20 of the BIGGEST TOURIST SCAMS in the World

these are 20 of the most common tourist scams that Target Travelers around the world and I decided to this video because a few months ago when I was staying at a hotel at Walt Disney World they left this card in my room which really got me to thinking wow if Disney puts this card in people's room to talk about the scams that Target Disney Travelers then these scams must be pretty common which got me thinking I need to share these with you what does this card say well I'm gonna put this card up on the screen right here so you can read it and so that I can read it and the card says um you know thank you for staying at the Walt Disney World Resort and boy this is hard to point this way thank you for staying at the Walt Disney World Resort we're really excited to have you here but remember these are the scams now remember exercise caution when discussing your sensitive personal information over the telephone or in person and use caution when discussing your credit card number over the phone and do not give your credit card information on any incoming calls you received so what is happening at Disney world that they need to put this in everybody's room the happiest place on Earth that doesn't want to scare people but definitely wants them to be aware enough that they don't get scammed so this is scam number one and this scam targets people in hotels anywhere around the world and the way this scam occurs is someone calls your hotel room they identify themselves as working for the hotel working down at the front desk something has happened to the hotel's computer system and they need to re-verify your credit card number or they need your credit card number again and you think well this person other calling on my phone and they've identified themselves for the front desk of course they work for the hotel but the way it works out is that many people call hotels well these scammers in fact and they just ask for random room numbers hoping to be connected to somebody and it often occurs in the middle of the night they might say something like their computer systems crashed and they need to get it right now before they rerun the audit and accounting or something and it's two in the morning and you're groggy and so you provide your credit card information so as Disney says right here never give your credit card information over the phone to anybody from your room even if they identify themselves as the hotel staff if they've really had a problem with your payment information and it has happened to me where hotels have had problems with the payment information your best bet is that you know what I'll go downstairs and talk to somebody at the front desk and get this resolved or you can call the front desk back hang up call again be like hey did somebody just call me about this nah your information's fine all right hey that is really great okay so let's go ahead and go into scam number two now one of the second most common tour scams that uh Target Travelers this one also happens in hotels and it's a different way of getting your credit card information these aren't people that uh call you up and ask for it these are people that deliver fake food menus under your door you know we've all been in hotels we've gotten a restaurant menu from a pizza restaurant or a Thai restaurant or Chinese delivery advertising that they're a restaurant in the neighborhood and they'll deliver food to your rooms well would you believe that there are people who make fake food menus for restaurants that don't exist and deliver those on their doors and when you call them someone answers and they'll be happy to take your order based on that menu except your food's Never Gonna arrive but you will get some charges on your credit card that you provided them for your food to get delivered I think this is probably more prevalent in the time before Uber Eats and doordash and food delivery apps you know if you want to get food delivered to your room definitely order it from one of the apps that are legitimate or if there's a local restaurant that you want you know don't call the number on the flyer look them up on Yelp or Google Maps and find the actual number for the actual restaurant that you're looking to go to uh and I know on the live stream um Kathy is at Disney World right now I'm Kathy are you staying at a Disney World hotel did you get one of these in your room I am curious and James says scammers Disneyland there's no limit to how low people will go to scam people there is definitely no limit to how low scammers will go to Target anybody frankly um all right the third thing uh that targets people around the world traveling and this people before they go but it happens all the time with airbnbs all the time happens often fake airbnbs yes people list accommodations on the Airbnb website that don't actually exist or they advertise a place that does exist but it's not actually theirs so when you get there and you try to like check into the room or that it's a condo or something like that they're like I don't know what you're talking about um an actual place but it wasn't there so it's not for rent um and you know what yes Airbnb does have systems in place to refund you if something like this happens but then you've ended up in a destination where you thought you were going to have a place to stay until you discover that it's not the place you want to stay because you don't have a place and then all of a sudden you don't have a place to sleep um and so now you have to like scramble to find a last minute hotel or other Airbnb which is sure to cost you even more money so how do you avoid the fake Airbnb listing Well one you look at the reviews you look to make sure that this unit actually has some reviews uh you look at how well they're written to make sure they're like legitimate reviews and if it doesn't have any reviews but where um you could also check the host to see uh if they have any reviews and also if the price seems too good to be true you know if you're going to New York City and all the hotels are running for 500 a night and this Airbnb is 75 maybe it doesn't actually exist some other common Airbnb scams are more than just the um fake place but also the bait and switch where your host they advertise something that looks really nice and then they message you and Something's Happened and so for some reason that accommodation is no longer available so they're going to offer you a different accommodation which is like way worse than the original one and so um you know if the host on Airbnb if they're trying to like talk to you off the platform they're trying to like text me or call me or let's talk on WhatsApp you don't want any of that because you want to make sure communication is all documented so that if there is a problem you can let Airbnb know and say Hey you can see this host uh tried to scam me and uh the final fraud that I want to mention on Airbnb before we go on to number four uh is by hosts making false claims related to damage that guests have caused to their units as a way of them making more money so they can charge you extra these my recommendation to you when you get into your Airbnb is like uh take some pictures take pictures of everything or take a video walk through so you've got proof of what that room looked like when you walked in and or the unit walked in you could do the same thing when you leave or make a hotel review like we do here on yellow Productions uh common travel scam number four and there's another one that targets people as they're planning travel is not just fake airbnbs or fake units but fake booking websites entirely uh there are people who set up websites that look like legitimate hotel booking websites they may look like a legitimate airbnb.com or they may look like a legitimate hyatt.com and the way they often get you to like come to their website as often by sending a phishing email they send emails