After living in NYC for a decade, over the subsequent years I’ve gotten a lot of comments about how I walk, usually amounting to “so quickly” and “with determination and purpose”. I’d imagine this alone would put off the randos.
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For me it’s about not wasting time when I’m on task. Years ago I had an acquaintance mention that they saw me in a hardware store but didn’t approach me because they thought I looked angry. That’s when I first realized I don’t have to be angry to look off-putting. I just have to be focused.
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Four popular tourist scams in Europe
- that tower in Paris
- that palace in London
- that wall in Berlin
- that church in Rome
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One minor correction
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I wonder if there’s something in the disorientation of being a tourist that makes one more likely to fall for such a scam. When I first started graduate school, like my second or third day, there were some Hare Krishnas on campus. I have zero interest in Hare Krishnas. But they stopped me and I talked with them. They handed me their copy of the Bhagavad Gita and called it a gift. I thanked them for it, flipped through it to be polite. Then they demanded that I pay for it. I tried to give it back, but they wouldn’t take it, because it was a “gift.” I ended up paying money I couldn’t afford for a book I didn’t want. I fell for the scam. Now I’d just drop the book on the ground and walk away, if I even bothered to talk to them at all. But I was in a new town, lacking in sleep, and far away from all of my friends and family, which lowered all of my defenses. I suspect it’s the same for tourists.
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There definitely is. Scam artists and predators always seek out vulnerable and distracted people for their victims: tourists, new students, the elderly, rehab patients, church-goers, enlisted rank soldiers, people in financial distress, lonely people looking for romance or sex are all prime targets for these scumbags.
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Yeah, but that guy (in the video) just seems way to pleased with himself.
Everybody needs to eat.
Can someone explain what happens after you accept the nice Ukrainian man’s very expensive coat and lady’s garment? (I guess he then asks you for money in exchange for the “gift”?) He should’ve accepted the gift for the sake of science and the video!
Anecdotally, it’s very common.
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Getting scammed is not the exclusive domain of being a tourist. It can happen to you anywhere. Confidence tricks, playing on psychological biases, it’s universal stuff.
The only difference about being scammed at home or abroad is that in a foreign country, you’re not always up to speed with language, social norms, etiquette etc, and that’s when the dead-beats can prey on you.
The best defence against this? (apart from common sense, and social intelligence)
Be a world citizen as much as you can. Travel. If you can’t travel, try to understand other cultures. Be open-minded, not parochial in your world view.
In my youth I backpacked in Europe, Asia, New Zealand, N/S America, and I’ve been in plenty of dodgy situations. But each of these experiences are life lessons I take with me every time I visit a new place.
Travelling should not be about watching your back all the time.If that’s the case you should probably stay at home.
Talk with the locals, don’t avoid them. Just be smart about it.
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I’ve actually found direct eye contact works rather well for making people get out of my way. Sustained direct eye contact is uncomfortable for most people and if I just keep walking toward them they usually move.
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As a European, I don’t feel insulted. I’m happy for someone to show people how not to be scammed by these assholes when they visit.
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I like to answer „no“ in whatever language I am asked to speak.
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I’ve never understood why people casually put their phone on a table at a cafe, especially outside, it’s asking, no begging to be stolen! Mine sits in my pocket with ‘phones attached if I’m reading a magazine, or is in my hand if I’m reading a book on it; it’s never in a place where it can be snatched while distracted.
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Thieves are getting so good they’ll snatch your phone while you’re talking on it.
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Or sticking out of their back pocket. It’s clear they aren’t even remotely considering the possibility of theft.
Personally, I can’t leave a phone on a table because I’m likely to forget it 
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I do not listen to Trumpers. This summer I have biked a dozen times from the loop to various places in the suburbs through the very neighborhoods the Trumpers are talking about. It is fine. I even biked through Cicero twice on my way to Plainfield a couple nights. It is fine.
I just frequently get people in the loop trying to give you a sob story, asking for money. Most of the time I do not feel certain about giving them money (I do sometimes if they seem genuine), but I do try to take leftovers from office events and hand them out. The people asking for money turn down free food more often than you might think. It is something I feel pretty conflicted about, these interactions. How can you tell when you are helping vs. enabling?
I have hung out with homeless dudes a few times fishing. They didn’t want anything, just someone to talk to. One guy was bipolar and got to feeling happy and the jumped off the Wells St. bridge into the river. (He was fine after)
Btw, the bracelet scam is I believe what the buddhist monk busker is all about. Seen him in the loop and Michigan ave. Lots of the shoe shiners who will put stuff on your shoes without your consent. The scammy people are definitely in the loop area. Maybe not as bad as, say, Rome.
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The biggest scammers work in finance.
Some scams thousands at a time by setting up conventions, workshops, and conferences, and cashing in on your not being rich or happy already.
Some scams drain the money from people with failing health selling them false promises.
Some scams just sell you stuff you don’t need.
You have to get pretty far down the scammer impact and frequency chain to get street grifters and wallet lifters.
The real pro’s are lifting our dollars all day long and have made niches in the system that protect their scams. You can’t lift someone’s life savings from their pocket.
Same with the car window cleaners. My window was already 1000x cleaner than that muddy water they just slung across it, now i have to clean up after their cleaning. ugggg. i hate those types.
It is hard to know if you are helping with money or not in some cases. i wish there were vouchers for 1 balanced square relatively health meal, that could be picked up and redeemed most anywhere.
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Step 1. They shake you down for way more money than the item is actually worth. In tourist areas, they count on people not knowing the currency well, and carrying cash. In the case of the ring, I refused to even touch it as the lady kept shoving it at me. If you take the item and refuse to pay, they scream bloody murder and accomplices come out of the woodwork to shame you into paying. If you try to return the item, their story changes. In some cities, the cops are supposedly in on the shenanigans, but never encountered that in person.
Step 2. A partner of the item bearer pickpockets you while either you are distracted, or they see where your cash is held. After travelling several years for work, I tend to wear button pocketed pants, but am still paranoid in certain cities and venues. Paris and Amsterdam always have me on high alert for pickpockets, and I have been bumped and patted at in crowds in both those cities.
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Some clothing, like Tilley Endurables, have a security pocket that you either access via a velcro flap at the bottom of left pocket, or by flipping the whole pocket up out of the pants.
I never use them because anything in them would end up going through the wash.
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