jwagner

I was just reading a post from a woman who was so angered by get pick-pocketed in Rome that she says she will never return. I've never lost so much money on a trip that I threw up my hands and said never again, but I don't think I've ever taken a trip when I didn't get hood-winked by someone. I want to start a list of the various scams--some are marvelously creative--to be used as a resource for other travelers (and me) when traveling. I've never been pickpocketed, but here are a few of the other "gems" that you might be wary of. <BR> <BR>1.) When driving my car across the border into Gilbrator in the front of a very long line, a man in a kitschy uniform stepped up to the window and told be that a border pass would cost me about $16 American. He put a colorful ticket under my wiper and waved me through. A hundred yards up the road a policeman stopped me and grabbed the ticket from my window. It was yesterday's lottery ticket. There was no charge to visit Gilbraltor. <BR> <BR>2.) In Spain, a nice man approached me about shining my shoes. Only a tip is expected, he told me. Well, the tip he expected as at least $15 American dollars. I was too embarrassed to argue. <BR> <BR>3.) I was in the Metro in Paris, arriving on an overnight train from Rome. We had our hotel reservations lined up and were trying to figure out how to get to Zone 15. A kind man approached and said he would help us with directions. "Do you have your ticket yet?" No. "How long are you staying here?" Almost a week. "Ah, you'll want a week-long pass, he said. "I'll take you to the ticket window." We took off on a circuitous route through the station and passed several out-of-the-way windows that were closed. "We'll have to use an electronic kiosk," he said. When we got there he asked me to swipe my Credit Card through the reader. "It won't work. We'll use mine and you can pay me cash." he busily pushed buttons on the machine, removed five tickets and told me the cost would be $60 a piece. I flinched and whipped out the $300. We boarded our train and made it to our hotel, using our passes. The next morning, when we arrived at our station en route to some attraction or another, we realized that he had sold us five one-way passes and made a quick $290 off us. We didn't let it ruin our trip and we've been back since. <BR> <BR>I'd like to hear other experiences. I think you can see that I've probably shown that I am not the brightest or most skeptical traveler in the world and I hope you will share your honest experiences and comments here. <BR> <BR>Jay

Thyra

Thanks for sharing your "adventures" I guess most of us are prey at one point or another.. the key is to be able to laugh at the mistakes..and to learn. When we went to Budapest 2 years ago we got off the train from Vienna and filed out towards a gigantic sign painted on the wall that said TAXI with a huge arrow pointing right! We were shuffling along when I felt a tug at my arm and this nice looking guy asked "are you looking for a taxi?" without thinking I replied "yes" and he grabbed my arm and started pulling me LEFT, in the opposit direction of the arrow on the sign... He took us to this broken down, antique something-type car, with no signs and a broken "meter". My husband was like, no way are we getting in that, but the nice looking guy started to look not so friendly, so we chose the most idiotic course and got into the stinky "cab"... What followed was a madcap "tour" of Budapest through windy streets and across the river and up the hill... and everytime an official car would pass he would take down his little taxi light. Unbelievably he DID get us to our hotel but he charged us $100.00 (in Budapest currency that we hadn't quite figured out yet) we were so happy to be in alive at our hotel we handed him the requested amount (which was a really thick wad of local currency) ... the hotel staff was horrified when we told them what we had paid.. turns out it was a $15.00 dollar ride... My husband still gives me a hard time about that one! Oh well chalk this up to live and learn... at least its funny to us....now!

tom

maybe this is a naive reaction on my part, but Would it not be better to apply the norms & customs of your home country, when travelling? <BR> <BR>Yes, of course this will occasionally result in 'faux pas' & errors. But will not these errors be less aggravating than the scams that are perpetrated? <BR> <BR>If someone in your home country was leading you opposite the big arrows & signs, or trying to collect money, wouldn't you get suspicious right away??

Susan

Tom, I agree with you, but sometimes even experienced travellers fall for scams or slip up somehow. I flew to Chicago one time and had a similar experience to Thyra's cab ride. The car itself wasn't that bad, and the driver wasn't menacing, but we paid a lot more than we should have. I can't see myself taking a gypsy cab here in Toronto, but I guess that's what I had in Chicago. I consider myself a fairly experienced traveller, but my husband and were both tired - it had been a long week and we just wasn't as careful as we should have been. On the way back to airport (paying about a third of what we had to paid the first time), we could only laugh about it.

Thyra

Tom I agree with you 100%, what can I say? We were tired and weren't paying as much attention as normally, quite honestly we travel to Europe every year and I lived abroad for months, but this one time, in a weak moment I went astray, dragging my poor husband along with me. Believe me, now we always make sure we follow the crowds! I have to say in retrospect it's hilarious, to us anyway and my husband loves ribbing me when we relate the story to other people! Actually,it was the first trip we had taken where we could afford cabs, in the past we'd taken the bus or subway.

