comment or scams in London I'm Krista
CLO productions how do you travel guys
that are fun informative and
entertaining and in this video I'm gonna
be sharing with you some common scams
that often target tourists in London
this is part of my series on London if
you want to see more videos about London
like things to know and cheap eats
you'll find links at the end or in the
description below but let me tell you
how important this is actually a couple
of these scams I was the target of
actually some of my stuff was stolen my
video camera and things like that and so
if you're watching this and you're like
Chris this videos kind of shaky the
audio is not as good well that's because
my main camera was actually stolen two
days ago and I recorded a similar
version of this video but with less of
this personal experience of the thievery
and so I'm going to be talking about
scams first things that will rob you of
your hard-earned money and then I'm a
talking about thievery and tell you my
experience of having my stuff stolen
here in London comment or scam number
one this is something that will happen
to you if you're using a foreign credit
card or foreign debit card and happen to
us as soon as we got here to the airport
and I'll start with the ATM use case and
then tell you about the point-of-sale
use case so the ATM use case or this
currency conversion happens when you go
to an ATM and you use your foreign card
you put your card in you go to withdraw
some money then the ATM will kindly
offer to you to withdraw it in your
local currency instead of great British
pounds so in my case the ATM came up
with the message and says hey instead of
withdrawing 300 great British pounds I
the ATM could withdraw US dollars for
you and then you don't
Hornsea conversion fee that your bank
will charge and for the convenience of
this we're just going to charge you
twelve percent now most banks charge
somewhere between one and three percent
for foreign see conversion to give an
example I push no and took out the money
as great British pounds three hundred
great British pounds in u.s. dollars was
three hundred and sixty two US dollars
great British pounds the offer for the
ATM in u.s. dollars was four hundred and
ten so just by pushing yes and accepting
this offer I would have been scammed out
of fifty dollars so if you're at an ATM
to make sure you do not select the
currency conversion same thing happens a
point-of-sale terminals so if you're at
Harrods or you're Selfridges or high-end
department stores you will see these
same things you'll put your credit card
in and it will come up and offer hey do
you want to make this purchase in great
British pounds or your local currency
here's a picture of actually what it
looks like and as Selfridges when we
told the staff hey we weren't interested
in the currency conversion we want to
create British pounds then the lady says
well you know what
Selfridges really recommends that you
take it out your local currency you know
why they really recommend it
they make a lot of money on those
currency conversions and you might just
be pushing yes because you think that's
what you have to do to make the purchase
and actually on these point-of-sale
terminals to say no to the currency
conversion you generally have to put the
red cancel button which makes it seem
like you're cancelling your transaction
in fact you're just saying no to this
lousy offer okay this one's called the
newspaper distraction this happens when
you're seated outside at a restaurant or
a cafe actually could happen inside
anytime you're seated at a table and
you've got your valuable items in front
of you on the table like a cell phone
what happens is some friendly stranger
comes up they sit down at your table and
they put their newspaper on top of the
table and they start asking hey how's it
going where are you from
you kind of brush them off because
you're not really interested in talking
to them or you are interested in talking
to them but when they leave they pick up
their newspaper and your stuff so if
anybody comes to your table and puts
down a newspaper you should be concerned
and make sure you didn't have anything
that was under it maybe say hey write or
actually better yet don't put your phone
on your table and let it sit there
because when people see valuables in
London unfortunately it's a target for
them and they would like to take it away
from you this one happens particularly
on the tube with the Rhys and
contactless card use to enter the tube
meaning you don't just have to enter
with your oyster cards but you can
actually enter the tube or the London
Underground or the subway with a contact
visa card so because people do that then
there are people who will come up
alongside you they'll watch you use
their contactless card and put it in
your pocket
they'll brush up against your side with
a contactless card reader and skim your
card and then use your card to buy
things the contact is card limit is only
thirty pounds and so it's not a lot of
money but the way you can prevent that
