Yeah, I can see that the shakedown, the causing a commotion, the pickpocketing works with a person giving you a ring on the street. However, in this particular situation: the guy is handing you his goods through a car window, so (probably) no confederates, no pickpocket (although, if he did have a pickpocketing confederate nearby, it would be brilliance). I was just wondering how he has leverage to pressure you from the inside of his car. [Also, unsure why the victim was filming before the incident even occurred and that the driver did not remark on it; was he fishing for scammers?]
It’s unclear to me what’s a scam about these things. Someone wants to sell you something you don’t want, and you say no. It’s not like they’re pretending to sell you something valuable. Well, maybe the clothes counts as a scam, when it’s counterfeit pretending to be brand name clothes.
The distraction to pickpocket someone is of course an obvious thing to watch out for, but other than that, I’d be surprised anyone would give money to these people.
And if they harass you to the point that they won’t let you leave, it becomes mugging.
But to me, a scam is something where someone is being fooled or conned. Like a Nigerian Prince email or Trump University.
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the bracelet one is actually very difficult to avoid. The last time I visited Paris the guy actually grabbed my arm and started tying it even after I refused and said I had no money. I managed to get him to let go and ran off, but I’m pretty sure that they were trying to distract me so I could be pickpocketed. They are in all the tourist spots in the city and hang around in areas where you can’t get past them without being spotted, like steps and passageways.
Paris really need to do something about this kind of thing, because it spoils an otherwise amazing city. They are effectively mugging people and the police didn’t seem to care or be bothered to follow up on it.
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Joke’s on you, asshole. I’m broke!
The friendship bracelet/sprig of a plant/prayer book/whatever is a scam because they pretend to be giving you something for free as a gift, then they demand money for it. If they had demanded money for it up front, you’d never let the item touch you in the first place. They are combining a number of different things, including our sense of reciprocity, our desire to not get arrested for theft (since you don’t know for sure how the laws in the country work, nor how well the scammers know how to work them, or if local cops are paid off), and our desire to just make the people go away.
They do the scam because it works. Over, and over again. It’s crude but effective, especially if the authorities don’t do anything about it.
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