Masterphil

I was sitting on the Pont des Art in Paris when a kid came out of nowhere and reached down and appeared to pick up a gold ring that he "found" near where I was sitting. He started to talk about the ring..I tolo him I wasn't interested, he persisted I basically stood up and emphatically told him to get lost with my best NY attitude. He left.

We walked to the Eiffel Tower. While there, this same thing happened at least 12 times!! It was funny to see which stranger walking towards us was suddenly going to reach down to the ground and find a gold ring! Some were pretty bad magicians!

I googled paris gypsy ring scam and found out what is was all about. Apparently, they try to sell you this ring they just happened to find.

One side of me says that if you are that gullible to buy a ring off of some stranger on the street, you deserve to get ripped off. But, I bring it to your attention anyway. The first time it happened kind of caught me off guard.

Just be careful around the tourist hot spots.

As a precaution, when I get to those places, I walk around with my hands in my pockets, so somebody else's hands can't get in there. Also, I try not to get too caught up in the moment and stay focused around me and realize that the first thing someone needs to rip me off is a distraction. The Eiffel Tower and other tourist sites are wonderful distractions!!

Working in Manhattan my whole life taught me alot about the streets, scams and just the number of people out there looking to rip you off.

Having moved away from NY has let my guard down a little, but I got it back up (my guard that is) in Paris watching some of the con artists at work.

Marighita

Thanks Phil for posting this. However, this is a very old scam, in Fodor's the people reported about it from almost three years ago.

Timlin

Yes I've read about that scam before BUT as we are about to fly off on holiday it's very good to have our attention brought back to the care we need to exercise.

Never having lived in a large city our guard has no exercise in being on guard so we need to be reminded and get ourselves prepared.....just to avoid silly scams.

Thank you!

Attnymom

I had read about this scam on Fodors before we left for our Europe trip this summer. I never mentioned it to my DH because it seemed like such a stupid scam - who would buy a ring from a stranger?? Fast forward to Paris, and we are walking near the L'Orangerie museum when what do you know - a man "happens" to find a ring right by my DH's feet. I immediately know what's going on, but DH doesn't. I start saying "no no no - not interested . . ." DH thinks I'm being rude - until I tell him it's a scam. What do you know - we witnessed it 2 more times that week (DH actually saw someone negotiating to buy the ring!!) Crazy!

Otzi

It's a scam? Next you'll be telling me to send any more money to that nice man in Nigeria who is helping me recover my fortune left by a long lost relative.

jkbritt

Same song. Woman found ring at my wife's feet while we were walking to the Louvre. She was very persistent, wanting us to give her some money, but finally gave up as we walked away. We are from the South and try to be nice to strangers, but I finally had to tell my wife -lets go!! I explained the scam as we were walking away. We saw the lady do the same thing at least 3 more times that day.

nytraveler

This scam - like all the others - is as old as the hills. They were probably doing it to tourists when the British did grand tours of the continent in the 1820s.

To avoid scams is very simple. Ignore strangers who come up to you with odd stories. Just say no and keep walking.

Oh - and anything that seems too good to be true - is.