to just whole bunch of email addresses that they got from whatever reason and say something like hey Marriott's having a special Airbnb is having a special click here for 75 off hotels and the site you know probably looks very legitimate except it like it turns out it's not you know it's the site the scammer setup that will happily take your credit card but won't actually book the hotel and so you know whenever I get like an email about like a really great deal hey um you know again if it sounds too good to be true maybe it is but if it's for merit if it's from Airbnb you can go straight to the Marriott website or the Airbnb website and find those sales that they generally provide too um I would also be aware today in the world of like search engine aggregators where you know you can go to TripAdvisor and it lists like you can book this hotel in these 27 places or you can book this flight in these 27 different places you know same thing applies to flight not just hotels right there are fake Airline booking websites where you know their price is half of what everybody else is so that's a good deal except you put your money in and you don't actually get an airline ticket uh so definitely be where James says people are so eager to travel now that all these scammers trying to catch it that's right because people are going and saying I don't want to spend a thousand dollars on a room that's how much it costs and so I'm willing to like book places that I'm unfamiliar with and so you know book with legitimate first parties the hotel website that you know because you typed it in it's bookmarked the airline directly or travel aggregators that you know hotels.com Expedia etc etc and if it's you know Bob's Airline booking engine look maybe there might be one of those and so Bob if that's you not talking smack about you but never heard of it price is too cheap just go ahead and stay away points traveler says do you think kayak displays fake listings for flights and hotels I don't think they would knowingly do that but that's not to say that some third-party search engine that they send you to couldn't have potentially possibly gotten in there you know and so that's why I say like if there's one that shows up as half the price of everybody else that's the one that you do have to be really suspicious of um yeah the Wu-Tang life points out there are a lot of scam advertisements selling stuff on Facebook they send you nothing or something cheap random item for sure one You definitely want to be aware of are people um like reselling Airline gift cards this will be one where they're like hey I've got a 300 gift card for this Airline and I'll resell it to you for 150. you get it and turns out you can't redeem it you know they're also known to be Airline employees who resell their like um non-rev tickets where they'll get tickets to fly their uh family around and then try to resell it to other people and you know maybe the ticket's valid until that employee gets fired and then when you try to get on the flight there is no such ticket uh and so definitely don't buy anything travel related on Facebook or any Online Marketplace uh yeah and Amber points out and this is a great tip which is like look at the third party aggregators to monitor deals and then book direct especially good with flights when price watching I will say there are some third-party aggregators that I book with like when we went to Japan we did book some of our hotels with what did we use this time um gosh it was Agoda we used a Goda to book some of our Japanese our hotels in Japan but I also made sure after I made the Agoda booking I trust Agoda but I also I called the hotel to be like hey do you have this reservation because I want to make sure that when I get there like they have the reservation too it's not a scam but there have been travel aggregators known to take a reservation and then doesn't make it to the hotel or the hotel closed since the time the reservation was booked so you should definitely be aware of that too all right big tourist scam number five uh rip-off bars there are rip-off bars around the world I highlighted this in my video I did on Tokyo scams and um yes you know what there are even people who will scam Travelers in Japan you know one of the most honest countries in the world and at least the way this works in Tokyo it often happens in Shinjuku particularly in the kibukicho neighborhood but you'll also see it in Shibuya Roppongi places where there are a lot of bars that cater to International tourists and the way it works is there's somebody on the street who advertises really cheap drink prices at said bar and they might advertise something like uh you know beer is a dollar but often the way it works in Japan is they often advertise all you can drink specials so they'll say something like come to this bar and it's all you can drink for four thousand yen well it's maybe 40 US dollars and that seems like you know that's a reasonable amount to pay for all you can drink and legitimately they will give you all you can drink for four thousand yen for 30 minutes which they don't really tell you you know it's in tiny text in the corner who hope to have seen but they figure most people aren't paying attention they're drunk they exceed the 30 minutes they order their next drink at 31 minutes and that drink is no longer free and it's probably not even 4 000 Yen it's probably now 40 000 Yen four hundred dollars um and this scam takes place around the world uh you know I've got friends who were scammed with bars like this in Paris where you know they advertise the first beer as one euro and then the second beer was a hundred Euro uh and so anytime somebody on the street is trying to get you into a drinking establishment that's probably where you want absolutely nothing to do with that establishment you don't want to go to the one that's on basement level four or level eight of a building you want to go to the ones that are on ground floors that are busy that nobody is beckoning you to come in uh yeah Melissa says doesn't Vegas have the same type of scam except for nightclubs you'll be in the VIP line you'll come in right away uh and and they do Melissa um you know this is uh but but the way the way the scam in Vegas often works is so these are things where they're like yeah you'll get the VIP line you'll come in right away and the nightclubs give those to people to basically give away on the Strip you know they're like hey to this person who's a nightclub promoter the nightclubs give it to them to say hey give these out to people on the strip and it says they come in right away as long as they come in before 8 p.m and then if they redeem if you redeem that voucher that you got from the person on the Strip the nightclub will compensate that person who gave it to you for like getting somebody in the nightclub uh like the fine print is that they're only valid during very specific times and so you probably want to get there when everybody else gets there and in that case it's not valid and then it's not free and you got to pay a cover charge the real scam is when the nightclub promoters on the Strip try to sell you those tickets which they get for free and they get money from if you redeem it and then they're trying to sell it to you when it wasn't designed as a like it's not actually like a ticket right it doesn't like guarantee you admission it just says hey come here when it's free and it's probably free anyway I mean different nightclubs do it uh differently but Brandon says the fine print gets everyone it's always the fine print that does get everyone so Cal Seth says Vegas also has the time share skip Vegas does have the time share scams um which you know in the top 20 I wasn't even going to get into the timeshare scams on this video um all right so uh you know another one on this notion of like rip-off bars to be aware of is also this often happens to men traveling around the world