In a taxi in Buenos Aires, I attempted to pay the driver and he claimed the 20 peso bill I gave him was fake. At the time I believed him and gave him another bill. He also claimed this was fake as well. I asked him to drive to a bank so that I could get more cash to pay him. He said it was OK and let me go. I checked with the bank where I had gotten the bills and figured out that what the driver was doing was swapping my bills with fake ones. Be aware.

I had posted an abbreviated version of the scam we encountered in Heathrow, but I ought to go into more detail here. We had just gotten through customs and had left the security area where we sought out a pay phone so we could call our mom and let her know we had landed safely in London.

Now mind you, after a transatlantic flight and waiting 45 minutes in line at customs, my brain wasn't functioning too well. We found a phone and while we were trying to call the US this guy came up and kept trying to talk to us about buying passes for the Tube. My sister told him we weren't interested and whispered in my ear that they were probably expired or fake, but he kept on anyway. I finally yelled at him to get lost because it was the third time I had tried to call the number and had messed up because I was so jetlagged in addition to him yammering on about what a great deal the passes were. He got really angry and muttered some bad things under his breath and stalked off. I have to wonder how many people fall for that kind of thing.

Basically, be wary when leaving the airport especially. Theives know you're probably not thinking too clearly after getting off an overnight flight.

On arrival to Vancouver Airport took a taxi to downtown. Taxi driver asked where we were from, and told him from the U.S. I had an idea before we left what the cost should be, so when we ended up at the hotel he said the fare was $30. We had CAD$$ exchanged, but he tried to insist it was $30 U.S. At that time the exchange rate was approx $1 CAD to $.70 US, so he could have been making a nice percentage if he got this from enough passengers. We finally had the hotel doorman intervene tell him to take the CAD and let us alone.
Find out in advance, and be prepared to stand your ground.

My husband and I were in Versailles, France, Fall 2005 when a young woman apprached me and asked what type of underwear I was wearing. I notice a small group of young people milling around nearby watching our conversation very intently. This was our first trip overseas, but I had read just about everthing I could get my hands on, so I immediately took a firm hold on my shoulder bag and began to back away from her while saying I didn't discuss that subject with strangers. She continued to come toward me asking me the same question and without taking my eyes off her I repeated my response. I'm not sure what she was up to, maybe her friends just had her do it on a dare, but I wasn't taking any chances.

Beijing Art Scam: I have had several friends taken in at the Forbidden Palace and the Temple of Heaven. They are approached by a sweet college student who invites them to visit the art gallery at the edge of the compound, where they can buy genuine art from legitimate art students. They then purchase cheap fakes at 20 to 40 times its actual value. One friend paid $200 for four paintings that I've seen on the street for about twenty bucks.

The "Museum" Scam: a man approaches you with a sleek-looking card that offers rates to various favorite spots like the Great Wall or the Terracotta warriors. You take him up on it and then are taken on a slew of side trips: to the jade factory, the marble museum, the cloisonne shop. Each of these takes up at least an hour of your time, which you spend fighting off relentless salespersons. You finally get to your destination only to discover that the fee you had orignally agreed upon only covers one way.

Silk Alley Beggars: A bedraggled little girl climbs up on the back of another little girl. The top girl starts moaning and wailing; the bottom girl starts grabbing at your wrists and clothes. While you're distracted, they remove your watch, jewelry, and wallet. They jump down, pass your items to their "mother" (who is sitting about 20 feet away) and scatter.

Silk Alley: It's all a scam. It's the fake capital of the world. Everything in the place is worth Y10 to Y100, no matter what they say to you. Who are these ridiculous people who think that they are actually buying something genuine or of good quality?

My comment is not so much a street scam as those you have illustrated in your article, but I believe it is still a scam against foreigners. When visiting a foreign country, be sure to read IN FULL all menus posted outside restaurants and to ask if they have seating fees or any other unusual fees. My husband and I went to Florence during our honeymoon. For lunch, we wanted to have some traditional pizza, given that we were in Italy. We went to what looked like a very popular spot for locals. Since neither of us can read Italian, the menu was a no-go so we just winged it. We order a water, a large soda, and a regular margherita pizza. The pizza was delicious, and we ate every last bite. When the bill came, the meal was a WHOPPING 75EURO!!!! Rather than having a 15 Euro meal (or about $30 US), they added on a "seating fee" for each of us, a "water fee" for my water, an "outdoor seating fee" for their seating us outside the restaurant in the square, and the soda was 10Euro on its own. In sum, learn from our mistake and know what it will cost just to sit down before you order!! I'm sure they charged us all those bogus fees just because we're not Italian. How could they stay in business with a 60Euro charge on top of every order?

My husband and I were in Barcelona, Spain. We registered at the hotel and decided to take a stroll in town. We are walking down the street when a gentleman (a term used loosely) starts giving advice to me about the stores. I ignore him until he produces a card from the hotel identifying himself as a worker from the hotel. That makes it Ok -right?

We go to a restuarant recommended by him where we socialize about various topics and he orders local food favorites. Toward the end, he recommends attending a festival and offers to purchase tickets for us. Instead of listening to my instincts, we give him $60 toward the purchase of the tickets - he promises to deliver to hotel.

Surprise, Surprise! The tickets never arrive. We find out that he used to work for the hotel and file it under "a learning experience".

we pre-booked a limo service to take us from rome to ravello. on the highway outside of Naples the driver says he has to stop, bathroom and to get something to eat and encourages us to come in for an espresso. we are inside 12 mins and came out before driver. he comes and opens car and surprise, our laptop and its case are gone. other luggage there. It was a Mercedes w/ tinted windows. Driver claims that car on passenger side must have somehow slightly opened door just as he was locking his side to keep it open and then make off with our laptop. We know that he set the whole thing up. He was on two different cell phones before this happened. We reported to police (took 4 hours). Limo company said "no insurance" and would pay us nothing. Luckily we had travel insurance and got paid back 100% within 2 weeks of making the claim. Never ever leave your limo with your luggage in it even if seemingly safe. We were scammed!

Mine is pretty boring. Just a plain old pickpocketing while in Pamplona a couple of weeks ago but it was the first time anything like this has happened to me in 11 trips to Europe so I guess I just gotten complacent when it comes to security. The only thing I am grateful for is that it didn't happen an hour or so earlier because I know almost to the minute when it happened and it was about 1:00 a.m. July 14th. An hour earlier and it would have still been Friday the 13th. I would have been superstitious for the rest of my life!

While in Hungary back in 1988, I was approached by a man asking if I wanted to exchange US dollars for Hungarian currency. He was offering a rate about 25% better than the official exchange rate. The man pretended to be very nervous, acting as if he were afraid of being caught exchanging money on the "black market". He counted out the money in front of me, then distracted my attention to someone who he pretended to be worried was an undercover policeman. He then folded up the money, with the highest denomination on the outside of the wad. When I got home, I realized that he had switched wads, and gave me a bunch of low denomination bills wrapped around the outside one. I learned my lesson the hard way, but I was glad that I had only exchanged $50.00, since we were only going to be in the country for a couple of days....

while waiting in a line outside a chathedral in madrid a group of teenage aged girls approached us with wet newspapers. while my mom had read about this before the other people around us hadn't. while everyone is wondering what these girls are doing and why they would be showing you something so useless they reach into your pockets or purse. beware.

I also experienced the women on the subway, they get on in front of you and won't let you pass. meanwhile the go through your purse under their scarf and jump off just before the train leaves.