is using some RFID blocking sleeves or
get an oyster card that doesn't have
that much money on it and don't care
your contactless cards with you I have
no contactless credit cards in my wallet
beware of petty cabs and rickshaws 14-0
in Covent Garden why the rickshaws the
penny caps they're basically unregulated
they sit around waiting to prey on
tourists people who don't see English
very well there is no set rate for a
penny cab or rich on London books so
they can charge you as much as they want
to that five-minute ride might end up
costing you it'd be great where it is
out if you are going to take a penny cap
make sure you negotiate the price
upfront and be pretty firm about it I
mean if I were you I would just walk or
take a taxi and enjoy the penny pads
entirely be weird where you buy your
hop-on hop-off bus tickets the problem
with this is a lot of hop-on hop-off bus
tickets are sold by people
on the streets but they might not
actually be the people that work for the
company they might just be selling you
tickets and their own tickets and when
you get to get on the bus they're not
the tickets for the bus the bus to every
bus what the heck is this so you want to
do a hop-on hop-off bus tour the best
place to buy them whole location
disability ssin probably legit because
if it's not you can come back to them
and be like do what you sell me be
careful people who are differently and
too helpful in train stations a common
scam is people helping you had a ticket
machine or a parking machine where you
have to use your credit card you want
money and they might be helping them so
time with your wallet while they're
distracted you on the machine if they're
not helping themselves to your wallet
they may be helping themselves to you're
a champion your debit card we have to
put in the Machine and you're put in
your PIN card they'll be watching as you
put in your PIN number and then they'll
distract you somehow and while they do
that they'll take your debit card of
pocketing for themselves and tell you
that well will the machine in your card
you should also be aware of people on
the street selling you eater tickets
there's a lot of theater shows in London
in particular the theater district
people approach you with discount
tickets they're Half Price
they're VIP tickets don't buy theater
tickets from anybody on the street buy
them from the TKTS booth which is in
Leicester Square or from the actual
now you might be saying but Chris what
if we get a really good deal you know
what really good deals are usually too
good to be true and sometimes the other
ticket vendors they might tell you
things like well these are VIP tickets
or they're special tickets and it turns
out they're really not that VIP beware
of fake designer goods in street markets
London has a lot of street markets and
the market in particular is one of them
right designer goods that are really
cheap like that Louis Vuitton handbag
that's 50% off chances are it's not the
real Louis Vuitton handbag so something
that happens in these street markets are
auctions you'll be walking by and a
bunch of people be bidding on something
but it's not really a real auction
they're just trying to get excitement up
so that they hope you bid on it too and
you don't pay attention to the fact that
it's actually not the real article but
on versus 20 pounds you want to get that
right well you won't be skin why hasn't
seen this video ok so we're back in the
hotel so you can hear me well because
this one is important a common tourist
scam whether this is a scam or illegal
well I mean it's both is theft
pickpocketing theft and so we'll start
with pickpockets pickpocketing is super
prevalent in London pickpocketing
wallets pickpocketing things out of your
bags you really need to be careful to
make sure you know your things are and
you don't have any things that say
robbed me immediately you can buy these
anti-theft bags I like bags and pacsafe
we're gonna talk about that a little bit
I've had these bags for like nearly 20
years and they've never been
pickpocketed from the bag so in this
case my bag was stolen entirely but we
can talk about solutions about how to
solve that
another type of theft is moped theft and
so what happens here is you'll be
standing around and you'll be using your
cell phone and when you're using your
cell phone on the street on the sidewalk
somebody will come up on a moped it's
often two people on the moped one
person's driving it the second persons
on the back the second person is just
there to grab your phone out of your
hands as they continue to go by on the
moped and yes you saw who did it but you
can't chase after them because there
already gone by the time you compose
yourself so if you are standing around
and you're looking at your phone you
know maybe stand by the wall don't have
your phone out if you'd like to talk on
your phone a lot maybe use some wireless
earbuds and keep your phones in your
pocket there have been signs across the
city to warn people about moped thefts
