blah blah, backed us into a corner and before we knew it, crap on my shoe. He shined them and demanded $30 to 'make it right' and threatened to shoot us (no evidence of a gun, I doubt he had one). We paid $5 and ran to the nearest cop. I scuffed up my shoes at the park because I was so angry, my Docs have never been the same again.

New Orleans, in June, on Canal - guy stops you from the 'smile police' and wants you to buy a hat and a raffle ticket for some charity I'd never heard of for about $20. As if.

Paris - some crappy cafe owner blabbing about the man sitting at the bar being a fish, he was trying to test our level of French (quite bad) before inflating the cost of our sandwiches and beer.