Common Tourism Scams
 

Swindled, fleeced, duped, conned, horn-swoggled, ripped off, taken, cheated

All of us have at one time or another probably fallen prey to one of humanity's lower forms of life. You know, the person who tries to seperate you from your hard earned money by less than scrupulous means.

The intent of this thread is to serve as an information point for people to share scam experiences, successful or not. This is not a thread to bash each other for 'falling for something'. Your bad experiences could save someone else a lot of heartache, and maybe keep some low life scammer from profiting on a fellow FTer.

So, if you have an experienced a scam that might snare someone else, please post it below, and do your good deed for the day in keeping others from making the same mistake.

Thanks,
Sean

Rule of Thumb: If it sounds too good to be true....it usually is....

To get the ball rolling...

I was in Beijing back in 2000 with my mother. We were walking around Tianamin (sp) Square when one of those guys who ride the bike with the seats on the back approached us. He asked if we wanted to take a tour with him around the square. We said how much and he said 2 Yuan each (about 50 cents each). Thinking that was ab absolute bargain, we said yes.

The tour was OK, but as we were nearing to completing a lap of the square, we asked him to stop. But we wouldn't stop. He kept going and going and then turned down a dark alley where there were about 10 of his bike riding mates. We get out and then he demands 200 Yuan each. We said "you said 2 Yuan" and then he vigorously denied it in his broken english. Then someone else who spoke perfect English came up and said that would be 400 Yuan all up. I said no, and then they all started to surround my mother and threaten her using 'body language' if you know what I mean. So I coughed up 400 Yuan, and away we went.

In hindsight, we should have realised that 2 Yuan was not going to happen. Had I have not been with my mother I would have just run off, but then again, had I not been with my mother, I would not have been picked for the scam.

Morale of the story: If something seems to cheap to be true, it probably is.

The "scenic" taxi ride through traffic. This happened to me just once, in Istanbul, the third time I visited Turkey. ~$25 for what should have been a $10 ride.

The long and the short of my experience is that if the taxi driver charitably buys you ice cream in an effort to be charming, there's a good chance he's pinned you for his scam.

I'd taken the route enough times up Instanbul's coastal highway to know exactly how much it should cost, but I was too relaxed to raise a sufficient fuss. These days I try to make sure I'm really grouchy before stepping into a cab: I'm less likely to be patient with the ice cream or the scam.

-KF

This can happen close to home, as well - I got into a cab in downtown San Francisco on a Sunday morning, heading for SFO (I had overslept, so taking BART was out). Having lived in the area, I gave the driver a specific route to take (Sixth Street to 280 to 101 direct to the airport). Instead, he started driving in circles, getting us nowhere near the freeway - I finally had to threaten to call the police on my cell phone to get him to stop and let me out.

Ever been a non American arriving in New York (any airport) and getting a cab to Manhattan?

I never knew before White Plains was en-route via the "short cut. ;)

C'mon the USA to this day is full of as many scammers as most countries combined.

Common sense is your friend when travelling.

Common sense is not as common as some make think. And you cannot learn it from the internet.

I have visited over 120 countries and have never been conned. (Except by NYC cabbies.)

Just "lucky' I guess. ;)

n.b. .. addressing the post - it is common sense.

I caught a cab from Topkapi Palace back to my hotel in Istanbul as it was a hot day and I could not be bothered walking the mile back. Real fare was of course $2-$3. Cabbie aggressively demanded $20.

I placed 3 x $1 bills on the seat, smiled and said 'keep the change' and walked into the hotel. To be followed by several well selected ancient curses by the sound of it. ;)

Anyone who pays these cons many times going rate only has themselves to blame. No-one else.

And emboldens these cons try it time and time again. :mad:

Don't do it. Be smart and be aware and you'll get along just fine.

How nice for you that you've never (and sounds like never could) let your guard slip nor been placed in a situation where you felt you might be in physical danger if you didn't pay up. Good for you. ^

Nice idea, Sean. ^

I've had the taxi scam in Lisbon. Arriving one night at about 20:30 I got a cab from the airport. The driver spoke very good English and chatted away about soccer etc. We took a route that involved a freeway for about 8km, then he turned off left and after about 500m, left again on what (with hindsight) was a parallel minor route back towards the airport.

We arrived at my hotel just as a plane went over at low level on finals. "That will be €30 sir he said". So as it hadn't quite registered yet, I paid it and went into the hotel. When checking in I asked the girl how much a taxi from the airport should be. "Oh, about €7-8 max she said, it's only 3km away" :mad:.

I always take a fixed price option now when I can which alot of airports seem to offer by buying a voucher from a kiosk in Arrivals. They seem to be about 20% more than a normal correct fare but are fixed for a particular zone in a city. LIS offers this and IIRC, MAD does as well.

