Tourist Scams in Europe

hey the fell Travelers Mark here with vultures world and today we're here in Paris and today we're going to talk about are some of the most common scams you'll see when you come and do your tour of Europe and the thing is some places have more scams than other scams and so what I kind of give you is kind of an overview of some of the more popular scams you might see when you do come here so whether you're here in France or you're in Germany or Lithuania there's some things you want to keep an eye out for okay and probably the most common one that I hear about and I have my tourists and my fellow Travelers tell me about is the it comes in different varieties the oops I got mustard on you oh bird pooped on you oh there's something on your shoulder and these are the I'll distract them while you grab their bag the usual thing is you have somebody maybe a guy or a lady or whatever and they'll actually bump into you maybe get a little mustard on your shoulder or maybe they'll be like a bird poop on you or something like that like oh excuse me ma'am you've got bird poop on your shoulder can I help you get it off and they usually dress nicely they're usually very friendly and stuff like that and you put your bag down and they're helping to get stuff on they're chatting with you for a couple minutes like okay well hey you have a great day here in Barcelona you have a great day here in Paris and they wander off and then when you look down your bag's gone I mean it's happened to multiple people I know including my parents when I told them to watch out for it because my mom's like but he seems so nice and he was so sincere these things do happen so do pay attention for that because a lot of times what it is is they're just distracting you from your bag and shoot they get it from you so that's why when you're going to cafes you're eating outside and stuff like that never put your bag on the back of your of your chair always keep it between your feet or underneath your table because otherwise people will take take stuff or they could take stuff also the same thing for your jackets and the coats don't put your wallet in the inside pocket of your coat or or your phone or stuff like that because you put it back there good chance it could disappear as well and the thing is these things don't happen all the time I just want to make sure you're prepared because everything I'm talking about on here I've seen people I've seen it happen to people I know people it's happened to and some of these have happened to us as well well okay so do have a heads up for it but that first one really is the hey you got something on your your shirt let me help you and groom the other person gets your bag now another kind of scam that I see out there that maybe they don't technically call it a scam but it really is ripping you off that is if you ever use an ATM or a restaurant and your currency is not the currency of the country you're shopping in they ask you do you want to take a conversion so what they'll do is they'll offer you an exchange rate so you'll guaranteed to know how much cash is going to come out of your account whether it's in dollars or Euros or or crowns or whatever or Yen and you're like um that sounds like a good idea then I know how much I spend in US dollars but the thing is when they do that most of the time they're giving you a horrible exchange rate like you could be losing up to 10 to 20 percent of your money by taking that conversion so never take the conversion from an ATM never take a conversion from a restaurant tell them no no just charge me in Euros I'm here in France just charge me in Florence when I'm in Hungary because otherwise you could lose a big amount of money when you when you do do that okay so never take the conversion and these aren't just at like you know private ATMs these are National Banks that do the same thing too so do have a heads up and another thing when it comes to money and exchanging money another kind of scam thing that I see a lot is exchange houses that say zero commission it works the same way as that ATM they have zero commission but they give you a horrible exchange rate so make sure you're checking the exchanger before you come to see which place gives you the best exchange rate versus just going out and say oh no commission I'll go there because it could cost you a fair Penny and that's why usual we do when we take money out we actually use our local bank debit card and we go out to bank ATMs and we travel and take money out that way and we never take the conversion and that gives us kind of a better deal overall on average that we found from our travels and exchanging money that way now it wouldn't be right of me to talk about scams and not talk about pickpocketing and pickpocketing happens anywhere and everywhere even places you don't think it's going to happen if you go to the Vatican they'll have signs saying watch out for pickpockets like wait people will will rob you and pick blocking you at a church yes it can happen you always need to be paying attention to that especially if you're in any major tourist sites or if you're getting on and off public transportation especially on stops that are very popular like get in rooms you're getting off the Coliseum or if you're getting off like on the LA rambla in Barcelona you're going to have a lot more people there pickpocking and stuff like that so you have to take extra care I know probably LA rambla and Barcelona is where most of our fans if they've gotten pickpocketed that's where it's happened so you really need to pay attention keep that wallet in your front pocket maybe use a money belt or something like that and always lock up your passports and use some of your cash at the safe in your hotel so if you do get robbed You're only out a little bit and you got more stuff back in the room and you're not trying to find a new passport now some other things you might see is one you'll see a lot here in Paris actually is the petition scam so a lady will come up to you one of you to sign a petition and if you science you might ask you for some money to help help with this petition or they might be casing you out to see if there could be somebody that maybe has some stuff you might want to try to hit up later or something like that and just if anybody comes up for you to sign a petition just say no thanks my petition my signature doesn't matter this country because I don't vote here have a heads up for that one so the petition scam you'll see that quite a bit another thing you might see is someone find something valuable on the ground and say oh do you want this I found this lady did you drop this it's so nice you should give me money for it and they kind of harass you that way look you didn't drop any gold rings you didn't drop any necklaces just say no thanks and walk away all right other scams you might see this is one I see a lot with our kids these people will come up and want to tie something on you maybe it's a friendship bracelet or a love pen well they just want to put a flower on you or some string on you look it's a scam they might say it's free but it's not going to be free they're going to want you to give them something donate something back oh but I put this on there oh help me out and they harass you and stuff like that I know a Milan my students when I went there with