Hi there! This is Conor, the Language Tsar,
and in this video I'm going to give you
an overview of the five most common
scams that I encounter when traveling in
Europe in particular. So the first thing
is why so many scams if you're traveling
as opposed to if you live in the city.
That's because travelers are vulnerable
targets for scam artists or thieves
because they're not really completely
comfortable with their environment when
they're traveling, there may be the
stress because they're you having to
jump from transport that's unfamiliar to
them obviously, unfamiliar routes across
the city or across the country, so it
really sucks. I mean who likes to be scammed?
No one! No one likes losing their
money and been maybe embarrassed about
what happened to them. First scam that
especially here in Eastern Europe or
even in Central Europe that I see happen
a lot is people being approached
normally by attractive women that
usually target single men or groups of
young men and it goes in normally two
forms. One is that they are approached on the
street. Number two that they're really
kind of approached via dating apps
when they make obviously a step
themselves because they're on a dating
app, so it can be something like Tinder or maybe a
website. So basically the crutch of the
scam is going to be to lead this
vulnerable man or maybe young group of men to
an establishment where they're basically
be overcharged; that's the basic premise.
In Eastern and Central Europe women tend to be
very attractive, I guess it can happen in
every country but particularly in these
countries women are very attractive and
a lot of men travel to these countries
hoping in part to meet beautiful girls,
so it's kind of as if they've already been a little bit programmed by the decision to go
there that they're vulnerable for this
kind of scam so I saw a lot say in
Budapest or in Prague is that there's a
girl approaches and normally they push
them in English and they pretend they
have some sort of problem or some sort
of normal question, looking for
directions and then they kind of
befriend them and they strike up a
conversation and then after such an
amazing start to their meeting they
suggest that they go somewhere and drink
and of course where they bring them is
going to be completely overpriced so
maybe they go to a bar and then at the
after ordering drinks, food, whatever
it happens to be in the place the girl will
suddenly have to leave and the guy is then
stuck with a big bill. And of course there
were ... all these places that are protected
by large bouncers who will come over and
then ensure that you pay up. Another way
that seems new because technology
moved on a little bit and allowed more
opportunities to meet people which is great
but it can also allow scammers a good
opportunity to get introduced to you; that's
dating apps so things like Tinder are
very popular among single travelers
because, you know, if you don't have a
network in the city then, yeah, it can be
tricky to meet people so it's at lleast
harder so the dating app like Tinder
can really fill the void there. One way
is of course that you meet someone over
Tinder and they do basically the same
thing: they suggest meeting somewhere
maybe directly in a restaurant or a club
or they just meet the victim and then
bring them there and then at the end of
course they're completely overcharged. I
saw this happen in Eastern Europe in
Odessa.
I met a Portuguese guy, he told me that's
basically what happened to him, that they had
ordered some champagne and some
seafood platter but in the end the bill
came and it was enormous. It was
something like 300 euros and the bill
should have been ... I actually had
the bill, I took a look at it, a real bill
would have been about 30, so they got
charged ten times more so you really have
to be careful if you're travelling to
avoid that scam especially if you're
a young guy and a lovestruck for all those
beautiful Eastern and Central European
girls.
So the second scam that we gonna discuss
in this video is being shortchanged, when you've
been given the wrong change when you go
and buy something. In Moscow I remember
on the metro I went to buy some metro
tickets I gave the lady behind in ... at the
cashier a large note and then she
I remember she gave me back one note and
then kind of waited to see if I take
it or not but of course maybe she was
giving me about half my change back, she
was hoping that I wouldn't notice and I
would think that that's all she had to
give me back.
