Post: #1

I've been watching this awesome show on TV and love it. Some of the stuff is the classic text book tourist scams while others are way more sophisticated. I'm talking about the Scam City show where this guy, Connor a Brit, goes to very touristy cities around the world and looks for scams to get scammed and talk to the scammers to learn about their tricks. As he says on the intro, he gets scammed so you don't get scammed.

Just finished watching the BKK and the Vegas one. I had seen prior the Barcelona one which is very eye opening. The Buenos Aires episode was heavy to say the least. Since this board is all about international playas and we all travel more than the average guys, this is MANDATORY watching for all of us. We will all learn things to save us from scams ranging from pennies to big time cash. I did learn a lot on that BKK show about some of the scams I didn't even know existed and I've spent a fair amount time there. Maybe because I'm not gulligbile or look like the typical easy target, I haven't encountered any of those. But anyways, I was blown away by some of those. Nobody is immune to them, so make sure you watch them.

Make sure you watch this. You will be glad you did.
http://www.travelandescape.ca/shows/scam-city/

Do you know or have been scammed before in your travels around the world? Share them here. It would be very useful if we had a thread, even stickied filled with the scams that we all have heard or seen or worst, experienced so that others do not fall for them.

Another very common scam in Pattaya, Phuket and most other beach towns in Thailand, the jet ski scam: Do NOT EVER rent a jet ski on any beach in Thailand or you will pay dearly for it! Watch this to see it in its full glory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsPuoaktoAw

Post: #2

Yeah, it's a cool show, I've torrented a few episodes from thepiratebay. Bangkok, Prague and Istanbul. Everything is right on the mark.

Gotta say that the Bangkok scams are relatively benign compared to the other cities. They show some dude demanding 300 baht (settling on 100) for some seeds to feed doves, the liars who tell you royal palace is closed and take you to the gem shop for buying some fake/overpriced gems, and the second floor pussy show in Silom where you get in "for free" and then have to pay 1000 baht for a beer. These scams are not particularly violent or dangerous.

Compare it to Prague where the narrator get hit and extorted in a bar/brother for 500 euros just for coming inside, the taxis overcharge by a factor of 10. Or to Istanbul where a friendly guy from the street takes you to have a drink in a bar and the drinks end up costing insane amounts.

Seems like it's much more difficult to get scammed in Bangkok, basically you have to hang out around the royal palace and be clueless. Like how would anyone believe that the royal palace is closed when there are people going in and out.

Post: #3

Nobody scams me usually, im too big ill kick their fucking asses and they know it. I got scammed a little bit once buy a guy in Bangkok, he took me to the floating market when it was shut, that was the worst. I'm no fucking mug that's for sure

Post: #4

First time I arrived in Bangkok, I took the coupon taxi from a counter in Suvarnabhumi which was actually a "limo" (more like a bigger taxi) and cost 1200 baht. Meh...learned my lesson.

Post: #5

(02-14-2013 10:48 PM)Alexander Wrote:  Nobody scams me usually, im too big ill kick their fucking asses and they know it. I got scammed a little bit once buy a guy in Bangkok, he took me to the floating market when it was shut, that was the worst. I'm no fucking mug that's for sure

Post: #6

Found the youtube videos of the Bangkok episode. A must watch to all currently there or about to go there. A lot of that applies also to the rest of the country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...T5GLsn3jyA

Post: #7

Damn. Thank you very much. I learned a lot from that.

Post: #8

lol, that translator guy cracks me up!

Post: #9

The Rio one is pretty good:



Interesting how the head "bicheiros" use the samba schools in Carnival to launder their dirty gambling proceeds.

Post: #10

(02-26-2013 09:56 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  Found the youtube videos of the Bangkok episode. A must watch to all currently there or about to go there. A lot of that applies also to the rest of the country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...T5GLsn3jyA

LOL I love how this guy acts like he is falling for the scam then leaves at the end.

Post: #11

Just finished watching the Rio episode on TV and it was interesting to say the least. Btw, was the person at the end talking about bicheiros, a guy or a girl? Was very hard to pine it down. Looked like a land whale guy with tripe D boobs.
Oh yeah the bicheiros are using the samba schools big time.
If you want to see world class pick pocketing, watch the Barcelona episode. It's simply mind blowing how these gypsies, mostly Romanians and Moldovians work in team composes of family members. A very well oiled family run business. And the crazy thing is that they know they risk nothing if caught. 125 Euros fine and 3 days in jail before being released. And of course, the pay offs are huge!

Anyone who wants to scam their insurance company, watch the New Delhi episode. Just wow.

Oh and anyone going to Prague, you must watch the Prague episode. Totally crazy stuff! I won't say much other than watch it, you will definitely be glad you did!

(02-28-2013 05:01 PM)Soma Wrote:  The Rio one is pretty good:



Interesting how the head "bicheiros" use the samba schools in Carnival to launder their dirty gambling proceeds.

Post: #12

During the Rome episode (09), from about 15:00-19:00, they discuss guys who chat up girls at a particular fountain spot, and do a little segment trying to 'catch one of these guys', framed negatively of course (as opposed to planning on shaking the guy's hand). They find and mic up this Australian chick, film her from one side, and after a little while an Italian guy walks up to her and starts gaming. The host is, well, just as you'd think he'd be (poor innocent girl is traveling the world alone yet has no insight on what life is and has no physical desires). Guy gets the girl's number, he walks off, and host ends the segment with

"it's pretty harmless stuff, but there's no escaping the feeling that in this city, there 'are' people who exploit tourists as a commodity".

pretty funny

I hope for her sake that Australian chick got banged by at least someone (cameraman?)