but men using like uh dating apps and places to like meet up with uh girls it could certainly happen the other way around girls with guys but the person that you meet up with is you find somebody who says like hey let's meet up and let's go to this bar this person just like works the dating app and their goal is to bring people to this bar which turns out they work for um and is the scam bar that charges you a ton of money too so beware if you meet somebody on one of these dating apps in a country or city that's foreign to you and they like really have to go to this one bar but where all right common tour scam number six uh this one is I'm gonna call this one I'm gonna put this in the category of shady business practice so definitely the first five we talked about are like criminals that are trying to steal your hard-earned money number six this is one where I feel like the banking or the financial sector is just trying to take easy money from a baby they're trying to take candy from a baby you're a baby as a traveler and this one's called Dynamic currency conversion this one happens around the world but in particular it happens when you're using credit cards or you're using debit cards at ATMs or at point of sale terminals at restaurants or shops and the way this works is the ATM or the point of sale terminal detects that you're using a card that is foreign from the country that you're in so I'm going to use just Thailand as a specific example so if you're in Thailand and you have a credit card from the USA when you put that into the ATM or a debit card or an ATM card it will detect that your card is not from Thailand and when you make the withdrawal it'll come up it'll say hey you know you're looking to withdraw uh 10 000 Thai baht which is the equivalent about 300 US Dollars and it'll say Hey you can do that and you can withdraw in Thai bot or we can give you the convenience by Dynamic currency conversion of converting this transaction to your local currency so that you don't have to pay any International withdrawal fees and we'll do this for you for just a small convenience fee so instead of withdrawing ten thousand Baht um you'll withdraw 330 US Dollars um in Thai baht which if you do the math on here was roughly like a 12 fee for the transaction it is generally a really bad deal to accept the dynamic currency conversion and the ATMs and the point of sale terminals they know that the Travelers aren't doing the math on the Fly and they're like well I know I pay an international conversion fee from my bank which is maybe like three percent I want to avoid that so sure I'll take it in my local currency except that turns out to be a many times more expensive proposition so in general avoid the dynamic currency conversion and instead withdraw it in local conver currency pay the international fee or better yet find a credit card or an ATM card that doesn't charge you any International withdrawal fees common tour scam number seven is free character photos this is one when I posted um the announcement of this live stream somebody says like Chris you definitely need to talk about this and the good news is I've already got it in here so this particularly happens in places like Hollywood Las Vegas New York City um you know and even in places like the streets of Paris and people stand on the street dressed as some sort of kind of famous character Spider-Man Superman in Las Vegas even a Las Vegas showgirl and they're very friendly to you as you pass by and you know the Showgirls might be like hey come and take a picture with us like that's the comma hey good to see hey come and take a picture with us and you go over and your friend or whoever you're traveling with takes a picture of you and then the Showgirls or Spider-Man or Batman or whoever then pressure you to pay them an outrageous fee for the photo and I don't mean like three dollars I mean like 30 dollars something outrageous and of course you're not obligated to pay anybody any money for taking a picture of them on a public street by the way these Showgirls people take the free photos because they think the Showgirls work for the casinos and they're there with promotion but they don't they just work for themselves as people to be like give us my take photos the reason why I consider this a scam is because they don't advertise the price up front they don't say hey come and take a photo with us for twenty dollars uh instead they just say come and take a photo and then they try to pressure the people for an exorbitant amount of money so if you see uh yes a very non-heroic Batman or Superman on the street and you're not inside Disneyland or Universal Studios or inside the casino or inside the place on the street people that are dressed up as characters they are um characters of their own uh Melissa says I took a picture with Hello Kitty in Times Square she wanted money I said no way and walked away I got lucky a lot of them will get violent nowadays yeah they're and that's how they get their money right like it works for them and so instead just avoid avoid these people uh or you know if you really want that picture negotiate your price up front so that you know what you're actually getting into uh and SoCal Seth says it's totally a fake Batman who does those photos indeed and Brandon says walk with purpose and avoid the scammers um by the way if you are enjoying this video Brandon says hey please help out the yellow Productions crew by liking this video I would definitely appreciate as you do and every like of this video goes to feed a piece of Premium bamboo to all those hungry pandas in the back thank you very much common tourist scam number eight are fake theater event nightclub tickets we've already talked about the kind of fake nightclub tickets that they're like legitimate tickets coupons to get you know the nightclub that people on say the strip or in New York City try to sell you um but there will also be people trying to sell you legitimately fake tickets legitimately fake is that is that a word is that a phrase what I mean by legitimately fake I mean they aren't going to get you a seat right they look like a ticket but they're not going to get you into that showing of cats or that showing of rent or you know that's showing of Hamilton whatever it is people on the street who want to sell you anything probably um too good to be true same things on Facebook if you find Show tickets on Facebook I would not buy them from there uh buy your tickets from the box office or the physical ticket booth or a physical ticket booth if it's got a physical location it's likely legitimate in New York City I in Times Square this is a place called the tkts booth yes they sell discount tickets for like all the Broadway shows they're legitimate people also ask me about in Las Vegas on the Strip do those ticket booths on the Strip are they legitimate if they're like a booth in a building and this and that and they pay rent they're legitimate um also don't buy your tickets from some random website you've never heard of for all the reason that we've talked about before this also comes in the form of like not fake Show tickets but cheaper things like fake sightseeing bus tickets you want to go on the Hop On Hop off bus tour you know yes your tickets are usually thirty dollars but I'll I got an extra one I'll sell it to you for five mm-hmm I'm sure all right by the way I'm thirsty what am I drinking today today I am drinking Bundaberg ginger beer Australian family owned like root beer except um more gingery tasty um Seth says so I'm not going to see Frank Sinatra at this fall Seth did you buy your ticket on the Strip for five dollars if so I am sorry uh yeah and then there's a whole talk in the chat about scalpers uh and yes scalpers are definitely evil um okay uh number nine tour scam number nine is fake designer Goods um this I find is like most prevalent in Europe and also Asia I don't see this a lot in the US I mean you