I also saw this happening in Kyiv once or
twice. People just gave me the wrong
change and then I was like yeah where's
the rest of it? So you really have to
just be aware of the currency where you
are because I mean here it's going to be
grivnia. If you're not, you know, really
familiar with the exchange rate or maybe
the... the banknotes
themselves or how the currency looks like
then you leave yourself more open
if you're being rushed or if someone is
kind of pressurizing you into accepting
change not to really understand that
they're not giving you the full value
that they should be. So that third scam
that I want to make you aware of
especially here in Europe is this kind
of friendship bracelet scam. So basically
what happens is someone will approach
you and offer you for free a little
trinket like a little friendship
bracelet trying to strike up some sort
of rapport with you and once you accept
it. They will then pester you for money
because they're not planning to become
your friend or give you anything for
free. So if someone offers you something
a kind of, you know, it's out of place
that they're offering people friendship bracelets
you've never met. Just ignore
them, walk by. But unfortunately a lot of
tourists stop and they'll get drawn to a
conversation and they feel bad and other
people basically pester them non-stop
until they get some money out of them.
They may also try to pickpocket you I
guess. So when people approach you, walk
on and this is not a good reason to stop
and talk to them. So the fourth scam I
want to make you aware of is wrong
orders just receiving the wrong item
after you've ordered it. Of course it is
invariably going to be a lot
more expensive. So it's not that you get,
you know, overcharged in the sense that
they just rip you off and charge you ten
times the price than something it should be worth.
They actually bring you something
else. I saw this happen in Odessa
in the south of Ukraine by the seaside
to a friend. He ordered a bottle of
champagne and they brought a bottle to
him and said yeah that bottle that you ordered is not available but here here
is another bottle is that okay with? You know,
of course he just answered and said
yes. That bottle of champagne was more than ten
times more expensive. If I remember
correctly, the final bill was four
hundred and fifty dollars and he thought
he was buying something for about twenty
five. So there you go that's what can
happen if you don't pay attention and
they bring you something that you didn't
actually want. So just be aware ...
what exactly you're ordering and what it
should look like and what the price
should be. Just always double check. So
the fifth and final scam that I wanna go
into is basically pickpocketing but this
pickpocketing with some sort of
deception that targets travelers. I can
remember Barcelona in particular being a
really dodgy city in terms of
pickpocketing. As walking down the street
Las Ramblas in the center of the city and
they would just target a lot of tourists
and you would even see the thieves sprinting up
and down the thoroughfare having robbed
someone unfortunately. Once someone tried to
play the I think you can call it the
Ronaldo deception or distraction trick
where they came over and they started talking about
a football match and then they put their
leg between your legs claiming that yeah
they're trying to show you exactly a
football trick. It's just a deception. Their
buddies are going to come behind you and
grab your wallet while you're not paying
attention. So another variation on these
pickpocket distraction scams was
played on a friend of mine when we were
Italy when we're in Bologna in Italy. And
that's like they pretend that they're
gonna...that they're throwing a baby to you,
right, so you see a couple and they have
a baby in their arms and something they
throw it to you so your first reaction
is to reach out and grab the baby
because you think well there's a baby
about to fall on the ground. As soon as you
put your arms out and grab the baby
their accomplices have come behind and
they've got your wallet or your
valuables immediately and they're off. And that was not
really a baby that they threw at you. It was
actually a doll so they have it
camouflaged so it looks like a baby.
Terrible! So as a bonus tip - be really
careful with taxis in general. I have a
whole video about
taxi scams and how much I really dislike
the taxi mafia but fortunately taxi
mafia is being completely undermined
at the moment by technology and that's
because today you can use apps like Uber
is very popular. And there are always a local taxi
app and there you can track exactly the
price, the kilometers you travel, the exact
distance you travel, what the price
should be. Plus you have a link back to
the taxi driver. For example if you
forget something in the taxi, it's a lot
easier to contact the taxi driver if you
already have his contact details or a way of
contacting him through an app so I really
encourage you to use those apps when you're
traveling really helps a lot for
avoiding being scammed by taxi drivers
in particular. So they are the five most
common scams that I've been aware of
traveling around Europe. I've gone to
every single country, all 50 countries in
Europe. I have a good overview of the
scams are playing this part of the world.
Let me know in the comments section below
the video if you've encountered these scams,
been a victim of them, seen happen, seen
other scams that I haven't mentioned
here, have seen scams that are similar in
other parts of the world. Write me
all that good stuff. It's great to hear
your experiences. Give this video a big
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see you in the next video.
Happy and safe traveling!