For some reason, I'd be tempted to follow this guy around, and every time he pulled the trick I'd go up to the people he was scamming and tell them something like "hey, how come you found another ring. Are you going to ask them for money also?". Call me perverse...

Judging by the number of reports of this scam, someone must be falling for it if they continue to do it.

Michel Paris- I have more fun things to do in France than follow a scammer around. I am a slow traveler but that sounds like a bored traveler.

Just back from Paris, and we were also approached (twice) by the "ring people."
I hadn't heard of this scam, and the first time when a man picked up the ring and handed it to my husband, we didn't have any idea of what was happening. The ring looked cheap, nothing like fine jewelry. The man walked away, but of course returned within a minute or two to ask for money ... we handed the ring back and told him we weren't interested. Second time it happened was a day or so later, and it was a women who "found" the ring. By then we knew what was up and waved her away before she even engaged us.

My question is: Is this scam merely to try to get some hapless tourist to pay for the ring? Or is it for an opportunity to get close enough to distract someone in order to pick their pocket?

Just wondering, because I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay another peron for that ugly brass ring, but the man who accosted us never even tried to get close enough to touch us.

Of course, my husband is a fairly large and imposing loooking guy, so maybe we didn't seem like good marks?

>Is this scam merely to try to get some hapless tourist to pay for the ring? Or is it for an opportunity to get close enough to distract someone in order to pick their pocket?

Either/or or both.

We just returned from Paris and saw this scam five or six times. We kept walking, pretending not to hear.

The last day I spotted two nefarious looking men coming toward us ten yards away. When they got very close one of them "picked up" a ring. I said, "Pfftttt!" without thinking and continued to walk on. From behind us we heard a loud, "Pffttt!" It made us laugh.

Good thing they ran into you & not me...or we'd have been seeing if he could swim (in the Seine).

We spend four to six weeks in Paris each spring and have seen or have been subjected to almost every kind of scam. Although I have found people with their hands in my pockets, been cornered and shoved in the Metro and approached by many "ring bearers", the worst situation is when the Metro is on strike. In the crowds the young Gypsy girls surround tourists and almost fight for purses. If it was not so bad it would almost be comical. Be alert, know who is behind you, forget being PC and profile people. This way you can enjoy Paris.

I think my husband may be partly responsible for the proliferation of the "ring scam." Last year he saw a woman (said she was Bosnian, by the way) pick up a ring and he gave her a thumbs up and a smile. Of course she was all over him like a fly on pie, saying she didn't need it and calling him "Papa." Being the kindly, albeit naieve, gentleman he is, he wound up giving her 50 Euros (!)"for her babies" despite my protestations. This September it was tried on us no less that four times. His photo is probably displayed in the thieves gallery.

It would be dangerous to harass a scammer. You don't know how far a crook is willing to go. I've seen people near Grand Central Station (NYC) wait for airport shuttles to arrive, negotiate an upfront taxi fee, hail a cab, open the door and lean in (as though speaking to the driver), step back and let the people get in and then hustle away before they realize the taxi driver has not been paid for the ride.

Point them out to a cop and keep moving.

I've gotten close to strangers near the Seine. I mean, I don't travel to talk to myself all day. A man approached me hauling a suitcase and a map. He appeared to be African but spoke great English and never once addressed me in French. He asked how to get to his hotel and showed me the address; I cracked out a map and gave him some alternate ideas (suggesting a taxi). We were head to head but not super close and all my stuff is still here.

Money belts and all that are too much trouble for me. I don't worry much about having my pocket picked at home in NYC, so I don't worry about it abroad. (Though I've never been to Rome.)

Well, I live in a much smaller place
than NYC but I DO worry about having
my pocket picked when I'm travelling
so I take precautions.

Why? If it were to happen at home it would be a hassle but I could go home and eat. I could go to my bank and cancel my cards and take out cash because they know me. I could walk across the street from my bank and get a replacement for my driver's license... but if I lost all my money, cards and ID in Paris or Rome I'd be screwed and my holiday possibly over. And if my passport and airtickets were gone...
an even BIGGER problem.

So hassle or not, I use a money belt
(actually more of a shoulder holster
thing) and exercise caution.

