The pattern
Scams run on three ingredients: a friendly approach, a reason to hurry or a piece of bad news, and a move to a place or a person of the scammer's choosing. Help that you chose, such as the clerk at the ticket window, is nearly always safe. Help that chose you is the kind to decline.
The classics
- The taxi meter is declared broken. Agree a price before you get in or use a ride-hailing app that fixes the fare, and take cabs only from the official rank.
- A driver or a passerby reports that your hotel has closed or that the attraction is shut for a holiday, then offers an alternative that pays him a commission. Go and look for yourself.
- A bracelet is tied to your wrist or a sprig of rosemary is pressed into your hand, and payment is then demanded while friends close in. Keep your hands in your pockets and keep walking.
- A petition on a clipboard, a spill on your jacket with helpful wiping, or a commotion as the metro doors close holds your attention while a partner works your pocket.
- Friendly strangers invite you to a bar, a tea ceremony or a club, and a bill for several hundred dollars arrives with large men to enforce it. Choose the venue yourself or decline.
- Fake police ask to inspect your wallet for counterfeit notes. Real officers do not check cash on the street, so offer to walk with them to the nearest station.
Cards and cash
Use cash machines inside bank branches during opening hours, cover the keypad, and tug the card slot first, because a skimmer is usually loose. Pay by card only on a terminal brought to you, so the card never leaves your sight. Carry one card and a day's cash in a front pocket, and leave the backup card in the room safe. Photograph a rental scooter or jet ski before you ride it, and never hand over your passport as a deposit.
If it happens
Do not chase anyone or start a fight over a wallet. Freeze the cards from your bank's app, and file a police report the same day, since insurers and banks will want the report number. Charges made under pressure can be disputed with the card issuer once you are safe.
Tip Search the name of your destination plus the word scams before you go. Every city has two or three local specialties, and recognizing the script as it begins is most of the defense.