can find that at some swap meets and places like that for sure but like in London in the Street Markets or in Paris around the Eiffel Tower or in Rome around the Vatican you'll see all these people on the street selling designer purses often they carry the designer purses in like like bed sheets you know so they can like roll the bed sheet up and like walk around on their back with it and when they're ready to open up shop they just let the bed sheet out and they got all these designer purses to sell of course they're not I mean nobody's nobody's bringing a real uh Chanel bag in a in a bed sheet around uh and so the reason why you need to be particularly aware of this stuff is not just because you're getting a cheap knockoff but that um particularly in Europe like France and Italy because these designers are from there they feel like legitimately uh they feel like these people selling the knockoffs are taking business away from their real companies in those countries and so when people export them out of the country like if they look through your luggage and they've found that you've bought fake stuff you could actually be criminally liable for just being in possession of fake designer Goods so by the way if you did buy some fake designer Goods on your last trip to Rome and now you're going again you might want to leave that at home knowing that there are many of these countries that their customs look for that fake stuff and how do they know you didn't buy it this time you're just in possession of these fake designer Goods uh common tourist scam number 10 uh and this is one that Melissa points out with this comment she says also the CDs that people are handing out in Times Square a lot of them are just blank CDs and yes the people handing out CDs they're often rappers or hip-hop artists it's not just Times Square you see this on the Strip you see this in Los Angeles in Venice Beach these people standing around they're like hey check out my latest you know mix CD or mix album and look maybe some of them are legitimate but most of them aren't and what they do is when they give it to you for free just like the photo people they then ask you for some money it comes in the form of CDs it comes in the form of flowers it comes in the form of bracelets someone comes up and says hey I have a free flower for you look you know unless it's uh unless it's a holiday like Mother's Day and there's like a church group that's handing out free flowers you know okay maybe it's legitimate every once in a while but for the most part people who come up to you on the streets are uh offering you something for free they're really looking for something in return if they're not looking for money in return and they're giving you something free then it might be common to our scam number 11 which is they're looking to pick your pocket right that's another common way of offering something for you for free you know they hand something to you you're focused on them getting this free thing and one of their accomplices comes up to pick your pocket to relieve you of your wallet for the free rose bracelet or CD Now the pickpocket I think like everybody knows that there's pickpockets around the world uh but I think a couple to be aware a couple of like particular pickpocket scams that I want you to be aware of um is uh the first one is like the motorcycle snatching and I guess this is maybe less a pickpocket as more as it is robbery um but it's been prevalent in Europe where uh two people will ride a scooter and women who have a handbag you know the scooter will come up next to you even might drive up on the sidewalk and snatch your purse snatch your bag off your shoulder they might even have a a razor to cut the strap on the handbag so it's easier to take it so if you're walking along the sidewalk you know it's good to not walk right along the edge or even carry your purse on the inside side of the sidewalk instead of the street side side of the sidewalk you know if you're a guy like me and you're carrying a shoulder bag don't put your wallet in there you know keep those in your front pockets uh money purse something under your clothes can't hurt but it's not just bags and it's not just Europe in New York City there have been a string of robberies that happen just like this somebody riding the scooter somebody on the back of it and they've been stealing the Apple airpods Max off of people's heads that's right these 500 headphones that people walk around the city because they're pretty good and noise canceling off the subway they're so expensive that it's worthwhile for these Crooks to ride their scooter by and just take that off your head so uh be aware any like expensive thing you have that can easily be snatch in a place that Scooters or motorcycles can easily come up on the sidewalk you know keep those things away so that you are not a victim uh the other common like pickpocket scams happen often in train subway stations when you are buying a ticket in a place that you're not familiar with you stick out like a sore thumb uh you know where you're like I can't how does this machine work this and that and like then they're staying on the side and they're looking for the people that look really confused and then they come over and they're like can I help you um and this scam of them relieving you of your money or your credit card comes in many different ways but you don't want help from the random person in the train station if you need to get help go find station employee not the overly friendly person who just happens to appear magically by your side how did that happen where did they come from it's because they were looking at you I here have friendly photographers that ask if you want your picture taken there are legitimately friendly people in this world and I'm sure all of you on this live stream today are those kinds of people friendly honest people where you probably offer others to take their pictures but not everybody's like you you know there are people who offer to take your picture because they want your camera because they then want to run off with your camera if you're going to be asking other people to take your picture in public you know carry a inexpensive digital point and shoot camera not your phone that has your life Apple pay everything on it that you need to get around you know but something that if they do run off with it's okay better yet if you need somebody to take your photo go up to somebody and ask them rather than them asking you and you know as someone who has a three-year-old daughter you know ask somebody that has kids because they can't run very fast if they love their kid they can't run very fast they likely won't leave them there all right tip number 12. I tip number 12. uh scam number 12. this is a form of pickpocketing or robbery but in particular this is the newspaper distraction so if you are at a cafe or a restaurant or something like that you know what a lot of people do because everybody's got their phone a lot of people put their phone on the table in front of them and how is somebody going to steal your phone if it's on the table in front of you well they're going to have a newspaper or something and they're going to be like really um they might come over to strike a conversation with you ask what time it is ask how you're doing as part of the conversation they put their newspaper down on top of your phone and then when they leave they pick up their newspaper and they pick up your phone as they go so beware friendly people who come over you to your table and set something down on it because they may be looking to pick it up along with the thing that you had on your table don't put your valuables on the table put them away keep them in your pocket keep them in your purse and then the other form of this is they spill something on you and then while they're helping you to clean up the spill then they take whatever valuables you have on the table