students were getting harassed all the time by people for those things so do have a heads up okay and if you don't want to say no no thanks no I mean I've actually had to like physically pull my students and my shoulder away from some of these people because they're trying to tie stuff on them so you got to be a little forceful sometimes just know and just go away okay because everyone will understand no go away alright so have a heads up for that now another thing I kind of consider a scam here in Europe is the organized Beggars and you will see if you're saved the same place for a week or so you'll see the same Beggars on the same Corner every single day and they've kind of assigned themselves different corners and stuff like that and the organized bagging look if you're giving to the Beggars I mean there's Beggars that really need money then there's the Beggars that it's their job and they might make more money than you or me okay so just realize that there's a lot of organized bagging that does happen here so do not give money out and I know people will hate me for saying that but even the government say look don't do that we have all the social systems to help people and you start looking at it and seeing and you go huh why is it that person's begging there every day with their baby or their little kid and the kids always sleep in and and why isn't that kid at school I mean it's September and everyone's back in school now what's going on it really makes you question some stuff so do have a heads up that for that with the organized begging now some other scams I see there's the traditional kind of scans you might see restaurant or taxi scams I mean in general these things have really come down like scams in Europe's are way way way down pickpocketing bit up but the scams are way down but I'd say like at restaurants sometimes you might get charged extra thing on your bill they might you know or got you the expensive whiskey instead of the Cheap whiskey kind of stuff so always ask for an itemized bill they have to give it to you it's the law okay so it will at least a lot everywhere I've gone they have to give you the itemized Bill to show you what all you bought so that you can see if anything's wrong that way check out for that another thing I see sometimes at restaurants I saw this in Prague and Budapest a little bit more often is they'll have a price on the menu but it'll be for like a hundred grams and you're like oh I want a steak but you want like a 400 gram steak you want a big steak and the thing is you think steak you order that price then it comes out four times the price because it's 400 grams not 100 grams so anytime you see like a weight next to a food make sure you ask hey how much is mine going to be how many how what's my weight gonna be so you don't have a surprise 100 euro Bill sometimes because that's what happened to me once when I was living in Portugal and I got fish and I was with some friends I'm like oh yeah we'll get to fish and they're like oh okay and they brought the whole whole thing out and we had a big huge bill okay so have a heads up for that now another restaurant thing that's not really a scam is when I've seen in a few places if you're coming from a country where they'd like to give you a lot of free stuff like you have free bread free butter free cheese stuff like that that doesn't always happen everywhere so make sure if there's anything laying on the table for you maybe it's some pretzels or some bread you might want to ask do I have to pay for this or does it come with it because I know in Portugal all those things kind of add up and tourists get really upset because they feel they got scammed having to get all the cheeses and Breads and stuff like that which you don't have to just say no thanks I don't need it and you don't have to pay for it okay so just have a heads up for that now in terms of the taxis I mean the usual taxi kind of things they might take you for a ride the long way around and stuff like that but I really feel that the taxes in Europe have gotten a lot better because the competition from the Ubers and the lifts and stuff like that so you're gonna have a lot more taxi services that will have apps for you to call to to log on to phone numbers and stuff like that so it's really made them a lot more legit a lot less ripped a lot less rip-offs and taxi stuff kind of happening so that's really nice but again if you're going to be getting a taxi just ask your hotel to call one for you or make sure you're using one of the apps and stuff like that so everything can be tracked so you'll be okay I don't really think there's gonna be any really many issues but it's something you should have a heads up for now another scam I see or another kind of thing you want to look out for is if you're going to be buying train tickets at a kiosk okay or anytime there's a kiosk kind of thing like an automatic ticket machine where you're like picking your language and picking your tickets and stuff like that and in big cities like Rome or here in Paris eventually someone will come to offer to help you and they're not an official train Italia worker or sncf worker and they're just trying to help you out the thing is they might want some money for there they might be oh I'll help you with your credit card or I'll put the money in for you and some money might miss disappear or it's the old I'm talking to you while you're not paying attention to your bag and they grab your bag kind of stuff so do have a heads up and the thing is most of these automatic ticket counters I've seen all throughout Europe will have out at least four languages so you have the English French German Spanish and then if they really might have Turkish on there you have Portuguese stuff like that it's really helpful and you can do it on your own so you feel uncomfortable to say no thank you I'll figure it out because there's usually multiple kiosks so the other people can go get another line okay so it helped me talk about these scams and things to watch out for can help you enjoy your time here I'll be out of syrup is insanely safe you will be fine when you are here but I just want you to know and just in case you've got a heads up to watch out for certain things because then honestly probably nothing bad is going to happen so you don't need to worry too much I just like to make sure everybody's fully prepared when they do travel so they can travel better and so a pickpocket or a lost luggage or something like that doesn't ruin your vacation you could still enjoy a beautiful cities like Eris even without everything goes your way anyway I wish you all the best have a great time traveling wherever you are we have tons other videos focused on specific cities and countries and scams there as well to help people out like we have one just for here in Paris we got one for Prague other places so have a good timeline watching those if you like travel videos like this honest travel videos click that subscribe button and hit that notification Bell and we put out new videos every Wednesday and Saturday bye from Paris thank you

Channel: Wolters World

Views: 83,169

Keywords: travel, europe, wolters world, travel advice, tourist attractions, travel vlogger, honest travel, Walters World

Id: s2lki9nLCs4

Length: 11min 32sec (692 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 01 2023