Popular ways to cheat tourists

The descendants of Ostap Bender settled on the planet. Therefore, at any time in every country of the world, a tourist is threatened with a meeting with enterprising aborigines who are trying to withdraw money from him on a more or less legal basis.

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On a string to the world

This is how the motto of those who rob tourists a little bit may sound. Firstly, these are helpers - "good fellows" who strive to provide any service: bring luggage, show the way, help find a hotel. Sometimes such a helper intercepts travelers on the way to some point of interest and reports that it is closed, but for a fee, he is ready to show even more interesting places. Some, especially persistent, can continue to accompany the tourist for a long time. It doesn't matter that such a "helper" just walked alongside and bored you. At the end of the journey, he will still demand money for his "work" and at the same time he will swear and shout that they are trying to cheat him and leave him unpaid. Many people prefer to give some money to get rid of this loud "sticky".

Communication with taxi drivers gives a lot of trouble. Among their main tricks: to take a tourist who does not know the city by the longest way, turn on the night tariff on the meter instead of the day one, forget to reset the meter after the previous client. Even if you agree with a taxi driver about a fixed price, he can drive half the road and, stopping in a deserted place, declare that it is far and expensive to go further, or bring it to the wrong place, and claim that the clients were talking about this particular area (and in the other he is lucky, of course, only for an additional fee). If for the tourist himself time is not more expensive than money, then the best thing in such situations is to stand your ground to the end, swear, scandalize, threaten with the police, say that you will not get out of the car: let him be lucky either in the right direction or back (but then he won’t get anything ). The deceiver must understand that not only will he not get more money from such an intractable client, but he will also lose time, in which he could "dissolve" a couple more people.

Employees of bars and restaurants are no less enterprising. They use fake menus with multiply increased prices or prices in another, more expensive currency (for example, a tourist can first see a list of dishes with a cost in local money, but when paying it turns out that it was euros – they will show him the corresponding menu). Sometimes a self-confident traveler forgets to look at the price list altogether, thinking that it is impossible to go broke after drinking a single glass of beer. And then the cashier can indicate any amount in the check (up to hundreds and thousands of dollars). Taking advantage of the lack of knowledge of local cuisine, restaurant employees can serve cheaper dishes instead of expensive ones, not forgetting to indicate on the invoice exactly what the tourist ordered.

There is another "helper-restaurant" type of deception: foreigners are invited to a certain institution for some unusual show, which will begin "in a few minutes." Moreover, the show is absolutely free, but you need to order drinks. Usually, after two or three paid cocktails and forty minutes of waiting, tourists understand that there will be no show, but they were simply deceived.

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High stakes play

Among the scammers, there are characters who prefer to play exceptionally high stakes. And first of all, tourists who violate local laws themselves are at risk.

The reception is as old as the world: the traveler was drawn to the exotic, and he decided to spend the night with a local beauty. At the same time, people forget that officially in many countries prostitution is prohibited and punishment can apply not only to a girl of easy virtue, but also to her client. Or not to spread, but a bogai dressed in a police uniform will present everything just like that. However, troubles can be avoided if the traveler agrees to donate "for the needs of the police station" a certain amount, quite small for the given circumstances, of several thousand dollars. The tourist will be given a detailed description of all the "delights" of staying in local prisons and will be advised to resolve the issue peacefully. No money? There are translation services: friends and family will not want a fate for an unfortunate fate, which you would not wish for the enemy. Everything will be aggravated if the girl also informs that she has a whole year left to live until she comes of age. For the seduction of minors, the term is much longer, and, therefore, the ransom is larger. By the way, not only the local priestess of love can be recognized as a call girl, but also quite a decent compatriot from the next room, unfortunately, who decided to have a good time in a country where such behavior is not welcome. So maybe both will have to pay.

A similar situation can arise with drugs. The clerks of the seller will act as police officers, and any similar powder will act as a drug (the victim simply does not have time to taste it, as it is already "confiscated").

Even the most law-abiding people who are not carried away by "bad excesses" have a lot of chances to part with a big sum. Frauds happen to car enthusiasts as well. With a rental car, especially if it is taken from a decent office, this is more difficult to do (you have to deal with insurers), but, for example, with a scooter or ATV, it is quite possible. As a rule, special contracts and insurance are not issued for the lease of such equipment. Suddenly, out of nowhere, another scooter swoops down on the tourist, and guess who will be blamed for the accident (especially if the scammers promised in advance to give part of the profits to the policeman and "witnesses")? Further, the foreigner will be asked to pay a very large bill for himself and for that "injured" guy. Serious psychological work will be carried out with a foreign citizen: in fact, he will be taken hostage and popularly explained that he will not be released to his homeland until he is paid. It is not surprising that after some time he "breaks down" and part with the money.

What can you advise in such serious cases? In a foreign country, a person who does not know the language and laws, who does not have relatives and friends, is defenseless. If the case did not come to arrest, you need to demand documents, try to photograph all the participants in the incident and document everything, call on compatriots for help and ask them to be witnesses, to show as much activity as possible. Whether a person violated the law or not, it is worth denying everything and demanding representatives of the authorities, the Russian consulate, to try to create as much noise as possible around the incident. Fraudsters do not like it when attention is drawn to their personas, and therefore may try to go into the shadows. Unfortunately, in a number of countries the level of corruption is so high that entire police departments can be involved in deceiving tourists, and then the fate of a traveler is unenviable: all the hope is that friends will raise the alarm. And before leaving for an unfamiliar and not entirely prosperous country, you need to learn at least a little about local laws and about where to go in case of emergency.