Don’t Be Fooled: These Are The Most Common Tourist Scams

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Travelers beware, don’t let locals take advantage of you when you travel. No need to be paranoid, just be watchful for some popular tricks. These are the most common tourist scams – and how to keep yourself from falling victim.

Friendship Bracelets

The Trick: Street vendors may approach you with a string bracelet and say that they want you to help with a demonstration, that the bracelet is free or that you should just try it on. But they’ll tie the bracelet on your hand and demand money.

The Fix: Don’t let anyone put anything in your hands or on your body.

Taxi Meters

The Trick: A taxi driver might tell you the meter is broken, then charge you a crazy high rate.

The Fix: Check to make sure your ride has a working meter and only take official taxis (not the sketchy cars waiting down the block from the taxi stand).

Overbooked Hotels

The Trick: Taxi drivers or helpers at information booths claim your hotel is overbooked and say they can bring you somewhere else with open rooms. They’ll suggest a much more expensive spot and probably get a cut of the profits.

The Fix: Stick with your original travel plans unless you hear otherwise from the actual hotel.

ATM Assistance

The Trick: A schemer offers to help you locate an ATM or avoid local bank fees, and just so happens to get a glimpse of your pin number. If there’s a card skimmer in the machine stealing your card number too, you could lose hundreds.

The Fix: Always go to the ATM alone or with trusted friends and cover the machine as you enter your pin.

Helpful Photographers

The Trick: An eager passerby will offer to take a photo of your group in front of a fab tourist hub. While you’re cheese-ing for the pic, they’ll disappear – along with your camera.

The Fix: Rely on fellow tourists to snap your photo and do the same for your fellow travelers.

Fake WiFi

The Trick: Tech-savvy thieves set up free, unsecured WiFi networks in public places and when travelers connect, hackers can get access to their passwords, online accounts and potentially credit cards.

The Fix: Don’t connect to unsecured WiFi networks.

Rental Damage

The Trick: You rent a car/scooter/motorcycle for the day and when you return it, the salesperson claims you damaged the vehicle. Your bill is now sky-high.

The Fix: Take photos of your rental as soon as you get it to prove that scratch was there before you took the vehicle out for a spin.