What SCAMS have you encountered in Italy recently

Nothing you don't already know just follow this
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/theft-scams/outsmarting-pickpockets

I assume you have been to New York so just do the same that you do there to protect yourself.

Wear a money belt under your clothing every time you leave your hotel that contains your passport, credit cards and ATM cards and larger Euros.

That will take care of the majority of issues and lessen the impact if you do have a pick pocket incident.

The leather jacket scam can be fun; we were caught once.
Driver says:
I am driving home from fashion show. My Visa card is broken (shows broken visa card).
I have these leather jackets from the show. They are worth a lot, yours for 50 euro each, as I need petrol money. (Points to jackets on back seat.)

A few polyvinylchlorides died and their hides were tanned to make those jackets.

All that glitters is not gold.

Ditto for the leather at the central market in Florence.

Nope, very likely nothing new since the last time you were there. Nothing I've heard of, anyway.
As this isn't your first rodeo in Italy, just take the same precautions that I'll assume you took last time.

I have found I rarely am concerned about scams. I have seen posts on here where people describe their trip and they saw pickpockets and thieves all around them the whole trip (they actually did not lose anything, but they were out there). Much is your attitude and composure as you go about your vacation.

Most scams are where you are getting something for nothing (leather jackets, gold rings, tickets, drinks) , just decline, move on.

Unsolicited services (Baggage help, taxi, tours) move on.

Keep situational awareness, don't be distracted (See lots of people, phone or guidebook out, looking up, bumping into things)

Just using common sense type measures, you can avoid most of the common problems.

My last trip (April/May), I believe that I may have been the subject of a scam by the people who managed the apartment I rented in Tuscany. I reserved the apartment through Booking.com and was contacted several times by the local person (so I thought) as well as an agency who required that I fill out forms with our names and passport information. Although I had never been asked to do so online before, from what I have read on this forum it is becoming common. I then learned through numerous texts with the original contact person that another woman would be meeting us on arrival. She wasn't there and her son let us in, and then two days later as my travel companions were headed out the door in the morning, she came out of her door yelling at us that she needed to see our passports. She then came up and pounded on the apartment door and proclaimed that there was a mistake in my prepayment which did not include the cleaning fee. I showed her my receipt which did indeed include the cleaning fee. She apologized and said that I was smart to have my receipt. I then noticed that I had also paid for a heating fee, and there was no heat in the apartment and it had been cold at night. I contacted the agency who did eventually provide a refund, so if this was her idea of a scam it certainly backfired on her. I was then contacted by the other woman who said that I needed to provide our personal information (names, place of birth and home addresses). I refused to give her that information and told her that I had provided the information required online. Over the next several days, even after we had left, she texted me persistently saying that she needed it to submit to the city for their records. We rented three other apartments during this trip without anyone asking for any personal information other than the standard passport information.

In April/May you can't turn the heat on. I hope the booking company used its own money for your refund, otherwise the lady was the one who was actually scammed.

Not recent, but the only scam I encountered in Italy. I was in Stresa on Lake Maggiore and wanted to send post cards home to the States. I went to the post office with about ten post cards, and asked for stamps to send them to the States. After taking my money, the clerk asked if I'd like her to affix the stamps. Of course, I said sure, and handed her the cards. Not one of the cards made it to the States, while all of the ones I had sent from Florence arrived no problem. Hmmmm.
Stresa is a huge tourist town, so at that time, someone could make a tidy little sum skimming the money paid for stamps on the regular.

Dario - Can you elaborate on “In April/May you can’t turn the heat on” please?

Not one of the cards made it to the States,

Yeah but the US Postal service is unreliable also.

Watch for short changing. It has happened to us multiple times in Italy over multiple trips . ...at the train station, buying wine, at museums,etc. Be sure to hold onto larger euros so they can’t switch them. Watch the money returned to you. Sometimes a bill is placed out of the way and if you don’t ask for it, they keep it. They ask for an additional euro to make change easier and then short change. The use of credit cards should reduce this problem.

