Doug Weller

Ted and a couple of others have the right idea. It's a distraction. I don't want to wear a money belt because of the heat. All those velcro pockets are great of course, and I have them. So long as you use them all the time, and so long as you aren't caught in a crush say in a train where you can't move. I think this latter scenario is my greatest concern. I've known it to happen at Union Station in Chicago (not to me) as well as in Europe.<BR><BR>Doug

Zsuzsika

This thread came up in a search, it's rather old so I'm upping it to see whether there are any new strategies or opinions about it.

Sassafrass

Not a new opinion, but another annecdote. DH is from NYC, and has carried a dummy wallet around for years. The funny thing, is, I didn't even know it until he had his pocket picked, and wasn't freaked out about it. Then he told me he has had his pocket picked a couple of times, but never lost his real wallet. He always puts a couple of bucks and some other stuff in the dummy wallet. I know he had his pocket picked in NYC and in Spain. No harm done though. So, he likes the dummy wallet.

greg

I used not one but two dummy wallets when I took a city bus in Napoli. The real money and cc were in my money belt. I used a prevalidated transportation pass tucked in my zippered jacket pocket so no need to access any money while on bus.

Here was what happened. As soon as the bus arrived, hordes of people got on and blocked the entrance. When I saw that the seats were available but these men blocked my way to force me to go between them, I knew that it was a trap to pick my pockets. I was ready. I was fully aware of what would happen. I am curious how "all you need is awareness" camp person would have handled this situation. Unfortunately for the pickpockets, the usual places they would have had a catch contained only dummy wallets. They went after my back pocket dummy wallet when I was forced to walk past three guys pushing hard against me so that I would not have felt them reaching into my back pocket. After I cleared the blockage, I looked back and saw my wallet lying on the floor. They were that quick in realizing that they have been duped. I had a laugh and at next stop, several guys got off the bus as if nothing happened. After that, either all the pickpockets got off the bus or who remained realized that picking on me would be all risks and no rewards.