emckeeve

I still don't get it. So they ask if you lost a ring. Then what??

Nikki

...four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves...

OntDave

We didn't see the ring one in Paris but did see the sad lady and what could have been her twin on the next level down in the Metro.
If the gold ring scam is the worst you have there consider yourself lucky. In Toronto recently bandits targeted people at ATM machines and sprayed them with feces. Then while playing the good samaritan, by pointing it out and helping them clean up, liberated them of the money they just took out.

Goldiept

You are all hysterically funny. I never knew about the gold ring scam and glad to know about it if it happens to me. Let's be real, though, anyone with any savvy at all knows these things go on and it is wisest to just walk on. Unless you are so naive and live under a rock somewhere you know these things go on but being warned is helpful. It is just so funny reading the above, though - unless you've been stung.

kerouac

<i>I still don't get it. So they ask if you lost a ring. Then what??</i>

See? The fact that you are curious makes you a sucker. When you are walking up the street and have no ring that you could have possibly lost, there is no reason to pause for even one second to pursue the matter.

cigalechanta

Then they offer the worthless thing for money.
One fodorite bought into it.

dorie

Kerouac, You don't think that this is illegal?

TPAYT

kerouac----I'm with you. We have be approached with this scam so many times. Why would you even acknowledge it when you haven't lost it?

Again, this is "old hat". You would think they would come up with a new one.

My advise, don't make eye contact and move on.

logandog

I have been to Paris many times,but I too have never been subjected to this particular scam.
How does the whole story go?

SeaUrchin

Well my gold ring scam lady didn't ask me if I lost the ring, she said she found a ring, showed it to me and asked if I wanted it.

Then she proceeded to follow me asking for money and I think she put a curse on me or something also, she was doing a lot of spitting and mumbling.

kerouac

<i>Kerouac, You don't think that this is illegal?</i>

Dorie, they are just asking for a reward, in other words: begging. Do you want to arrest every beggar in the world? Most of them couldn't pay a fine. So will you want to pay to have them tried and put in prison? Pay for hiring extra police just to go after them?

They are EU citizens and cannot deported. However, social programs to improve their living standards might be more beneficial than repression.

daveesl

While never having had the ring scam pulled, and having been fed up with the beggars and street vendors, I finally figured out the best defense without actually hitting one.

Since I'm fluent in American Sign Language, when approached, I just start signing and look confused. They almost always leave me alone. To take it a step further, I had my daughter, who doesn't know sign, just make some strange hand gestures. They still think she is deaf and would go away.

I also know how to curse in about 6 languages, and if insulted I can cut loose with a string that would singe the hair on a rat's back.

dave

dorie

Kerouac, The beggars that we saw in Paris this year were street people with cups sitting on the sidewalks, not scammers in your face, spitting at you if you didn't play into their game. I feel sorry for all of them, but there has to be away for these people to be helped.

Where we live there are many programs to help the homeless and street people and the city is doing something about it. The streets are much clearer and the tourists are not bothered as much. We live in a very tourist driven area, south Florida, and the city takes it very seriously.

daveesl

I think it is in Copenhagen where they have the bronze beggar statues.

SeaUrchin

Daveesl, one probably doesn't need to know real sign language. Is the middle finger sign universal? How about miming the wringing of one's neck? The Italians sure have a lot of their own signs, too.

But be careful while signing too, if you get too elaborate they can frisk you from behind while you are signing away.

seafox

Despite my desire to be approached with the ring scam it has never happened. Now having heard the concept of using ASL, I really want to be approached .... I don't know it, but I can fake it..... what fun that could be.....

LarryJ

The lost ring scam has been going on in Paris for 15 years that I know of and is just a way of a beggar asking for food money. If you walk along the Seine from the Eiffel Tower to Pont des Arts (bridge)on the right bank you will have at least 5 of your lost rings found for you.

The most popular scam now is the gypsy girls and boys pretending to be deaf/mute shoving a petition in your face to sign and then the pleading for money for food......all by mimic of course.

There are also the petition signature seekers by black Africans raising money to help the starving in Africa but not really. I saw the police arrest 4 of these guys last week at Pont des Arts near the Louvre entrance.

I think my favorite scam is the high production mass production beggar. This one rides the RER trains says nothing to anybody but just leaves a small index card on the seat next to everyone in the car explaining that he has 4 kids, no job and no place to live and he is sure God will bless you if you give him money or a restaurant ticket (that he can sell). He then passes back through the car to collect the money and retrieve the cards for recycling. Very impersonal, no conversation no pleading just high production.

Also keep in mind that the guy collecting money in front of the churches has no connection to the church just a connection to a wine bottle.

You American tourists are all rich so give generously and give often.

Larry J

SeaUrchin

An Italian once explained to me that since Americans are highly insured, we (Americans) will get the cash value of any stolen item returned to us after we get back to the States. So it is like sharing the wealth, they get the item and we get reimbursed.

trafaelwyr

For the 8 or 9 times I've been to Paris since 1996, I've never had the pleasure of dealing with this scam. This would also include my most recent trip from which my mom, sister and I returned from on 7/18. The whole "Do you speak English?" con I have experienced each time though. I briefed my mom and sister well on the known scams/cons that happen in Paris. As a previous poster mentioned, a stern "No!" and they usually leave you alone....however, apparently this one girl on my recent trip didn't get it because as the three of us were strolling past the shops opposite the Louvre, this one girl came up to me on three separate occasions and asked me if I spoke English. You'd think she would have remembered after the first time! Then there are the guys at Sacre Couer and the string bracelets. I think the heat combined with me knowing what they were going to do made me give the angriest "No!" I've ever delivered while over there.

sicilyan

bump