Traveling is stressful. The last thing you want to worry about is getting scammed by crooks on the street. Your best tool? Knowledge. Know how they work. Know what they’ll do. Prevent it from happening in the first place. Put together by the folks over at Just The Flight, here are 40 tourist scams to avoid during your worldly travels.
http://www.relativelyinteresting.com/40-tourist-scams-avoid-travels/
Posted by
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
8293 posts
Nothing new in that list.
Posted by
Portland, Maine
2916 posts
You mean 3-card Monty is not legit?
Posted by
San Francisco
15020 posts
Interesting...about half of them I was not aware of but I doubt I would have fallen for them since they take place outside of Europe, ie Istanbul, China, and elsewhere. Some don't pertain to me, since no way my wallet is going top be on the ground or I'll go for the friendship bracelet, don't believe in it is the main reason.
The worse scam where I was the victim was in Linz Hbf a couple of years ago, where for my food order, the clerk charged me double, yes, 50% more than the price after I had figured out what had happened, paid 8 plus Euro instead of the correct price of 4 plus Euro. I thought it was useless contesting it since #1. she won't give me back the 4 Euro, 2, she didn't speak English, not even Hochdeutsch but that Upper Austrian dialect, which I couldn't cut through, even though presumably she could understand the Hochdeutsch from me. I saw it as useless since I couldn't counter her statements. Then I thought of taunting her with another 5 Euro...You took 4 Euro from me extra, how about another 5 ?
In the end after finishing my order, I just left, left without pursuing this useless matter. If another 4 Euro matter that much, take it.
Posted by
Chicago
1334 posts
FYI, that link is quite annoying with endless popups. Some of those scams seem pretty far fetched. Phony hotels? Hotels don't just close and even if there was an event such as the hotel being sold and changing brands or being damaged in a fire, any reputable place would let you now. The only hotels I've known to suddenly close have been extremely sketchy places known for prostitution or drug dealing. I've never heard of the phony takeaway menu scam, that one also seems pretty odd. I've met a lot of people that have traveled almost everywhere and I've never heard of that.
I guess people do fall for petition scams, although I've done petitioning and the last place you want to be is around a lot of visitors since they can't vote. You petition at lunch areas with office workers or commuter train stations, not at major tourist attractions.
Posted by
Puyallup, WA
34 posts
Clicking on that link and getting the pop-ups is the real scam here.
Posted by
OP
906 posts
How do I enable or disable pop-ups in web browsers?
https://kb.iu.edu/d/atdz