while you're not looking for this and if you're like Chris does this really happen this happened uh to people I know at a famous churro spot in Madrid Spain so yes this actually does happen uh and Seth says yeah this it can happen than any tourist spot in Europe Lou Versailles absolutely and point stroller says my mother always told me everyone does things with good intentions perhaps good intentions for themselves they could really use a new cell phone or camera and they could totally use yours uh Melissa says the good news is I also have a flip phone and no one wants it that is the best form of robbery or pickpocket protection just carry something cheap uh and Andy says not the churro spot not the churro spot all right and then Kathy who is at Disney World in Orlando today uh just I could finish the fairy from Magic Kingdom made it back to the car all right that's great Kathy um let's go on to number 13. uh so number 13 is the bag slash so I've talked about pickpocketers who like maybe slashed the thing to steal the whole bag but the more Insidious form of pickpocketing and this has also happened to people that I know is that often happens if you have a backpack on behind you is uh the pickpockets or thieves will come up with a razor or a knife and cut the bottom of the backpack uh so like there's often a place people for their wallet might put that in like the front pocket or the bottom pocket you know they might stand around and watch you and see where you put your wallet back in and as you walk out follow you for a long time to a point where you're standing winning across the street or in a busy area and then they just come up and cut that pocket you don't even notice it and then they take your wallet right out from the bottom and then you get some place and you go to pull out your wallet you stick your hand in that pocket only to find out your hand has gone out through the bottom so be very very careful if you are wearing a backpack on your back and you can't see it all the time I really like bags that have mesh embedded in the pockets there's number brands that do this the one that we carry all the time in our videos is pacsafe p-a-c-s-a-f-e they are slash proof shoulder bags backpacks everything under the Sun so if you're wearing one of those that will happen to you that's not to say they can't steal the whole bag which is what happened to us in London but they won't be able to slash it or steal it um unknowingly gmk says too many scams no more traveling that is definitely not why I'm making this video I think travel is super good gmk I'm sure you're just being funny uh by saying that uh Burton says newspaper scams news to me thanks to the great content my daughter's watching too but she is here for tover Ah that's fantastic bird let's see which Topher wants to come on up here it does is it Halloween yet Halloween Topher here says hi to Burton's daughter all right let's go ahead on to common tour scam number 14. fake Wi-Fi hotspots you know you are in an airport you're in a coffee shop and you want to connect to the Wi-Fi and you know Starbucks around the world has Wi-Fi access points but many coffee shops don't but you know you open your phone you see one that's named like the coffee shop and uh you're like cool this sounds good except it's not the coffee shop it's some scammer who you know sets up some captive portal that you've got to enter some information in they're looking to steal your information they're looking to steal some passwords definitely beware of random Wi-Fi access points that might not legitimately be operated by the business that you're connecting to how do you stop this um don't do sensitive things over Wi-Fi don't share sensitive information over public Wi-Fi it can help to use VPN software when you're connected to a public Wi-Fi hotspot and know this video is not sponsored by any VPN provider number 15 taxis a lot of places in the world taxis uh unfortunately scam visitors not in all places but in many places uh and one of the main forms of this or even people who aren't taxis they're people who stand in the airport stand in airports they stand in airports around the world do you need a ride do you need a taxi I will get you a taxi great is it out there at the taxi rank no no not a special taxi you got to follow me to the parking garage because it's not an actual taxi right the person's not licensed they're not charging fares they take you to their taxi in the parking garage and probably charge you three times the price that the legitimate taxi would have charged you out in front of the airport so never take a ride from a taxi driver who is walking around looking for customers you know legitimate taxi drivers they stay in their car that's how they find customers um right the scams like this you know if you get in a taxi and and you don't see a meter or they won't turn on the meter or they've covered the meter that's not a taxi that you want uh in some cases now taxis do have fixed prices from some airports Around the World Las Vegas is one where there's a fixed price and so they might not start the meter because it's a fixed price from the airport to a certain set of hotels or strips but in that case it's usually prominently displayed prominently displayed in the taxi probably displayed in the airport so you know what you're getting into not generally something that the taxi driver barks at you uh and um you know I mean the other one that's like it's like it's kind of in the world of Taxi scam or the taxi drivers who they just they want to drive you around longer so that they charge you more um I always like to have Google Maps open when my Taxi's taking me around so I can kind of pay attention to be like does this look like a reasonable route or do we look like we're going like in a figure eight to get where we're going um and uh so Melissa says I I was always told if you go to Vegas or whatever the city if they ask you where you're from just say the steady state so you're familiar with it yeah that's great um you know or you could say here but you know I'm here all the time or something like that it is definitely good for you to uh seem familiar with the place that you are as opposed to not um yeah points of traveler says do I pre-negotiate fares if they don't have meters I generally don't take taxis if they don't have meters but if you are in that situation then yes you make sure you pre-negotiate Affair definitely don't do it the other way where like you just get in the thing and you don't know what it's going to cost and then you end up at the other side and it's like you know 20 times the price that it actually should have been um Joshua says a taxi they do actually refill their tires but not deflate them where it makes more revolutions also when you stop uh it goes higher and uh Gene says another one is Taxi's not giving you the correct change yeah it's good pay attention uh to your change as you're getting it back you know certainly if you can use credit cards or things like that in a taxi boy even the better because you don't have to worry about um getting change back this is like that you know I like to support taxis around the world because I think it's an important economy but I feel like it's these scammy taxi drivers that have really made Rideshare Uber lift uh grab those things super popular because you know the price is what's advertised on the app and yeah they drive you and you pay it and you don't pay them and there's like it's hard to get scammed on ride share in comparison to how easy it is to potentially get scammed in a taxi but another kind of like scammy form of Transport around the world um rickshaws and pedicabs you know like these are the bicycle cabs or the ones that maybe they're not riding the bicycle in the front but they're like pulling you along um and look I'm sure there are some honest folks running rickshaws and pedicabs but most places in the world they're not regulated very well