There are all sorts of taxi scams; one of them: the cabbie giving back fake (or former or worth-less foreign) currency when making "change".

The cab ride from JFK to anywhere in Manhattan is now fixed price, currently $45 plus tolls and tip. The dispatcher generally hands you a pamphlet in several languages telling you that, and it is posted in the cab.

The cab scams still happen from JFK to Manhattan. People paying tolls that don't exist is just one example. Another example is when two people share a cab into Manhattan and the cabbie charges each person $45+tolls (tolls which may not exist).

Shoe Shine in Mexico.

This was my fault but a few years ago in Mexico City I had my shoes shined. After the guy shined my shoes, he wouldn't give them back until I paid him a 1000 pesos.

I paid him :mad:

In hind sight, I never found out the price before hand. I just thought, it is Mexico, how much can it be? :rolleyes:

When I did the currency conversion later, I was just depressed.

London (Quiet Sunday Morning, March 2006):
I'm walking from my hotel to Victoria Station. My trip is nearing its end and I'm finishing up the sightseing that I haven't done during the past week.

As I'm walking from my hotel towards Victoria Station, a guy pulls up in a nice-looking BMW. Something didn't look right. I later realized it was the steering wheel, which was on the left, so he was next to the curb (or "kerb" if you want to sound British :)). The guy opens his window and asks me to come over. He's holding a map, so my guess is that he wants directions.

Sure, being in the city for a week, and usually knowing my way around places I haven't been to, I approach him. He then starts telling me about how my face looks Italian. I tell him in my American accent, that I'm not Italian.

Abridged version of the conversation:
Him: "Where are you from"
Me: "SFO"
Him: "Oh SFO, yeah San Mateo, Redwood City, I've been there. I'm a sales manager for Giorgio Armani..." [basically tells me how important he is.
Me: "ok."
Him: "Since you look like you're Italian, I want to give you these two leather jackets. I was at a trade show and these are just samples. They may have some minor problems with them, but for the most part are good. My card is in there - just let me know if you need anything else - give me a call and I'll help you out."
Me [looks at the jackets which are in the bag]: "I can't take this, thank you."
Him: "Take them, I don't need them, they're just extra luggage for me."
Me [thinking if this guy's crazy or if he's up to something]: "Ok."

He then starts telling me this story of how he was at a casino last night and he was playing and lost all his money and maxed out his only credit card (he shows me his wallet and it only has his passport - which seems to be from Italy, according to the cover - and ONE credit card. NOTHING ELSE.) He shows me his near-empty gas tank and tells me he needs two tanks of petrol to get to the Continent. He says because it's Sunday, he can't get money from a bank, because the banks are closed, and his Credit card had been maxed out the previous day.

I play dumb, his English wasn't perfect, so I decide to see where this goes. At this point I still hadn't realized what he wanted and what the deal was. He wants two tanks of petrol. I make it a point of not understanding petrol, and not understanding why he would need two gas tanks of petrol (with British petrol prices, the sum turns out to be pretty hefty ~$200-300 as I later calculated.). I tell him I didn't have this kind of money (well, I did, actually, but it was in USD). After a bit of back and forth on this, he takes his jackets and off he goes with a sour face.

Why was this a scam, you ask?

1. His wallet didn't have anything but his passport and a single credit card.
2. I made it a point of asking for his business card several times. He said it was in the bag with the jackets.
3. If you were at a casino last night, what would you be doing early Sunday morning in the middle of London? Do they even have casinos in the UK? I know they have slot machines IN London, but what about "full-service casinos."
4. He didn't let me see the jackets. Maybe they were good quality leather jackets, but were they really Armani?
5. Finally, a friend later told me that he had a similar thing happen to him near Times Square in NYC on his way home from work.

The biggest things that stopped me:

1. It sounded too good to be true.
2. I didn't have the $$ in GBP.
3. What would I do with three leather jackets in SF (I was wearing one from Costco as it was pretty cold, which I had torn - just a bit - the day before when it got caught on an Underground fare gate, so in the beginning this sounded like a good thing - hey a free replacement jacket!)
4. If they were Armani, would I have problems with bringing this back into the US if the customs people checked me.
5. Where would I put the jackets, I already got a lot of transportation-related souveniers from the Tube staff (the effort to get a photo permit paid off :)) so room in my luggage was limited.
6. Why would someone who drives such a car would only have one credit card? Maybe this is just the American in me showing up.


The guy was Italian (or was faking it pretty darn well) and was in a car from the continent (I don't remember where his plates were from) with a left-hand-side steering wheel. His passport was Italian, but in the end it didn't add up.