Rob

We (my wife and I) had a good laugh after reading your posting about the ring scam. We had pretty much the same experience in Paris this past September. I ended up throwing the ring against a building wall to get the guy to quit following us, he finally picked it up and went on his way. Next time we incounter this scam I vow to throw the ring under a bus... at least he will have to buy a new ring to stay in business...or do you suppose they stole the ring too? Paris is still my favorite city in the whole world.
Even during this scam, I never felt threatened..just mildly amused. You can't cheat an honest person.

Not sure if it is a scam, or just someone trying to "beg" for money, but while in Amsterdam this past September, I was standing at a tram stop near Dam Square. I pulled out a map. (Before anyone berates me for pulling out a map and looking like a lost tourist, I don't make a habit of it, and was just double checking what I had already looked at in my hotel room. Sometimes, that's the better alternative to REALLY being a lost tourist)

Anyway, this guy walked up and started pointing on my map where we were, asking where I was going, etc etc. I informed him that I was doing fine and didn't require any assistance. He then told me that he was helping lost tourists and asked for some "spare change." I politely informed him that just because I was looking at a map didn't mean I was lost and he had told me nothing I didn't already know and I did not have any "spare change." He didn't look very pleased, but he walked away. End of incident. I didn't encounter any other "scammish" type activity during my week in Amsterdam.

Well, two years ago in Georgia (USA), a guy approched me asking "Spare a dime for a brother".
My answer was "I think I'm many things to many people, but I don't think I'm your brother". ;-). Smiled (he smile too), I gave him a $ and walked away. It's not a scam, it's someone begging for money. The $ didn't hurt me and maybe it even helped a little bit... There's a huge difference between (non-commercial) beggars and scammers!

Interesting we have a guy pulling a scam and we have the fact that he was a Roma. How do we know he was a Roma??

Anyway glad to hear that no one got hurt. And let us face it some of the best times I've had on holiday have just been with a sudden meeting, a sudden exchange of niceness. Holidays can be about seeing new things.

My husband gives money to beggars on the street at home too. I prefer to give money to the local food bank. Different methods.

Actually we were quite amused, I wound up giving the young girl 3 Euro, she evidently didn't think this was enough and asked me for more money. I told her that I thought her "story" was worth....amusing....but that was all she was going to get, give me the 3 Euro back and you can have the ring back...no ...she walked away....
I've gotten more than my 3 Euro worth telling the story.
In reality I give money to s"treet people" often...no need for a l"arge organization to take their share...direct to the end user"

Hi Everyone. I just watched a French film tonight Les Amants de Pont Neuf (The Lovers on the Bridge 1991) with Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant, directed by Leos Carax. It is about two homeless people who live on a bridge and fall in love, and there is lots of scenes of them ripping off tourists. Putting some sort of drug in their drinks and robbing them. I just thought it was interesting to see things from the perspective of those living on the streets. Interesting film, good acting, good scenes (Ahh, Paris!), but not the best story.

daka, particularly in Europe, there often is a "large organization" behind these beggars, one that you would never donate to willingly, I'm sure.

As I learned recently to my dismay, even a longtime Parisian can be pickpocketed. It happened in the RER station at CDG Terminal 1 when I was returning from a trip. I generally don't open my purse before going through Paris metro turnstiles because I have a Navigo pass that works automatically, but because the airports require additional fare, I had to get a ticket out of my wallet, while juggling my suitcase and carry-on bag. There was a man standing near the turnstiles, and I briefly thought this was a bit odd, but then noticed that several turnstiles were out of order, so I figured he was just confused and trying to find one that worked -- in fact I motioned to him to point out one of the working turnstiles. Well, you guessed it, moments later I discovered that my wallet was missing from my purse! I feel pretty sure he was the culprit, though I never saw or felt a thing. Oh well ... that's the first time this has happened to me in 8 years in Paris! Still a huge pain, though.

We were near the Picasso Museum yesterday-Nov 15th when a young dark woman approached my sister and did the 'ring scam" on her. My other sister and myself said come on! but she still gave her money. After we got back to our apt and I showed her the Fodor site on scams she felt silly.
However later we were ourside the Musee Orsay and an elderly woman bent over and begging and we gave her a little money just cause it was so cold and she was working hard begging. (later in the night we figured she probably will be upright and tapdancing.)