(don't want to post link because its on streaming sites, but episode is easy enough to find online)

Post: #13

This video is pretty awesome http://youtu.be/lA4R84xfLOQ Sorry don't know how to embed these things.

Post: #14

Ohh boy another show that I heard about from RVF that im gonna get hooked on!

Post: #15

Marrakesh is so spot on, this was the hardest place to deal with scammers for me..

Post: #16

So far the craziest one for me has been the Buenos Aires one. How they film that chick blatantly putting something in his drink and also all the fake notes flying around. A taxi driver pulled that same trick on me where he switched my real note for a fake one, I knew he did it but I was too drunk too care at the time.

Thought the Vegas one was lame as, VIP passes to clubs where you have to queue up instead of going straight in and card counting?!?! Surely theres gotta be way better scams going on in Vegas than that.

Post: #17

Yeah the BA one is crazy, specially the part about how organized is the fake money biz there and the kind of criminals that run it. Scary shit!

To me, it also opened my eyes to how things operate in Prague and will be very careful there about cabs, and strip clubs, places to avoid like the plague. Crazy how also guys on the streets sell you "drugs" which can be anything, from sugar, salt to powdered rock. But that doesn't apply to me as I don't do any of that shit.

Make sure you guys watch the New Delhi episode, totally crazy about those non registered doctors who are everywhere.

I also found the Vegas one to be very lame, nothing exciting or wow stuff as in the other cities featured.

Post: #18

I'm not so positive about this show. I watched the Buenos Aires and Prague episodes. The Prague episode was kind of barely believable but not the Buenos Aires one.

Prague - drugs
Name me one country where you won't get ripped off/scammed when buying drugs in the street in the middle of the night. If you need to buy drugs, then buy it from a known source of someone you know there. Otherwise don't even think of it. Or go to a country where it's not even worth cutting up the cocaine like Colombia.

Prague - taxis
Name me one (poor) country where tourists don't get ripped of by taxi drivers. Even in Holland you can get scammed, beat up or raped in a taxi.

Prague - stripclub
This looked believable to me since its a know EE scam.

Buenos Aires - false money
I've been to Argentina for two full months and never encountered any false money or this kind of trickery in the taxi's. Nor did I ever hear this from others. I never heard about this before seeing the show.
The false money guys were bragging about making thousands of dollars a week in false money but only had maybe 50 bills to show for. It all looked very amateuristic to me.
No doubt those guys were crooks but also a bunch of small time braggers.

Buenos Aires - pickpockets
same same different country

Buenos Aires - black widow scam
Possible but I found it weird how everyone was so easy to convince to talk on camera. This includes all the scams so far.

I have to see the rest of the episodes too to make a full conclusion about the show but for now I'd say that the only one getting scammed is the viewer. That and lots of fear mongering.

Post: #19

(03-10-2013 08:30 AM)Neil Skywalker Wrote:  Buenos Aires - false money
I've been to Argentina for two full months and never encountered any false money or this kind of trickery in the taxi's. Nor did I ever hear this from others. I never heard about this before seeing the show.
The false money guys were bragging about making thousands of dollars a week in false money but only had maybe 50 bills to show for. It all looked very amateuristic to me.
No doubt those guys were crooks but also a bunch of small time braggers.

I've met people who been scammed with fake money by taxis in BA. Personally, on the majority of purchases using a 20 peso or larger note the vendor would check if the money was counterfeit by a visual inspection and then rubbing the note vigorously against a white sheet of paper to see if cheap ink would rub off. Some places even had some sort of black light machine that they'd shine against the bills. Definitely a real problem in BA, at least in 2010-2011, but less of a problem outside the capital.

Post: #20

Neil - The fake money thing in BA is definitely real. It happened to me and loads of people at my hostal had the same thing happen to them. There was even a cash machine which was giving out fake notes and loads of people got burned. Also I dont think the show is fake, I reckon they pay the people to talk or wear hidden cameras - they are only after money in the end.

The Istanbul one is very good also. You get so many guys trying to be-friend you there being so nice. I knew what they were up to though so I just ignored them or was just a dick to them. Problem is you will never know if someone was actually just being really nice and hospitable without trying to scam you.

Post: #21

(02-14-2013 10:48 PM)Alexander Wrote:  Nobody scams me usually, im too big ill kick their fucking asses and they know it. I got scammed a little bit once buy a guy in Bangkok, he took me to the floating market when it was shut, that was the worst. I'm no fucking mug that's for sure

   

Post: #22

(03-10-2013 04:27 PM)Nudge Wrote:  Neil - The fake money thing in BA is definitely real. It happened to me and loads of people at my hostal had the same thing happen to them. There was even a cash machine which was giving out fake notes and loads of people got burned. Also I dont think the show is fake, I reckon they pay the people to talk or wear hidden cameras - they are only after money in the end.

The Istanbul one is very good also. You get so many guys trying to be-friend you there being so nice. I knew what they were up to though so I just ignored them or was just a dick to them. Problem is you will never know if someone was actually just being really nice and hospitable without trying to scam you.

I stayed two months in Argentina in the spring of 2011 including 10 days in BA. I only stayed in hostels so I came in a lot of contact with travelers and I dated a few Argentinean girls. I never heard anyone complain about this.
I'm not saying the problem doesn't exist but perhaps not on the scale they claim in the show. I still have to watch a few more episodes but so far my conclusion is that the show is mostly staged/fake or over fearmongering at least

About guys befriending you to scam you: I always say its 50/50 in terms of people being nice for real or for money. It's easy to get paranoid and overly suspicious but it's also the safest way.