and so they can often charge you as much as you want they often prey on people who um don't speak whatever the native language is if it's here in the U.S they'll pronounce people people who don't speak English very well and then charge an exorbitant amount for a few minute ride um you know some people might say same thing for the the horse carriages at Central Park in New York I think they actually post like some price of what the horse carriages are they're really expensive uh and people who aren't paying attention don't pay attention to how expensive they are in order for the ride and then they're like wow I didn't know it was fifty dollars for like five minutes hmm that is crazy um and uh Michael Yip in the chat says uh it sounds just like the gondolas in the Venetian um and uh Joshua says uh cloak sometimes a set of rate where people accepted even natives um because as a foreigner they do that stuff all right tip number tip number well I got tip after all these about how to avoid it but common tourist scam number 17 there are scams on ride shares what's the ride share scam the Rideshare scam is when they ask you for cash so they'll be like hey that's the fair you need to pay it to me I mean you pay it on the app but they ask you for money too so that they could get like double the money uh and the most common one is they'll tell you something like the app broke something happened on the yeah you need to pay me because the app broke I'm not gonna get my money from Uber or Lyft and you want to make sure like I don't get broke or maybe they're like you need to pay me for the tolls um so if you do need to pay for the tolls then like you're generally the one paying the toll right like if you're that to be like and you get to a toll booth then you pay the toll but if they're paying the tolls electronically this and that it's all likely calculated into the ride share app um and if the ride share driver does take you like the long way this happened to me where I have had a ride share driver take us on like this route where it was like what the heck you took like two laps around the airport before you went out whether the driver meant to or not or they took the wrong turn um but then in the app there's like actually thing like the driver drove too long of a route and then the ride share apps will like recalculate the fare if they drove the shortest route to get there and then it'll recharge you what the more reasonable route fare is common tour scam number 18 it amazes me that this still exists around the world and when I talk about this people are like Chris no really does this exist um and it's the shell game also known as three card Monty this is where somebody stands out on the street with three shells or three cups or three playing cards they move them around and you know there's either a ball under one or there's a certain number of the cards and it's gambling you know you're trying to guess where the card is or where the ball is and I see this in Vegas every time I go in Vegas every time I go eventually on the Strip I'm gonna find some three card Monty game set up and you might come up to this and there's like all these people around the table and they're all having fun and they're hooting and hollering and the people playing or winning lots of money ostensibly from this schmuck who's standing there with these shells or these cups and it turns out all the people that are hooting and hollering around the table they're all in on the game and by that I mean they all work with the person who's operating the three-card money table because uh when you come and they might even let you win the first game because they want you to be like yeah look you found the card or you found the ball but then the second time you put a lot more money down and then and then you don't win and then all those people are watching around they get a portion of whatever you lost to that person playing three-card money if you're gonna gamble gamble a legitimate Casino don't gamble on the street to somebody with just a little bit of a TV tray or card table um yeah College full of love says I saw a video on that recently once they get a player they change the game so uh after you win once it's totally rigged that's absolutely how it works um and Wu Tang says agreed never play games on the street Nick says I love that game all right Nick I'm glad maybe you'll have to share your tips uh with us uh there are a couple more comments about taxis that I just want to share Amber says I had a cab in my own City and the guy was super Shady refused credit card which is illegal here became aggressive I have to stop at a bank in a mini mall then walked away to save people that's a good plan Amber if you're ever in a shady situation definitely just like ask ask to get out like end the ride like we're not we're not doing this anymore uh jdot says I was 23 alone in Istanbul after dark long story jumped into a cab back to my hotel because the leering men were making me nervous long story short the cab driver got more money because I was scared you know sometimes you right there might be situation where you're just okay I'll pay anything um to get out of here and in that case you know what you're doing you'll be like I don't care what the fair is just uh get me to uh safety uh and Jeff says if you do see three card money outside the casino should be reported they need a Gambling License to operate for sure um 19. common tour scam number 19. the tourist attraction whatever it is is closed uh this one often takes the form of some friendly person on the Street approaching you as you arrive at some tourist attraction in whatever City you're in and this friendly person comes up to you to let you know that the place that you're going to the temple the palace the castle whatever it's closed it's closed today it closed at two you're here at three whatever they want to let you know it's closed they want to let you know it's closed so that they can tell you a much better place to go to because they get Kickbacks for sending people to other place this happens a lot in Thailand and it happens a lot in Thailand in front of their uh Royal um their Royal Palace and you go to the Royal Palace somebody comes up to you and says the oh you're going to the Royal path yes clothes today uh but I got another place you go and then you're like it's closed are you sure it's closed I see the gate open and they'll be like well you know what just go up to it you'll see it's closed and they will direct you to the employee entrance of course it's all written in Thai and so most people that visit Thailand don't read Thai or speak Thai and the people who do security at the uh Royal Palace at the employee entrance they don't speak English or the language that most visitors speak and so when visitors come up to the employee entrance that the very friendly person told you to go to you know yeah I can't go in right no no you can't go in and you come back and you're like oh it is close Okay where do you think we should go because now the person legitimately provided you some good information you trust them so when they tell you to go to this other place which it's a scam it's a scam bar it's a medicine shop it's whatever you know anyway um right so be very uh leery of people on the street who aren't letting you know something is closed they might direct you to an entrance that you just might need to find another one because that one wasn't the right one you're at the back entrance but the front entrance is in fact uh still open yeah Brooklyn Joe says is that like the McDonald's ice cream machine at night you mean that it never works at night you know there's a whole thing about McDonald's ice cream machines like never working um and uh he ritl says the Moose at the front should have told you we were closed and yes Chevy Chase is uh Great Adventures um all right and uh 20. uh the final common tour scam is more than this but this is the