Dario might elaborate on this. Italy is trying to achieve a low carbon economy. To enable this, the use of electricity and gas for air conditioning and heating is limited by regulation, so, at the end of the heating season, a lock may well appear on the isolating valve on the furnace gas supply, and at the end of the air con season, the isolator for the aircon will be switched off and sealed.

We stayed in an apartment with a common heating system for all apartments, hot water radiators. Each radiator had a wireless transmitter sending temperature data. So each apartment would be billed on actual energy used. A very sophisticated and sensible system.

Dario - Can you elaborate on “In April/May you can’t turn the heat on” please?

It's forbidden by law, I don't know how to better elaborate it. It worked this way even before the war in Ukraine and global warming. Now they are putting limits also on AC, to send less money to Russia and to limit the power consumption during the summer draughts.

You can't do what you want when your country must buy 60% of its energy from its neighbours and the remaining % depends on water, sun and wind. Since it begun with the power rationing of the 70s, I guess it's More for the national balance of payments than to achieve a low carbon economy.

When I see this scam in progress, I find a place to sit,have a glass of wine and be entertained.
Example in Verona( a lovely city)
Two well groomed young men, khaki shorts, polo shirt, official looking lanyards arrive and set up a table with a sign up sheet.
I now have my wine, so I’m ready to observe the victims willingly and happily handing over euros. As far as I can tell all Americans, the young men spoke excellent English. The spiel is " hello, would you like to sign this petition to support X,it varies but if anyone had their brain engaged and applied some logical thinking, the scam would not be successful.
Once the person signs the petition, they show where others have given various amounts of euros and are "shamed" into given an amount of money. I saw a lot of cash being handed over while I was being entertained by the performance.

Dario - thanks for elaborating. First of all, if it is illegal to turn on the heat at certain times of the year, then charging people for heat when they rent apartments should be illegal as well. So I was “scammed” so to speak. I know this is a complicated issue, and of course if there were laws about turning on the heat in America, people would be screaming about their rights.
But I can’t help but think about elderly, sedentary people in Italy sitting around freezing. Or suffering from heat in the summer.
And it is tragic that this isn’t all about using more earth friendly resources.

charging people for heat when they rent apartments

You mean there was a separate voice on your bill about heating?

I can’t help but think about elderly, sedentary people in Italy sitting around freezing.

Regarding the elderly I did not say it's forbidden to turn the heat on when it's freezing outside. I said you can't turn it on in April and May.

Or suffering from heat in the summer.

If you knew Italian elders, you'd knew that 90% of them would rather melt than turning the AC on. Anyway the "Save Energy for Ukraine" law set a limit on the difference between the internal and external temperature; nobody but US tourists from the northern States is going to suffer to the melting point when inside.

And it is tragic

Yes, not having oil, natural gas, coal or any other natural resource but mineral water is tragic. It's called "geological s**t happens" or "the opposite of Manifest destiny", as you prefer.

Dario - yes there was a separate charge for “heating fee” which was refunded after I complained. In light of unpredictable weather patterns and what seem to be more extreme fluctuations, I hope there will be some rethinking about when energy should be saved- not necessarily based on what month it is. And by the way, we were in Venice at the beginning of the trip, in April, and there was heat in the apartment, although minimal. But I won’t tell anybody.

not necessarily based on what month it is.

Not surprisingly, the dates when you must turn the heating off change based on when and where, i.e. on month and latitude. Any map will show you where Venice is, so you have no big secret to keep.

Majors can allow people to turn the heat on in case of prolonged waves of frost; in Florence, the highest allowed temp in late April is always 22° (aka 71,6° F) for not more than 12 hours a day, so who scammed who depends on the temperature you demanded and the temperature they actually set.

The heater was shut down completely.

In Rome we encountered I think Nigerian folks selling bracelets and would tell you a story about there family and would ask for Money at the end, same with people selling roses. If you don’t want to be bothered say no thanks and keep moving. But it’s hard when you waiting in line and they come up and kind of corner you. We also used a pacsafe sling bag which was really nice and gave peace of mind from pick pockets etc.