that have happened in that area you
could imagine if they do it for your
phone they do it for your bag as well
and so if you're walking try to put your
bag if you have a shoulder bag on the
side that's away from the street not
towards the street all right so I talked
about pickpockets I talked about moped
theft and now what happened to me
they just stole my entire bag so Oh see
girl my wife and I we were eating at
this restaurant called mother mash it's
near kind of between Piccadilly Circus
and Oxford Circus we were seated outside
but our table was right next to the
building of the restaurant it was about
7:45 in the evening we had just sat down
to eat I had a big shopping bag of some
stuff and I had my camera bag and I put
it just to the left of my leg on the
floor in eyesight so that when I'm
looking at the table I can see my bag
just down here and I'm like well it's
between my left leg and the wall so this
is a pretty good place for my bag well
five between the time I put my bag there
and five minutes later my bag was gone I
looked down I went to actually take out
Topher to take a picture of Topher and
realized that Topher my lovely traveling
panda was gone along with my camera and
everything that was in the bag they left
the big shopping bag there cuz that was
that was too big for them to get out but
my camera bag that I had on top of it
that was gone now I mention it was in my
eyesight what happened well at some
point the bags right down here that I
can see it at some point the waitress
comes to take my order and now I'm
looking over here at the waitress who's
taking my order
I guarantee that is when that bag
disappeared didn't see it didn't notice
it but as soon as I noticed that there
were some people who said yeah there was
somebody behind you he went that way but
we didn't notice that he took anything
there were people sitting in a table
just to the next of us who actually kind
of like Anna
counter looking at us they didn't see
anything I mean it was one of those
where I like to consider myself a pretty
savvy traveler and this was one where
this person was good now that doesn't
mean it's okay it really sucks and I
hate them for doing it and so what
should I have done better and what could
you have done better well I mentioned I
carry this pack saved Metro safe bag
what I did wrong was it wasn't chained
down when we went to the police station
to file a police report about it the
taxi driver basically was like yeah
anything in London now that's not
chained down it's basically gone and the
pack safe bags they they they're a
shoulder bag and it has a strap that's
designed to detach so you can loop it
around something and then reconnect it
again
I should have looped that around the
chair and so that way if they went to
take it it wouldn't go because the
shoulder strap would be connected to the
chair other option put your shoulder
strap of your bag or your backpack like
around your leg or the leg of the chair
or just keep I should have kept the bag
on my lap even though it's uncomfortable
I'm seated outside if I had my arm
looped through that shoulder strap they
would not have been able to take it the
way they take right these criminals they
don't do it by force and I know in the
video that I put out earlier I talked
about it happened I said I was robbed
and it wasn't robbery because it wasn't
a gunpoint it wasn't a knifepoint
they don't want to be noticed and so
they're gone before I even noticed and
then when we called the police what's
there to do about it nothing oh and a
lot of people said hey Chris you know
you should have looked in the trash cans
or the dumpsters cuz the crook might
have like thrown your bag in there you
know we actually spent about 30 or 45
minutes after the bag was stole I'm kind
of combing a three-block radius just
going further and further out looking in
the trash cans and the dumpster is
hoping that the bag was there and our
case it wasn't but there are many people
that said they've been pickpocketed many
of you fellow explorers that said when
your bag was stolen you were able to
find it in a nearby dumpster because
I'll say you know I can replace the
camera but unfortunately you know our
good friend Topher is not as replaceable
as those electronic items so when you
come to London don't let your guard down
don't think you know what this place
seems pretty safe I don't have to pay
the same amount of attention to my stuff
as I might in Italy or Paris because I
look at those places and I know
everybody's trying to rob me but you
know what in London everybody's trying
to rob you here - it's really
unfortunate but it is the case so please
learn from me and don't be a victim
yourself now if you are planning to come
to London you might enjoy watching some
my other videos you can click right here
for my London things to know video you
can click right here for the entire
playlist of my entire London series
videos on cheap beats can the market and
weird things to do in London well I
won't say goodbye because I'm gonna see
you in one of those videos