[...] 10 Common Travel Scams [...]

So I get into a cab in Italy and agree on a price to the hotel. When we get there the guy says it is customary to pay for the cab to drive back to the airport. Or he threatens to call the police. And he is showing me some kind of laminated ID card ther whole time. (Like you can’t laminate anything you want at Office Max) So I tell him to go ahead and call the cops, I’ll wait. And he finally takes what we had agreed on and calls me some names and leaves.
Cabs are always the low point of travel

I carry a second wallet (the real one is hidden) and in there I have a few old, cancelled credit cards an old Drivers License and about the equivalent of $20 US in the local currency – or maybe just a couple of $10 bills. This is in my front pocket. In Rio, when approached by 3 serious looking dudes, this was the wallet I “gave up”. They opened it, looked at their “score”, smiled, and ran off. I always carry two of these fake wallets in my suitcase, but have only needed that one time. Also — keep a cotton handkerchief stuffed in each front pocket, on top of your wallet and cash. Pickpockets can not easily get past this without you feeling the “commotion” in your pants! This has stopped the pickpockets twice — once was a group of elderly ladies in Cusco, Peru (I kid you not). They appeared out of two separate doors and surrounded me (about 6 of them), and started bumping into me. I felt hands going into each front pocket (back pockets always empty) and I smashed my hands down on each pocket. The Handkerchiefs were both still there and the little crowd dispersed magically within 3 seconds – vanished back into the walls and doors from which they came — weird experience. All my “stuff” was intact.

intense preparation that will apparently help the event successful and memorable. cheap bridesmaid dresses
Planning a wedding is now always easy, especially during these days. cheap wedding dresses
You will not only need to think of one or two things for it, wedding invitations
but rather so many things need your attention and getting them all right can be very challenging

Somewhere in one of those I saw “karate kick to the head” ….Dude, I will be VERY disappointed in myself if I let someone do the crane kick on me and then steal my stuff…I’d much rather have the story of “a guy pulled out a gun and demanded my money” than “this guy raised one leg in the air and held his arms out…then he jump kicked me and stole my stuff!”

Oh, and here’s a consolation prize since you hate Beta-pushovers like me: I LOVE EATING PUSSY.

Shave and get a real pastime that doesn’t involve draining your balls…it has warped your sense of discourse(pick-up drivel to nowhere?) and loyalty(or did your parents divorce do that?)

Response #16:
Other than the “differences of the hunt” you’ve described at length, what really is different about one country and another? Nothing. Drink, dance, chatter, fuck. Save yourself the en-route-violence and evolve your “hometurf game”, dude…like doing that thing you so despise in other men: developing your career. All that vacation money along with all that booty-chasing energy could have been put into a degree or business that sets you up with other intellectual competents that did more than spend their 20′s getting laid by strangers. You’ve been playing the wrong game.
“But the rush of almost getting stabbed by a rusty screwdriver on my way to yet another drinkhole filled with flotsam vadge…man, that makes the nectar so much sweeter when my PhD-level ‘game’ pays off…”

[...] Even the most experienced traveler can get scammed. Remember: when abroad, don’t trust anyone but yourself. Some popular scams excerpted from Roosh.com’s 10 most common travel scams: [...]

Almost all of these are not actually scams. They are thefts, pure and simple. A scam requires a bit of cunning so the mark gives up his money voluntarily, and only later discovers he was ripped off. I’d say 9 and 10 qualify, but the rest aren’t really different from mugging.

#8 is a fake. That doesn’t actually happen. It was taken from various movies, including Dumb and Dumber. Nobody would ever accept a distant wave as “The people next to me must be telling the truth.” Even if they did, trying to recoup their losses by mugging another patron is a separate, unrelated crime.

Don’t think these things happen only in Third World countries. In the USA, in larger cities with large number of tourists, in airports, around national monuments and parks, anywhere there are numbers of strangers, there will be thieves. The best thing anyone can do is be vigilant and wary. Never show large amounts of money. Hide extra money or separate money into more than one place. Put your motel room key and identification on your person rather than in a bag or tote. A handkerchief pinned to underclothing is good if you don’t have a purpose-made pocket. Use bags or totes with large flaps and zippers or locking tabs. Think ahead and plan your routes to sightsee or shop, so you’ll know if the taxi driver is taking you elsewhere.

You go into the bar, have your drinks, and then leave. When you get outside, the young locals tell you that the taxis don’t run after 10pm (or whatever their time of choice may be)… but they offer to give you a ride in their own vehicle for some extra money.

They DO take you where you need to go, but they often charge way more than the taxi would have… and lie in general about the taxis not running.

And… the truth is, most taxis are privately owned… and many are on call all hours of the day and night.

Good idea is to grab a business card of the cab driver (they all have them) and verify one that runs all night… and just use the same one or two cabbies your entire stay.

Tim’s last blog post: This one takes the cake? ?Pay to Volunteer?.

I grew up in a border state and knew all you know now at 16 years old sneaking down to Juarez Mx. for no cover two for one all night. I would go party until six in the morning drive back to the states and go to school and sleep through science.

I was crazy, risky and glad to be alive now. Many friends of mine were killed on the drive home drunk or locked up in the Mexican jail with no bribe money. THIRD WORLD countries.

I grew up in India. And most of these scams are well known over there. And it doesn’t happen only to tourists. Some of the ingenious ways, Indians deal with pick pocketing: Men have a pocket in the boxers (WTF?),(As they wear sarongs, they can actually reach here quite efficiently) and women carry their valuable stuff in their blouses :) Also, their is a hidden pocket in tailored pants, right by the buttons, where the money can be kept. And Once I have carried about 200000 Indian rupees, in a towel tied around my belly, with a t-shirt and a shirt over it:) And most tailored shirts in india, have a pocket inside, (yep), hidden by the linings of the outer pocket. Another place, is the rolled shirt cuffs:)

I always thought that you weren’t supposed to reach for your pockets because then they know where it is.

Good Post!! Crosses bolivia an peru off of list.

Mike, the paranoia doesn’t ruin the experience, because you get used to it, you question everything. It is only in America and Europe where businesses and society tend to be forthright (well more forthright than those found in most third world countries). This is the way that most of the world operates, not everyone is depressed actually they are probably happier than most Americans.