Tourist Scams of London

hey there fellow Travelers Mark here with walers world and we're back in London and today we're going to talk about something a little bit more nefarious when it comes to traveling and that is scams you come here to London because honestly this is one of the most visited cities in the world so you know the scam artists know that this is a place where they can make some easy money and I think one of the easiest ways to make money off of tourist here if you're a scammer is pickpockets and thieves and you do need to pay attention here now I got to tell you this I know some people think that all my scam videos are about scaring people off no you come to London you're probably nothing's going to happen to you I'm just giving you the heads up of things to look out for so you're better prepared so you don't have to worry about these things okay cuz most likely none of these things are going to happen when you're here but I want to give you the for warning just in case and that's why the pickpockets when you're going around coven Garden padil circus Lester Square any big major tube line where you're kind of like got a lot of people going around The Changing of the Guard those are all places where you have lots of tourists smashed together and people don't notice they're getting getting bumped into that is perfect prime target for pig pocking okay so be aware of those situations cuz you're going to go to those places they're all tourist things you're going to do another thing I think is important for travelers this is one that's kind of picked up a lot more recently is uh people leaving their phones on top of their table at the pub or at a cafe or a restaurant or a bar or or they leave their wallet on there and people just walk by and snag it you might not even be thinking about it you might not even notice it but boom it's gone just make sure keep your phone in your pocket keep your wallet in your pocket or your purse do that and also never put your bag on the back of your seat because people can just walk by especially if you're here like when it's a nice day like look this beautiful day today we're going to be going out doing stuff being sitting outside having a drink those things you makes it really easy just to walk by and snag it all right so keep your bags in front of you under your table now another thing I want you to look out for are fake Beggars and fake charity Seekers or fake donation Seekers because what you have to realize a lot of the beggars in Europe actually are part of an organized group and so when you're donating those Saab stories they're telling you they're not really true all right so do take out of the grain of salt whatever story they tell you about how they need money cuz they know there's a lot of tourists here and there's a lot of gullible tourists so it's going be very easy to separate the glial tourist from their money so don't let that happen to you and that's why it's also important to realize you don't want to fall for the fake donation Seekers and I know the the kind of fake monk is kind of like The Stereotype of this but it's not just for that there's people that be trying to raise money for various causes or get you to sign a petition for something they try to SI like size you up look you don't live here you're a tourist your vote doesn't count it doesn't matter just walk away okay I just want to give you the heads up for that and please for the love of God if they tell you that the stuff they have on the ground they're trying to sell you is legit Gucci or something like that oh my good it's all fake it's always fake it will always be fake okay so don't think you got this great Gucci gift when you were here in London cuz yeah that was a knockoff no another thing is kind of important to realize when you come to London there's a lot of places that actually don't take cash where they prefer if you just kind of tap and go and when you think about it if you take the the tube here the subway it is all just tap and go you can use your phone or you can use your credit card to tap and that kind of tap system is very easy for people to come and kind of steal your money you know again bump into you oh I just took five bucks or 10 bucks off your card those things can happen so what I recommend if you do have that kind of tap credit card make sure you have an RFID protected wallet so they can't like scam money off you that way and if you are using your phone to tap to pay stuff turn off the signal while you're walking around and only turn it on when you're going to purchase something okay because it may be only a few bucks here or there but those people are getting it from a lot of people and you don't want to help them and you don't want to be out 10 bucks another scam you might see around lond and I'll be honest this one's died a lot since I first started coming many years ago but occasionally you'll still see the like overly helpful person and it could be they're trying to help you buy your train ticket or your tube ticket or oh I'll take a picture for you get your group over there I know it sounds like it's something from Christmas vacation or or European Vacation movie or whatever but these things still occasionally do happen so there is a reason why I'm doing this with a selfie stick hey look there's my arm but you want to be kind of aware of that so just be aware I mean the people here are friendly and they helpful but if it's a little over the top you might want to have your eye open a little bit more okay now another thing you want to look out for our Show tickets the thing is you can go see a really good West End show when you are here no problem actually if you go the day of a show and go