Al Godon

OK I give up. Where in the world is Gilbrator? My atlas does not list it. <BR>

Kerry

The Paris metro scam sounds remarkably like one some friends fell victim. Family of four standing in a major station speaking to each other in English wondering how to purchase tickets to London were approached by a friendly "rail employee" wearing what appeared to be an official hat offering to help them. He asked them where they wanted to go etc and escorted them to his window. He then asked for money in payment of the tickets. Friend takes out cash and hands it to rail employee who says he will "go around the back and get the tickets".......never to be seen again.

jwagner

Alright, I think I stuck an O where an E belongs. Maybe I missed an l. I'm referring to the little piece of land at the southern tip of Spain where you find the monkeys and all the Brits. It's England's last colony. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

leighr

This one is probably so common it's not worth a mention, but if it could save someone some money: always count your change! This is especially important if you're not familiar with the currency. Some ticket sellers, vendors etc. may try to take advantage of your lack of knowledge and short-change you. It's worth a little embarassment to hold up a line while you count, than to wonder later where all your money went.

Debra

Would that be Gibraltar?

Cindy

I was young(er) and traveling by myself in Rome. I was moderately lost at night searching for the Spanish Steps (in other words, could have found it with my map but hadn't yet). I was standing there probably looking confused, and this dapper young Italian man asked if I needed help. I asked him if he knew where the Spanish Steps were. He pointed me toward a dark alley that didn't seem to be in the right direction. I knew enough not to go with him, although he took my arm and tried to get me to go down that alley, and to this day I wonder what would have happened had I just gone along. <BR> <BR>The experience shows that a tourist (particularly a woman) should be wary of accepting "help" from someone who approaches him/her. Pick out someone who looks helpful, safe and sane yourself and ask for help on your own terms. Yes, most good Samaritans are just that, but you never know.

Tony Hughes

Jay one question. <BR> <BR>Why mention Brits then in the next sentence say 'England's last colony'? <BR> <BR>I'm sorry but it's just plain wrong. Millions of us are British and not English (Welsh, Scottish, Irish). We deserve some credit so don't lump us with the English (right Nigel?) <BR> <BR>Tony

Robin

This just happened recently-- luckily with no consequences. I honestly don't know if it was a potential scam or not. <BR> <BR>I was at the Gare de Lyon in Paris with my husband and another couple, and we had just boarded our train. We suddenly realized that we had forgotten to "compost" the tickets. I remembered seeing the kiosk, so I took all four and went back to punch them. On my way back I was flagged down by a man speaking initially in French, then in a combination of French and English (once he realized I was American). He was very agitated and was saying something about my purse. I sort of acknowledged him, but kept walking. He followed after me and said something about being police, but what he showed for ID was a bit of yellow "do not trespass" police tape wrapped around his hand! Again I brushed passed him, and by this time was near the car where the others were. As I was entering the compartment he followed me on, and again tried to get my attention. Finally we realized that he seemed to be saying that he had seen someone slipping a hand in my purse, and so he wanted to see if anything was taken. Nothing was missing. <BR> <BR>So was he really the police? Was he just a concerned passerby? Or was it some kind of scam to get me to open my own purse while I was alone so that he could grab stuff more easily? I'll never know...

jwagner

geez, this is my day to offend my European counterparts, I guess (see Wes's thread to see what an ugly American I am.) I'll just stop trying to contribute and move onto www.damnyankees.com. Hearty apologies.

x

jwagner.....I wouldn't lose any sleep over any (unintentional, I'm sure) offending you've done. Some posters are exceptionally touchy.....you can't please all of the people all of the time.

Tony Hughes

XX@XXX or whoever you are .... <BR> <BR>Jwagners comment was undoubtedly unintentional, that's the whole point! (Well Duh!) If he had done it deliberately then there would be no reason to point it out, yes? <BR> <BR>Secondly, why dont you just say me rather than 'some posters', I'm not bothered!!! <BR> <BR>Execptionally touchy? You Canadians have a real problem.

M&J

Not an "awful" scame, but it was pretty slick. <BR>We were driving the back roads of Maui. <BR>A pretty woman sitting on the side of the road by the stop sign with dozens of leis. . We stopped. She leaned in the car and asked "what time is it?" <BR>Then gave us two leis---"why, thank you" we said in surprise. She said "five dollars each." We started to give them back and she stepped away from the car, said something which sounded Hawaiian and added "bad luck to take them back once given." <BR>She was slick---gave her $5.00.

NAncy

I'd love to hear some US Travel scams&gt; Anyone?

Taffy

Dear Jay ,I think that every Travel info programme should have a scam section if it serves as a Detterent as well as being Humorous then it will have done a good job.Thanks, keep up the good work. <BR> <BR>

Nancy

We were in Spain, making a reservation for a couchette on a night train into France. We asked the price at the window and were told 2400 pesetas, which is a pretty normal price for a couchette reservation, so we really didn't question anything. <BR> <BR>When we made a move to pay with credit card, the ticket agent told us that it was not possible to use credit card. We thought this was a little strange, since we had paid with credit card at rail stations in Spain that were smaller and less "equipped" than the one we were at, but we had the cash handy so we used it without complaint. <BR> <BR>Upon inspecting the reservation as we walked away from the desk, we noticed that the price printed on the ticket was slightly less than the ticket agent had told us. The price difference wasn't much...around $.50 US, but my travelmate made the observation that the ticket agent could rake in a tidy little profit if he was pocketing that much change on each sale every day!