Travel website VirtualTourist.com (www.virtualtourist.com) has
come up with a list of the top 10 tactics thieves use to scam tourists.
"Most of these scams aren't terribly
elaborate which is part of what makes them so dangerous, especially
considering how distracted tourists are to begin with," website general
manager Giampiero Ambrosi explained.
"While
we've pinpointed the countries where these crimes seem to pop up most
frequently, any one of them could happen just about anywhere."
This list is not endorsed by Reuters
1. Fool's Gold; France
If you're walking the streets of Paris and
someone appears to have found a gold ring at your feet, congratulate
them and keep on walking. The ring is a plant and the person who
pretends to have found it will use just about any sob story to get you
to buy it off them.
2. Monkey
Business; Bali, Indonesia
Proving
that thieves don't always come in human form, the monkeys at Bali's
Uluwatu Temple are notorious for swiping from tourists everything from
sunglasses to cameras and then running off into nearby bushes. Seconds
later, their conniving trainer, dressed as a temple official, appears to
report that if given a few rupiah to buy bananas, he can coerce the
monkeys into giving back the booty.
3.
Automatic Theft Machine; Trinidad and Tobago
Using
X-Ray film, thieves in Trinidad construct a pocket that slips into the
card slot of an ATM, holding it hostage. A helpful, and observant,
bystander then miraculously appears to suggest that typing in a PIN
backwards will release the card. Unfortunately, when the bystander later
retrieves the pocket, the victim's money will be released as well.
4. Postcards From the Edge; Italy
Kids outside the Stazione Termini have been
known to thrust pen and postcard into the hands of tourists and ask for
help writing a letter "home." They then dictate a story of poverty and
hunger so disturbing that said tourist is often guilted into handing
over some cash.
5. At Your
Service; United States
The bottom
line with this scam is that room service charges should always go on the
credit card the hotel already has on file. If the waiter or waitress
who delivers your food demands cash or a card, the egg on your plate is
soon going to end up on your face.
6.
A Crappy Thing to Do; Argentina
Should
someone on the streets of Buenos Aries try to help wipe non-existent
bird droppings from the back of your shirt, chances are that's not all
they're wiping off you. Teams working in pairs use this technique to rob
distracted, and disgusted, victims. An even messier French version of
this trick involves real mustard.
7.
Customer Surprise; Bali
Another in
the seemingly endless array of ATM scams, this one involves a false
"Customer Service" phone number posted on a card-swallowing machine.
When the victim calls it, he or she is asked for the card's PIN number,
hotel and contact information, and assured the card will be returned
soon after.
8. The Exchange Game;
Zimbabwe
Street scammers here offer
tourists incredible exchange rates provided the transaction takes place
in a secluded cafe. At the cafe, the money is counted out on top of the
table, but rolled up into a rubber band under it; the explanation being
that police may be watching. Needless to say, the tourists later
discover a large discrepancy between the amount counted and the amount
given.
9. Front Desk Phonies;
United States
In this simple but
highly destructive scam, sleepy, unsuspecting hotel guests are awakened
by very early morning or very late night calls from the front desk
asking for credit card information. It's not until much later when they
realize that "front desk" was actually a front for something else.
10. Funny Money; China
Although efforts are being made to solve
this problem, the Chinese money supply has a significant amount of fake
currency in circulation with much of it ending up in the hands of
clueless tourists. Short of carrying around a counterfeit detector, the
best way to avoid this is to either refuse 50s or 100s altogether, or
accept them only from banks.
