How to spot—and avoid—trouble when it comes your way

Tourists are the easiest targets for petty theft—especially those who, with their new white Nikes, logoed windbreakers, and Rolexes, might as well be wearing a neon sign flashing rich american. And con artists around the world are using ever more sophisticated ploys. Indeed, I only narrowly avoided a scam myself.

It happened in Buenos Aires last year. My husband and I were in a perfectly good neighborhood, in broad daylight, when suddenly some inky, foul-smelling liquid landed on us. Two young women sympathetically showed us an outdoor faucet where we could clean it off. Suspicious, we opted to remain a mess and started to walk away—at which point the duo offered Kleenex. They seemed just a little too eager to help, so we quickly left the area. Back at our hotel, the concierge immediately guessed which street corner we’d been standing on and confirmed that we had nearly fallen for a common con: Had we put down our bags to clean up, they would have made off with them.

The same ruse is employed in highly touristed areas everywhere: One thief spills, squirts, or throws something on you—in Rome it might be trash, in Mexico beer, in Madrid mustard—while an accomplice distracts you by helping to clean it off, causing enough commotion to allow a third thief to grab your belongings.

The following is a rundown of some of the most common ploys encountered by me and my Condé Nast Traveler colleagues—and how to avoid them:

The "broken" ATM
Your card gets stuck in a cash machine. A kind observer offers to help and either gets close enough to see the PIN you enter or actually asks you for it in order to "fix" the machine. In reality, he has rigged the ATM so that your card sticks inside. After you give up and go off to call your bank, he extracts it, punches in your PIN, and makes a sizable withdrawal. TIP: Never allow a stranger to help with a financial transaction. If your card gets stuck in an ATM, enter the same false PIN three times. If no one has tampered with the machine, it will often retain your card and you can later notify the bank. If the machine was rigged, the scam artist won’t have your correct PIN.

The fake street fight
A common ploy in Italy is for boys to pretend to beat each other up. One may approach you in tears, pleading for money so he can get home safely. You pull out your wallet, which the kids grab and race off with. In another ruse, one boy pokes you with a newspaper while his cohorts pilfer your pockets. TIP: If a group of street urchins approaches, don’t allow them to distract you. (Be particularly wary of diminutive pickpockets on Rome’s No. 64 bus, which runs from the Termini train station to the Vatican.) Safeguard most of your cash and credit cards in a neck pouch beneath your clothing (thieves can slash open a fanny pack without your noticing). Keep small bills in various pockets for everyday purchases, so you never have to take out your wallet.