home and say hey you got anything available you might be able to get a really good deal on those tickets instead of paying an arm and a leg the thing is you want to make sure you're buying from official West End you know production theaters kind of stuff you don't want to be buying from some random people off the street saying oh yeah we can get you tickets here you go I haven't signed up you're fine have a good day just just go to the box office or go to one of the ticket Like official ticket places where you can buy tickets and do that to avoid the chance that that might not be legit I'm not saying they're all like not legit but it's something that you really need to think about so you're not like trying to go in to see Matilda and they don't let you in now let's go back to your credit card or your debit card and I think another set of scams I want you to think about are ATM scams and and credit card skimming scams cuz the thing is with there's tons of ATMs around London you have no problem getting cash out but in general you don't need cash anyway so this shouldn't be really be an issue but if you do get cash out make sure you're paying attention if the ATM looks a little weird or something's been messed with or there's like an extra lip or something on where you put your card in go find an extra a different ATM because there are people that put those little skimmers on that are there there might be a little camera watching you so do pay attention and make sure you know cover your fingers when you're putting your PIN number just to be safe but honestly probably the biggest scam when it comes to your your ATM cards when you are here is if you take out cash and the bank asks you if you want to do the conversion to your home currency you never do the conversion to your home currency because you will always lose and that bank will always win and I've seen it before we're up we're talking like almost 30% difference in what the exchange rate that they give you versus what your home bank would give you so you take out money make sure you say no conversion just give me the pounds I I'll let my bank deal with that okay of course London is immune to the usual scams that we all know you know the mustard scam where someone Buffs into you and like oh I'm sorry did I spill that on you here put your bag down I'll clean you off you have a good day and they're gone and your bag's gone cuz their buddy stole it here though you find it more the pigeon poop scan where they're like oh you got some pigeon poop here let me help you out look you can take care of yourself and never put your bag down and the thing is those people are usually dressed very nicely so you're not even suspecting them but their friends right behind them to like swipe your stuff and they're not in trouble cuz they didn't do anything their friend is the one that took your bag another classic is the found ring or giving you something for free scam where you'll see someone come go oh did you drop this oh well you need to give me money or here have a free bracelet look if someone ever offers you anything for free it's never free they're going to want something so be aware of that and that includes you thinking you could win the three card Monty or the shell game or any of those things where it's like oh pick where the ball is pick where the coin is pick where the the 50 pound note is those things happen all the time in every city and I see people fall for it everywhere where it's Chicago Paris here in London look you're never going to win and you may say well that guy won that's his friend well that little kid won yeah the little kid kind of wins so maybe send your kid to play cuz they might get a chance to win but you don't want to play any of those Street games you do see them because you are going to lose another kind of more text Savvy scam that you see when you're here this is another one you see all over Europe you see it in the US I've seen it all over the place is the fake Wi-Fi and the thing is the fake Wi-Fi is people are like I want to connect and I don't want to spend my data from home because it's so expensive so I'll sign up to a random Cafe's internet or random hotels internet or I'll go to a restaurant or a pub and then I'm like I'll use their internet what you want to make sure you do is you ask the location where you're at what is your Wi-Fi signal and find that Wi-Fi signal because if it's the Albert Wi-Fi then you're going to click on the Albert Wi-Fi CU what happens is some of the scam artists will put in a fake Wi-Fi signal that's spelled or sounds like the one that's like the official one for there and you just want to make sure you have the right one because that's one thing if you're going through there you put credit cards in there all kinds of stuff you can have a really big problem because they can really easily steal your data all right now there are some other scams that I think we all know about when you come to London please put them down in the comments below if you have more scams you'd like us to talk about or other people to know about also there's lots of tourist traps you might want to know about when you come here we actually have a video on the tourist traps of London to help you out to have a better time here but I'll be honest most of the tourist traps here in London are still worth visiting so have a great time and watch out for those scans when you're here in London probably won't be a big problem but I think it's just important that you know some of these things bye from London

Channel: Wolters World

Views: 46,477

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

Id: nwSsCnS8f0c

Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 30 2023