Most common travel scams
Whilst traveling, there’s nothing worse than falling into a scam and possibly losing a lot of money, ruining your vacation or in the worst case, getting stuck abroad because you have nothing left to afford your way back home nor contact home. In this video I’ll be talking about some popular scams and how to avoid them, enjoy! 😉
Taxi’s
So in the video, I talked about the concept of “broken taxi meters” and whilst this is the most common one that has to do with taxis, there are a couple of other things to watch out for as well.
False ‘official taxi’s’. Some places have their local taxi service, but especially in more poor countries, people like to take advantage of foreigners by pretending to be the official taxi service. Always do your research if you plan on taking taxi’s at your destination so you know what to be careful of. A good example is in Bali, the moment you leave the airport and get into the arrival area, people will surround you asking if you need a taxi. These people charge almost 3 times as much as the official taxi services so the should be avoided.
Look online on how the official taxi cars look in the country you are traveling to so you are prepared. But also, go to the taxi offices at the airport to arrange a taxi. This way you get the average price beforehand and you will be certain that they won’t drive in circles to crank up the price (like what happened when I visited India).
Closed Attractions
For some reason, people really fall for this one. You can encounter people doing this on your way to major sightseeing spots like temples or monuments. They’ll try to start a conversation and once you start talking, you are being told in a friendly way that it’s some sort of holiday, so the place you are going to isn’t open that day.
Then they try to get you in a tuk-tuk or taxi, drive you around, they will or charge you or make you buy something at a shop they are taking you to. It’s mostly a combination of both. But they will take you far away from tourist places so you feel like you have no other choice to go along with this scamming method.
Best way is to do your research a bit before going to certain places so you can tell if they are lying or not. But I always follow the simple rule that when someone looks to friendly, there’s probably something sketchy going on.
Free stuff
This one is simple if it’s free … then it’s probably even more expensive than what you would normally buy. However, sometimes things are free like free guides in Nara and Kyoto in Japan. This is, however, something you better look up beforehand and make a reservation for in advance. You can easily avoid this one by just looking up on google if there are any reviews or warnings about that “free stuff”.
Also never accept anything if they are trying to force it on you or directly give it to you, this will save you a lot of problems.
Free WiFi
Yes, another free thing. Public wifi, don’t trust it nor use it unless you know that the source is reputable. Still, though, I wouldn’t recommend using them whilst login in on sites or apps, forget home banking from your phone or laptop on these wifi networks!! It has been proven time and time again that they aren’t secure and that hackers like them a little too much
So that’s it for this article, the 4 most common scams, there are actually long lists of scams that can happen whilst traveling, but it varies from country to country. Do some research and contact your embassy site before departing.
Is “free” always a scam?
Just follow the golden rule: If something is too good to be true, it probably is. Do enough research, and use your head. People who scam also use their head and find new tactics all the time.