We used Rick Steves' Italy travel guide and this website to plan our trip to Venice/Florence/Sienna/Assisi and Rome. we even followed the travel book's suggestion to tear out the sections for the places we would visit. That was a great idea but we missed having the rest of the book for the last minute additions. Hopefully we will have time to write about all the great things that came from the trip, but this section is about security, although I would not call it a "scam".
We were warned numerous times about pick pockets in Italy, especially Rome. So we were prepared for that but not what happened. We arrived in Rome for our last stop at the Termini station at 7:30pm. Our hotel, the Boscolo Exedra Roma, was only 3 short blocks so we walked pulling our one small roller bag each. Half a block from the Piazza della Repubblica which the hotel fronts, a man on a motorcycle cut onto the sidewalk in front of my wife (I was walking behind her), grabbed the strap on her purse and accelerated away. To prevent pickpockets, the strap was crossed over her chest and it was a sturdy purse so it did not come free. The result was that she was forcefully pulled to the rough pavement hitting head first. She suffered a concussion and numerous fractures in her face and left hand. She had to be transported to the trauma center for CT scans, a cast, bandaging, and extended observation. We did not lose any possessions, but we would gladly have given them up to avoid these consequences which are still lingering several weeks later.
After the incident, the police, the hotel staff, and the hospital were very helpful and solicitous. The policeman who stayed with me for several hours recommended to not carry a purse in Rome. In hindsight, it would be better to transport the purse in the suitcase.