Groups

Travel scams – Con artists, stories and traps (6 posts)

Topic tags: con artists, theft, travel cons, travel safety, travel scams

Viewing post 1 to 6 (6 total posts)

Craig and Linda said 7 months, 4 weeks ago:

If you’ve encountered or heard about travel scams involving long sob stories and other cons which lead to theft, please write about them on this thread. If possible, include the city where it happened.

Want less ads? Log in or join the Indie Travel Podcast Community.

#
Jameson said 7 months, 3 weeks ago:

The Moalboal Backpacker Lodge, located in Moalboal on the island of Cebu in the Philippines is a very shady hostel. The lodge provided a lock and key for the room, as well as a lock and key for the box inside. I left my money belt behind two locks and keys thinking it was safe. There were no other visitors in the lodge. The three sisters went into the room, stole about money out of the money belt, but not all of it. They must have been thinking we would get drunk and think we lost it. They stole $300 from me.

A wrote up the full story of what happened.

http://www.jamesonofthegeo.com/moalboal-backpacker-lodge-danger/

Want less ads? Log in or join the Indie Travel Podcast Community.

#
dylan said 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

In Shanghai, a buddy and I were approached by a young couple outside of the art museum who “wanted to practice their English.” The were really nice, of course. They mentioned that there was a tea festival in town that week, and that we should come to an “authentic Chinese tea ceremony.” We followed them into some random mall type building downtown, and we went up to a tea room – just a table for us to sit around while a woman served various teas to us. We were shown a menu, and the young couple suggested all the different types of teas we should try—each showed a pot with cups in the picture, and had a pretty high price for a pot of tea, but we figured, what the hell? After quite a few rounds of tea, the bill came. It turned out that the price was PER TINY CUP, not per pot…. I’m not all that into tea, so I didn’t partake in all that much, but I was still charged about $30 US for what amounted to less than 2 cups of tea. My buddy had more types of tea, and his bill was about $75.

All in all, it was still a fun experience, but it was obviously a scam as soon as the bill came, and even more so when I was approached the next day on the street by a nice young couple who wanted to “practice their English” and then take me to an “authentic Chinese tea ceremony”

#
David said 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

In Havana there are 2 common scams:

“Leche for my baby” (milk for my baby) women will approach you ask you where you’re from and be really friendly (English or Spanish) then ask you to help them out by buying them some milk for their baby. They will even bring you to a store where you can buy it directly and give it to them. But as soon as you leave they sell the milk back to the store and keep the money. I’ve heard of this in India too

“Salsa Fiesta” – again a friendly local will approach you ask if you like salsa and tell you there’s a special salsa fiesta happening tonight. They will either try to sell you a ticket for something that doesn’t exist or they will walk with you to a bar/restaurant sit down with you, tell you it’s starting soon. They order a round of drinks and guess who’s paying.

Thus when you’re in Havana and hear the words “Leche” or “salsa” from a local get out quick. No matter how nice they are.

Fortunately this only happens in Havana, elsewhere in Cuba you’ll rarely be bothered

#
dylan said 7 months ago:

@David – Yes the ‘milk scam’ was very common in Delhi, as well as Kathmandu

#
Raymond said 1 month, 2 weeks ago:

Dylan,

Similar thing happened to a friend of mine when she was in China. Can’t remember what city but she ended up paying over $200 because of this scam. I NEVER take any recommendations from a local unless I approach them. And then if they are too eager with their recommendation (i.e. want to walk me there to make sure they get their commission or a tip) I avoid it like the plague.

#