top 20 that made my list are parking scams I find these particularly Insidious but these happen in places where you need to pay for parking and parking scams um are come in a couple of different forms the first one is where you park in a pay parking lot that you pay a machine to park in and the scam is not the parking lot or the machine but the scam is the person who then comes to pretend to be the parking attendant to take you money to take your money to park in this parking lot except they don't work in the parking lot um they're just taking your money and then they don't even pay the machine so later when the people who manage the parking lot come you didn't actually pay to park uh so these Lots this happens in like Los Angeles a lot they'll have big signs where they'll be like do not pay any person at this lot only pay the machine um so definitely be aware of that but I think the the most evil parking scams are the ones where parking lots and there's just like shady business practice where the parking lots advertise really come on um parking rates you know where there'll be like a big sign that'll say parking eight dollars and then in tiny text down below it says per 15 minutes but of course you're driving your car you just see parking eight dollars and then you go park and then you come back to your car four hours later and get charged What's um eight times fifteen times four it's public math you know a lot of money right um and so definitely beware in big cities when you see a price that that's actually the price that you're paying for all day that you're paying for right now many parking lots also advertise like in the US advertise like early bird parking specials that's the one they'll have up they'll be like parking ten dollars if you come in by 9 A.M you know if you come in after 9am 901 am it's no longer ten dollars it's now fifty dollars and yes those can legitimately be the difference in the prices between an early bird special and um an all-day parking at the end of the day now the last one I want to mention this is um probably less of a scam but this is one where like definitely a lot of people complain about uh cities particularly in the U.S and their parking enforcement one of the things a lot of U.S cities like to do is they like to have more Lanes to drive in during rush hour or traffic time and so they'll allow street parking on major streets uh you know between the hours of 10 a.m and 2 p.m and then after 8 P.M until 6 a.m but then if you're parking there between 7 A.M and 9 A.M it's no parking or again if you're parking there between 3 to 6 p.m it's no parking and in Los Angeles like I witnessed this when I went to Howland Ray's chicken they opened the new location and the parking on the street in front of Howland Rays is no parking three to six pm or three to seven p.m something like that and you know three o'clock three o'clock on the dock comes by it's not uh the like people coming just to give tickets to the cars it's the tow trucks that are coming by to tow the cars off the street ostensibly because they want the streets open for traffic to flow but it's also Money Maker for the cities uh it's a money maker for the tow trucks and so if you're touristing someplace boy particularly in La New York City you know where you're like you look at the street signs you're like I can't make heads or tails about whether I can park here go park in a parking lot that you pay for go park in a garage that you pay for um because you know your car is going to be there when you get back where if you park it on the street sometimes you don't know if it's going to be there when you get back and then if it isn't it's it's in an impound lot that where do you go to find that impound lot and then they impounded your car on a Saturday you got to pay more to get your car out on Saturday because they charge more money to get your car out on Saturday um Nick says I got scammed into paying an extra 30 for parking after paying 200 for a ticket this place called Disneyland they even had official cast member shirts oh that sucks Nick I'm sorry to hear that um Josh says St Louis parking areas for baseball games uh pretty legit scammers but you'll know the difference uh Jeff says Pittsburgh is also known for primarily displaying early bird specials and uh Brandon says parking he gave free time intense if it can which is why you know we've really just taken the approach to like hey if we're going we're going to a big city we're just gonna pay for parking um because we're gonna we're gonna get our car back fellow explorers it is now q a time if you've got a question I've got an answer [Music] all right Phil explorers well now you know 20 scams to be aware of when you head out for your next adventure it's q a time if you've got a question Now's the Time to toss in the chat if you're watching the archive ask a question there too I'll answer those and then in just a little bit we will give away a yellow Productions crew short as I usually do on these live streams all right uh so if you asked a question before and I didn't answer it go ahead and ask it again and just toss a question mark after it so I know it's a question uh the Wu-Tang life says another scam selling parking spaces for an event at someone's property that they don't own the land hoof that's a rough one um and uh Melissa says I could probably do a video with 300 tourist scams I probably could I I'd probably have to drink a lot more and I don't know that I would have a voice afterwards if I did that video that's going to be like the marathon yellow Productions live stream uh amber says taking an Uber it's cheaper than parking much at the time it's very true uh in uh really expensive parking cities Cottage full of vices how many of these scams have I been scammed by yeah you know I've definitely Fallen victim to the parking scams uh the tourist tracks is closed I I didn't fall scam to that one but somebody approached us on that one uh I've never taken a rickshaw pedicab we've definitely been tried to be scammed in a lot of taxis uh we've had our camera bag stolen people who watch this know that well um and uh yeah I think those are those are the scams that we have fallen victim victim to ourselves personally yeah and Brandon says the 300 scam uh will be a multi-hour live stream that's right uh Lan says I love your live stream thank you for the kind words Lance I appreciate it all right uh and I see here uh amber says yeah we're scam the worst scam was definitely told for being stolen well I mean we're still like it's still it's still a bummer but this uh this video is not uh not about Downer time we're about we're about exciting time and travel uh Grant says have you all booked your next trip yet not yet not yet uh as I was maybe mentioning earlier in the chat or I know it was the beginning of this one uh we were thinking about uh taking a Disney cruise for our next adventure um but haven't like decided legitimately yet but that's one of the things we are maybe thinking of um and why because uh during covet time they've like repositioned some Disney cruise ships to HomePort in San Diego uh and so if we take one out of San Diego we don't have to like take a flight anywhere previously they were all out of like Texas and Florida um which then we gotta like fly so it's even more expensive and in I think 2025 they're like repositioning the Disney ships again out of San Diego and so we're like well if there's a time to take a Disney cruise you know now's the time to do it it when we don't have to fly to take it uh Point traveler says what country have you traveled to where you feel the least susceptible to scammers um you know the three that I just traveled to I felt uh very unsusceptible to scammers uh you know even though I talked about scams in Japan we don't go to bars and so that's the tip in Japan if you don't go to bars you don't really fall victim to many scams so I feel Japan really an honest Place