“Well madam, take these, feed the birds, make them happy” - says a stranger. You are wandering in the streets of Venice when you spot a gigantic flock of pigeons at St Mark’s Square. “Take Take, Feed Feed !!” - Bird Food Scam This produces the perfect opportunity for them to lift things off without you knowing. While doing so, you are more attentive towards the poop than at your money or wallet or bag. While disgust takes the better of you, another person comes and helps you wipe that thing off your clothes. A scammer approaches you from behind and squirts something on your jacket and then proceeds to bring it to your attention. This is the kind of scam that could end up having your items stolen. “Mister, you got something on your shirt” - Bird Poop Scam And now they are in them and it cannot be undone. Well, now he explains how these photos cost because the paper and print are costly. They better had smiled in the photo, because now that smile is about to fade away. “Let me take picture of you in this”, he saidīefore they could say no, he clicked his Polaroid camera shutter twice flash flash. Suddenly he pulled out a big fancy instant Polaroid camera. They handed him the phone and he quickly snapped some awful photos of the duo on their phone. Two friends clicking pictures of themselves at the Trevi Fountain are approached by a stranger who asked if he could help them by taking a photo of both of them. “U want group photo, madam” ? - Photograph Scam And they charge exorbitant amounts for taking their friendship band! They tie a knot or cut the thread, so it becomes physically impossible to get it out of your hand at the time without cutting the entire thing. You would be able to return the items which are handed to you, but something like this cannot be given back. What they do then is, quickly tie the band very tight on your hand and most often cut the thread. The other version of this is when instead of a souvenir, he says its a friendship band. You were manipulated to give him money by seeing cute little photos of kids that may not even be his. He shows you a photo of his kid on his phone and you think of him as a sad father and give him some money. “I came to this country to visit, I come very often. Only for a short while, before he comes back and says:
Poladroid scam free#
It will bring good luck”.Ī free souvenir? Too good to be true right? Well in fact it is very similar to the above wrist band scam where he pretends to give it to you and go away. You are walking down the road admiring the city when a voice from the side will approach you in a friendly manner: “First time in this country? … Here’s a free gift for you” - Lucky Charm Scam You are somewhat obliged and forced to give him your money which he will happily accept (and tell his friends back in his country who will soon come to this new country and start making money by extracting money from unwary tourists). You have his item and since you took it you can’t give it back to him (if he’s tied the band tight) nor accept it for free. Your donation for the free wrist band would be highly appreciated. He then sets you on a guilt trip of how privileged you are and how his kid is suffering because of lack of money or something similar. Soon before you realize, he comes back following you and pulls out a phone and shows you his kid’s photo. This starts with a scammer approaching you, and asking you where you are from or something on those lines and starts to make small talk and quickly does one of the 2 things: Scams that come to you: “Hey Brotha, you from the US ?” - Wrist Band Scam Learn that ignorance is the key, but always help people in need. Think of this as a journey and learn from it. That’s a good sign and I want you to stay that way. If you ever have been scammed, read this to know you are not alone, you are not foolish, you just put your trust in people.
If you have been scammed, you would always be apprehensive about the individual approaching you even if they genuinely require your help. Scammers also affect the mindset of people. Scammers target people and if they think of you as a potential target, they will come to you. After all, knowledge is power.īefore you even plan your next trip, know that scammers exist everywhere and the best way to avoid them is to ignore them, no matter how much they come after you. I recommend that you read through the entire article at least once as I have spent a lot of time understanding and compiling the most common to the rare scams that can take place. Scammers are everywhere and the only way to repel scams and scam artists is to be aware. Scams might sometimes be minor annoyances in your trip to that beautiful city you’ve always wanted to travel to, but sometimes they can be devastating when theft of personal goods or loss of money is involved. “Small things like these keep happening in big cities” Common Tourist Scams in Europe … and across the world!
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