No doubt. A tiny old lady, swathed in layers of many colored scarves beat the living crap out of my suitcase when I refused to step out of her way in CDG. The area was nearly empty and I was standing against a structure. There was no conceivable reason for her to steer her cart right up to me and ask me to move instead of going right around me. When she started shouting and ramming my upright with her cart I was totally startled. It became a scramble of trying to pull my bag out of the way and spinning around to make sure there was no "partner" emptying my open purse.

The day I arrived in NYC in 1997 an old lady roughed me up on Mott Street. Little old ladies are really strong.

Belledame wrote: "It became a scramble of trying to pull my bag out of the way and spinning around to make sure there was no "partner" emptying my open purse."

That's clear-headed! You deserve never to be pickpocketed.

Okay, I concede that nobody deserves to be pickpocketed, but some people deserve it less than others.

One year, alone in Avignon, while strolling the Place de L'Horloge, I came upon what liked like an organ grinder with a tiny dog sitting on top of it wearing a denim jacket.
I stopped and snapped a photo of it when suddenly this young gypsy girl came running from out of nowhere, saying: aha, you took photo now you must pay me. I was startled and not liking her attitude and left several centimes on the cart which she threw back at me. Later I was to see photos of her and the dog in a few travel books. I wondered how much she demanded they pay her.

I have written this before but we watched a little old lady (and her cohorts who were younger) work the railroad station in Florence.

The well dressed women and men would pickpocket and then discreetly hand the money to the little old lady pushing a cart. She was the mobile banker.

The legit venders (such as snacks and magazines) knew full well what they were doing. Even the police were not fazed when they saw the team working.

We sat there waiting for over an hour for our next train and could pinpoint the whole scheme. There was no one to tell about it because they all seemed to know already.

1. I LOVE it when they try the ring scam. The ring always looks so cheesy -- more like a curtain ring than anything precious.

2. I'll happily give money to panhandlers, never to the scammers and hucksters, eg: "I'm just 5 euros short on the train fare."

3. All-time favourite scam, from my distant youth: Outside Naples, a car drives up -- "Hey-a, I'm a Namericana citizena and I jus' been robbed. But I'll sell this genuina Rolex watch jus' for the cost ova gas to get to Thamericana navy base in Livorno...."

4. Driving out of Rome -- we are stopped at a stoplight, where a tragic-looking gypsy girl makes piteous gestures and leans beseechingly over our windscreen. I shake my head.

Without departing even momentarily from the Mater Dolorosa act, she mutters "Stronzo!" -- i.e. "Asshole!" -- and wanders off.

Those incidents are so amusing, tedgale. The curtain ring!! lol

tegdale, very funny! Especially #3, ROFL. Oops, are <s>acronyms<s> <i>abbreviations</i> still allowed here (sorry, Robes)? </s></s>

Sorry, should be:

tegdale, very funny! Especially #3, ROFL. Oops, are <s>acronyms</s> <i>abbreviations</i> still allowed here? (Sorry, Robes)

Mark

I got approached with the same scam in the Tuileres on my way to the Louvre. Thank gooness I just kept walking. Lesson: never stop. I'd rather have them think I'm rude.

Happened to us not once, but twice on our walk along Seine from Louvre to Pont Neuf. Fortunately, we'd read about it beforehand and loudly waived them off. (This was Oct.18th)

P

tedgale,

Great post. I had number 2 pulled on me in Amsterdam Centraal Station. It was a great sob story and I paid. The next day the same guy came up with the same scam. I told him which train to catch, but there was no schedule to *ell.

Well at least they tried to put a romantic twist in their scamming; it was in Paris after all.

We were in Graben,Vienna last September and a youngish pretty woman came to us carrying a young toddler who looked very sad &amp; listless. Both of them had such deeply moving and heart tugging expressions. She asked for money for her sick kid and lingered for a long while pleading. I almost felt guilty telling my friend that I bet she rented the little boy for the day as they didn't look related. Sure enough a few minutes later we saw the same toddler running around among a cheerful group of gypsies including the sad young woman.