Singapore super honest you know High uh High capital punishment in Singapore um Taiwan pretty honest Place Canada um you know I've also felt pretty good about traveling too so those are probably the top four on my list the first three probably because we just uh went there Amber says what city have you been to this felt the most scammy Bangkok Thailand hands down I love the Thai people I love Bangkok a lot of scammers in that City though so that's the one where we were like oh we love this place just don't love all the scammers um you know I also feel like uh I mean Paris and London these big European cities because they have so many tours Rome too um have a lot of people that are just out looking to scam the tourists that are out there uh Joshua says is Disney Cruise better than Royal Caribbean having never been on either um I'm not the one to answer that but uh any fellow explorers want to let uh I want to answer that question uh you know holler um Brooklyn Joseph I just spent three days in San Francisco 65 a day to park so we took Uber and walked and climbed what felt like Mount Everest San Francisco does feel like Mount Everest but yeah San Francisco parking is really expensive too uh Adrian says hey um what camera and editing software do you use uh law that I use a lot of different cameras Adrian um in the description of this video I have a link to my studio tour which you can see all the stuff that I use here uh the one that I just got for vlogging is the Sony zve1 um somebody just released as their vlogging camera do you want to see more about that I just published the review like two days ago you can check that out and I use a lot of different editing software I use any software called Vegas I use Final Cut Pro I use Adobe Premiere uh and I also use the script to do some of my shorts that I do to like caption uh would you say incidentals or a scam I feel like those are hidden fees just like Resort fees yeah all things um hotels I like I I would I think there are so many incidental fees Resort fees just destination fees I really dislike drip pricing um they easily could have made it into this list or or they could be a 21. um and uh Joshua says in Singapore alcohol is heavily taxed near Road says what's the worst airport scam you know I mean I think at airports it's the well like I I know in in like in Mexico in Mexico I don't understand this bottles my mind but in in airports in Mexico um you'll get off the airplane and you'll collect your baggage and before you can like get out of the airport they have a room where like there's a bunch of times share sales people that like you have to walk by them in order to get out of the airport I feel like that's the worst scam and the fact that the airport authorities allow these timeshare people not just allow them to be there but like have set up the airport in a way that you have to funnel through them to me is just it's it's ridiculous uh Jorge says is molokini snorkeling tour worth it I don't know I have not been on the molokini uh tour Nick says do you think scammers are more less inclined the target of family with a small child like yourself um I hope less inclined um you know it's hard to say we haven't been traveling a ton during covet time and we haven't been in any of the really scammy places lately but I would hope they're less inclined again I can it can only be a personal hope but it could be more inclined because we could be an easy target and we're paying less attention the Wu-Tang life says what about the food prices on this trip they are really expensive uh Brian Johnson says have you traveled to Dubai not yet uh yeah Carolina says the timeshare Gauntlet Adrian says the time room share is called the Shark Tank they are sharks um yeah it's often uh Jake says where do you draw the line between tourists trap and scam you know Jake I I draw the line at tourist crap as something where it's like it's expensive but you don't feel scammed at the end you're like ah that was expensive you know like a tourist trap I don't know a lot of places by the beach where you gotta pay nine dollars for a bottle of water or something you know maybe it's a tourist trap and but you pay it um but it's different than like the bottle of water didn't have a price and then you went to pay for the bottle of water and it was 30 or something right like that's where I border on uh scammy versus um tourist drops I also yeah the Wu-Tang life says the cost of bottled water and airport is again here's where I think it's a scam not just if it's a bottle of water and they advertise the price is five dollars whatever it's when the bottle of water has no price it's when the store has no prices and then you go up and it's a ridiculous price right that's that's when I feel more scammed uh and in Vegas hotels they're doing that more and one of the things they're actually doing in Vegas hotels is dynamic pricing where they've from some of the hotels the gift shops they've removed the prices and then when it's busy they charge more because they can because there's no prices and they know you're captive and you just picked up a bottle of water and people are less apt by the time they go to the cash register and they scans it they are less likely to say you know what never mind right they're like I felt like I'm up here I know seven dollars but I'm already up here so I guess I'll pay it um yeah Joshua says 750 for a bottle of water that is cray-cray yes it's the time you've been waiting for it's time for the giveaway all right fellow explorers it is time for a giveaway and I'm gonna ask a question about some of this live stream and if you answer correctly I will give you a fancy yellow Productions crew shirt that I will ship to you anywhere in the world if you can answer this question for me and my question to you is uh in scam number two that I talked about I talked about people putting fake what under the door of your hotel if you can answer that question correctly you will win that yellow Productions crew shipped anywhere in the world to you now if you don't get to win one uh and you want to pick up a shirt you can head over to the yellow production shop you'll find it right there if you want to support the channel but you don't want a shirt you can join the channel as a member of the yellow Productions crew you'll find a little join button right here and then you'll get to have a little cool Panda next to your name when you chat and leave comments um and be part of the yellow Productions Inner Circle and help make quality content like this possible I appreciate all of the yellow Productions members for their support and if you wonder when is the next live stream we'll head over to the yellow Productions update sign up for my weekly email list um we'll send you an email every time I schedule live stream so you know what it is when it is and I will also so uh send you an email when I publish a new video all right so let's go ahead and look in the chat and find our winner and now we have a winner winner chicken dinner winner winner chicken dinner the first person to say menu is meritocratic Mafia congratulations you are the winner uh send me an email to Chris yellow Dash productions.com let me know your size and your address I will get yellow Productions Cruise shirt heading right over to you second place but no shirt goes to uh brunoco and third place goes to panjo but meritocratic Mafia congratulations to you welcome it's always a pleasure hanging out with you all today I hope you enjoy the rest of your days the rest of your nights wherever you are Kathy she's probably just back in her hotel ready for bed there at Disney world that's what she says uh and here's I won't say goodbye because I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Yellow Productions

Views: 17,995

Keywords: travel, travel scams, scams, tourist scams, scam

Id: OQOYruy5oNc

Length: 64min 49sec (3889 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023