10 Uncommon Scams to Avoid While Traveling

 When you are travelling to international destination, or even a different city away from home, you always run the risk of meeting bad people. Instead of letting those worries imprison you within the four walls of your own house, we strongly recommend that you head out and face those challenges. We have compiled a list of 10 after most uncommon and smartly designed plots to hoodwink travelers that will help you spot a scam right away.  

The Helpful Stranger 

At a foreign destination, it’s rather safe to assume that nobody is willing to help you out of the goodness of their heart unless there is a hidden motive for them to do that. There are however exceptions to that case and good people do exist all around the world but the chances of meeting such good people are close to none! If somebody approaches you at a railway station or at the bus terminal to help you carry the luggage or do something for you without any reason, just smile and say that you don't need their help. On the pretext of helping travelers many nefarious individuals steal luggage or lift the pockets of unsuspecting tourists.

Sweetheart Scam 

When exploring the nightlife at a destination city, be suspicious of beautiful individuals approaching you with the proposal of spending the night with you or going on an impromptu date. In most of these cases, the unsuspecting tourist is either made unconscious by giving them something to eat or drink and looting them blind. Another way how this scam goes down is that a partner of the person talking to you will steal your personal property while the other person keeps you distracted with their charm! Keep an open mind and talk to people whenever you get the opportunity, but always do that with a hand on your pocket so that nobody gets the opportunity to steal your personal belonging or important documents. In fact, we strongly recommend that you carry just a little bit of cash in your pocket and keep all the important documents locked up in the hotel room possibly in a secure safe. People become the victim of such scams when they dress very attractively and show off their wealth. Therefore, a practical way to avoid being the target of a scammer is to dress moderately and keep everything under wraps. 

Friendly Celebrities 

One of the popular scams that are being done across Europe is celebrities walking on the streets at popular tourist hotspots inviting people to take selfies with them. As soon as an unsuspecting tourist does that, the celebrity starts asking for a huge amount of money! They usually have other people working in tandem that will pose ask their security guards and try to strong arm you out of your money. 

Pickpockets 

If you are riding on your own motorcycle, then you might not have to worry a lot about pickpockets but they are everywhere and you need to be careful of them particularly in public places, markets and crowded tourist spots. If it is possible for you always make sure to keep all the important things locked up in your hotel room and carry just a little bit of cash Anna ATM card or a credit card for emergency cash requirement. Instead of keeping the mobile phone or the cash and credit card in the rear pocket of your pants, consider wedding a jacket with hidden compartments where you can safely keep the money and mobile phone closer to your chest which will make it really difficult for pickpockets to lift it. Also, wear a branded motorcycle riding gears for riding safety 

Accommodation Scam 

While booking your hotel rooms make sure that you are going which are reputed service provider because a common scam that has been happening in many popular tourist destination cities is non-existent hotels taking the money from unsuspecting foreign travelers via online booking platforms. When the tourist arrives at the address given by the fake hotel, it's too late for them and the money is already gone. Instead of relying on lesser-known mobile phone applications or websites, always depend on the big hotel aggregator services such as trivago and make my trip for your hotel bookings. This way you reduce the risk of being a victim of accommodation scams.

ATM Card Data Skimming

while drawing cash money from an ATM kiosk, always check the swiping machine for anything that should not be there. Hackers use special gadget that can be attached to the side of the ATM kiosk which will skim vital information from the ATM card including your personal identification data and with the help of a hidden camera they can see the pin code that you entered while making the cash transaction. All of these is being used later on to draw money from your account. Cover the keypad with your left hand while inputting the pin for your cash transactions and check the kiosks before swiping the card in the first place.

Note Switching Scam

Another common scam that is being done all around the world is the note switching scam. If you pay somebody 500 denomination note, they can quickly switch it to a 50 denomination note, or 5 denomination note and then claim that you did not pay them the required amount of money! While paying for something with cash say the denomination out loud while handing over the cash the person. This way you reinforce the fact that you already know the amount that you are paying the person. Similarly check for the denomination of the money when you receive change from the other person. Learn about the basic identification marks about the foreign currency so that you do not become the victim of a fake currency scam.

Taxi Route Scam 

While taking a taxi from the railway station or the airport to your destination hotel always make sure to check the route on Google Maps or any other similar mobile application and try to take the shortest route So that you don't end up being a lot of unnecessary money if the cab tries to take a long circuitous route to the hotel.

Free Gift Cons 

Never ever fall for the free gift con which is quite common across European countries as well as in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. Scammers offer a free gift of free service and under that pretext, they try to steal your luggage or forcefully introduce a fault in your motorcycle or mobile phone (or whatever you have opted for the free service), and then force you to pay money to have the product repaired!

Fake Police

In several countries across the world, particularly in developing nations, email on across the problem of fake police. these scammers usually target people on motorcycles who violate the traffic law and then threaten unnecessarily harsh penalties which day later offer to waive off if you agree to pay cash money to them. Always make sure to wear a good quality branded motorcycle helmet as well as other riding safety gear such as riding boots and gloves as well as have all the documents with you. Make sure that the headlights and indicator lights are working properly and you have the number plates visible on as many places as the destination law requires you to. Never assume that the police who stopped you is fake, and always try to be as polite and straight forward in your responses to avoid getting in an unnecessary hassle.