I couldn't help thinking that they must see it as an art to act/fool people for money. I saw her the next day doing the same thing with an even younger toddler. What's amazing was how good the young toddler was in acting so sick &amp; listless in an instant. He looked like he's just over a year old.

They were trying to use the same &quot;trick&quot; in Munich too, but child protection services intervened. They managed to stop the abuse. In the end, no mother wants her child to be taken away from her, just because someone did this stupid &quot;begging scam&quot; with the child. I wonder why it's different in Vienna? It would call CPS and tell them about it.

Yeah I was wondering about that too, perhaps because they are still new. I've never experienced it in my previous visits to Vienna.

Well, today my sister who was RING scammed 2 days ago at the Picasso Museum , was approached at the Seine by a swarthy man holding out the &quot;gold &quot; ring he found. She reached in her pocket and pulled out her own &quot;gold &quot; ring , told him she hadfound it -did it belong to him? He made a face, muttered something we couldnt understand and huffed off. We laughed our heads off.

We just returned from a 2 1/2 weeks trip to France and spent the last 5 days in Paris. I encountered this scam 3 times. The first was on the Champs Elysees when my friends had just walked a few steps away while I waited against a wall for them to return. They were not more than 20 feet away and was approached by a man with a gold ring. I could not understand what he was asking as he kept handing me the ring but as my friends approached and began to push him away, I got really scared and felt VERY stupid and vunerable that I had let me get that close to me. I realized while we were at the Eiffel Tower my friend walked just a few feet away to look for someone and I could feel and see several guys moving towards me. I was floored my friend had just stepped away and as soon as I yelled for him. They scattered. But the worst experience happened after we left the Opera district and were strolling beside the Louvre. We were approached by a woman with a gold ring who, after we told her to leave us alone, followed us yelling and screaming. When we turned around a short time later we noticed she had stopped a young couple who seemed as though they had been reeled in by the scam. We approached the couple and told them to get away from her and that they were being scammed. After they walked off she tried very hard to get them back but they thanked us and moved on. As we window shopped our way down the street she came back with a friend and tried the same thing not recognizing that she has already approached us. When it dawned on her who we were, she spit in the face of one of my friends and ran off. It was truly disgusting!! Although I regret her final act I have no regrets helping out the couple and ruining her attempt to extort money from them.

I had a similar experience in Paris. The gentleman said he had just found the gold wedding band he handed me and said he was hungry. I figured it was a scam, but I decided if it wasn't the real thing at least I would have done a good deed. So I gave him the equivalent of about 6 dollars and put the ring in my pocket. When I returned home, I took the ring to a jeweler who told me the ring was 18k gold and worth between $350 and $550. The next time I go to Paris, I'll look for this generous man and give him a lot more money.

And speaking of &quot;gypsies,&quot; our family had a terrible experience 8 years ago when approached by one at the train station in Paris. She kept grabbing my sleeve to try to get me to give her money, and finally I pushed her
away. She then proceeded to put a &quot;curse&quot; on my year-old granddaughter. Fortunately I'm not superstitious, so this experience has remained with me as an interesting story and nothing else.

As I left my office near the Champs Elys&eacute;es the other day to go on vacation, a young man found a ring on the sidewalk just behind me and asked &quot;Did you lose this?&quot;
&quot;Do I look that stupid?&quot; I replied.
He laughed and winked and went on his way.

I think it is people who become flustered who become scam magnets.

I am so happy I read this before I went because the same thing happened to us. I lived in NYC for three years, Wash DC for 6, and now live in Geneva, and in none of those places did I see the amount of scam artists - even in the most touristy areas. At the base of Eiffel, I watched family after family get approached by them (ill refrain from using the controversial word for them used earlier), ask each if they spoke english, and if the poor people replied yes they would shove a paper in their face no doubt with some pity story and follow the tourists around until them gave them money. And, as predicted, we were offered a &quot;gold ring&quot; along the Seine. I wonder how many a day get duped by these people. I had a wonderful time in Paris only bc I know to simply ignore these advances, but its a shame to think it probably ruins a lot of vacations. Can't believe, however, that so many posters allowed themselves to get so close to strangers.