News: 10 of the Most Common Tourist Scams

Once I was traveling in Romania (the land of scams) by train and a "conductor" asked my boyfriend and me for train fare. Stupidly, we paid him. In retrospect, we should have paid closer attention to his attire and bought the tickets ahead of time at the station, instead of waiting to buy them on the train.

Currency exchange. It's easy to get mixed up when you're dealing with long division on the fly. Best to not make any rushed transactions and take the time to crunch out the cost in your native currency than risk paying 10x for a trinket or beer.

ATMs have the best exchange rate it seems. But that doesn't help if you're going to a more exotic location that doesn't have them.

*Ninja edit

The one time I was scammed I wasn't even on vacation. I was just skating around town with friends.

This was downtown Miami when I was about 15 I think.

Some friends and I were skateboarding at Bay Front park when an old junky limo pulls up next to us. The passenger in the back rolls down his window with a tearful look in his face and says "please come here. I'm in desperate need of help". My 2 sheltered friends, being the trusting people they are, approach him. I'm watching them from a distance as they try to convince me to go with them. Next thing I know they're in the limo and it speeds away.

I'm thinking to myself "WTF, did I just witness my friends being kidnapped"? The limo pulls back around about 10 minutes later and my friends jump out smiling from ear to ear. They're yelling at me to give them all my money. I stubbornly agree and give them my $20 ( a lot of money for a 15 year old). Next thing I know they're back in the limo and it speeds off again.

They're back even sooner this time but now they have something wrapped in bandanna. The limo takes off and my friends are going ape #$%@. They open the bandanna to reveal a stack of blank white paper. Their faces looked like they were about to cry. I was like "WTF is going on and where is my money?" Then they explain what happened.

They got into the limo the first time and a sad man with a thick African accent explains that he is on a peace mission from Nigeria or some other west African country. He says he was sent here to give his churches money to the needy of America (that should have tossed up some flags there.) He says that he has to go back to his country but if he goes back with all the money his church will be angry with him. That's when he bust out a stack of money that my friends say must have been $30,000. He said" I want to give you guys the money because god told me you are good people, but first give me your money and your friends so we can bless all of our money together". That's when they ge

That's when they get my $20 and hop back in with him. He puts all the money together, wraps it in a bandanna, leans down and prays on it. He then has his driver pull over and hands them the bandanna. You probably know by now it wasn't the bandanna they wanted.

All together I think we lost about $100.

Hi!

Dear travelers, this piece of information comes a bit late, should you have already suffered damages from a scam. But it helps you to avoid such problems in the future!

If your rights as a touristic consumer have been infringed while you were traveling through Latin America and you had to face the problem being completely on your own (you were made to pay a price which was higher than had been agreed, you were sold faked goods, you were a victim of fraud etc.), you might like to know what legistravel.com/en can do for you next time – go and check our website!

However, you can take a few appropriate precautions yourself: we recommend you to make an on-line research before making any payment to book flights, hotel rooms etc. to check, whether the travel agency, which offers the product, has a good reputation. And if you are still not sure, try to buy products, which are offered by travel agencies with a quality award or another quality assurance.

DO NOT GIVE UP YOUR RIGHTS EVER! It is your money after all, and there is no reason why you should give it to people, who have absolutely no right to get it!

Thanks.