The British newspaper The Times published a list of the most popular schemes to scam tourists. Some naive tourists enter even before they leave their home.

When we go on vacation we are in danger not only from sharks but also from different scammers that can spoil our rest.

These are the most popular ways to fool reliable tourists during different types of trips and the ways to avoid them.

At home

Fake vacationers clubs

Fake clubs often invite victims to a free lunch at upscale hotels and restaurants, where they are shown an advertising presentation for food and gifts. You are attracted to the offer of a guaranteed holiday once a year for a small amount of money if you pay 3,000 pounds at the same time.

It is always presented as a unique opportunity, “now or never” but when you go home and try to organize your first outing, everything goes wrong.

How to avoid

There are 3 main rules that should help you distinguish legal clubs from fake ones: 1) all verbal communication must be confirmed in writing; 2) your right to cancel your membership must be clearly written on paper; and most importantly 3) you should be given the opportunity to bring the contract home before signing. But the safest way is to avoid those clubs and search for cheap tours on the internet yourself.

A free trip to Florida

The phone is ringing and an electronic voice tells you to press 9 for a prize: a free trip to Florida. When you do, you pass it by a salesman who tells you that you have actually only earned a large chunk of the trip and you also have to pay £ 500-700, and then you can go on a grand tour that costs £ 2,000.

You are asked to provide your credit card details “for confirmation only”, and after that the full cost of the tour will be deducted from your account without your permission.

How to avoid it: If you are told that you won a competition that you did not participate in, it is a trap.

The tourist agent card

“Become a tour agent and save 50% to 70% on the cost of tickets and hotel rooms. Obtaining a card will take you no more than 15 minutes!”

This internet scheme is spreading rapidly lately. People are promised that if they spend around 260 ponds for the tourist agent card, they will be able to claim special prices for the partners of the tourist business.

You submit your credit card details and you get a tour agent card, but when you first present it at a checkout counter, everyone laughs.

How to avoid it: If you really want to work in the tourism business, look for that job in a traditional way, through legal labor agencies.

Money in the morning, chairs at night.

The most expensive in Britain, and the oldest scheme: a company takes money from a customer and then closes without meeting its commitments.

Sometimes it is the result of business failure, but more often it is thought fraud.

How to avoid it: In our tough times, it’s best to make sure your insurance covers these cases.

Abroad

Use

Among modern cheaters, the smartest are considered to be those who manage to use a victim’s credit card details before they are aware of what happened.

It usually happens when you give your credit card to pay for your lunch, but lately cheaters more often call your hotel room at night, saying that there are some problems with your account and ask to come to the reception with your card. Taking into account the late hour, you are allowed to read the credit card number over the phone.

How to avoid it: Be careful when you give someone your credit card number and watch what the person does with it. After each trip, check the status of the account. For all illegal operations with your card, you can demand compensation.

A fake cop

It is a classic scheme because it works. A good boy who told this story decided to remain anonymous for a reason that you will understand later. “I was on vacation in Cusco, Peru, and I met a local boy who we became friends with. He showed me ruins, then we drank beer, and then he said:” I like you a lot and I want to give you a present “and he gave me a handful of marijuana. Within an hour when I was returning to the hotel, I was arrested by two men who introduced themselves as the policemen and asked me to show what I had in my pockets. When they found marijuana there they told me that they would imprison me for 4 years if I had not given them 200 dollars I got scared and gave them money. I no longer found my friend. “

How to avoid it: Say “NO” to drugs! If you find yourself in such a situation, you need to remember that your safety is the top priority. Try to get the attention of the people around you, they may be the real cops, although if your pockets are full of marijuana then it can be troublesome. If you are alone on a dark side street, it is better to pay.

Tricks with exchange

Very often, cheaters operate at the exchange points. They give you money in bills that are too small to count, or by counting your money they are trying to get your attention with an argument or to give you something in opaque envelopes, probably cut newspapers.

How to avoid it: Always trade your money around someone else so that one of you can focus on the main thing while the second can repel a distraction. Take the check and try to choose static exchange points and not a man with a case, so you can get to the point with the police in case of fraud.

Local drinking buddy

Many of us are familiar with such a scheme: a friendly man in a foreign country invites them for a drink together, then pays a small amount of the full sum, and then takes money from the bar owner for such a generous customer.

However, a worse case occurred in a Venezuelan seaside resort, when friends drinking friends added a local drug to the drinks of some naive tourists and, when they agreed, cleaned them up.

How to avoid it: For the first case, just relax and enjoy. If you do not want to become a victim as in the second case, be careful and keep a close eye on your glass, choose the drinks in bottles and think about what you are doing.

Private taxi

If you get into a private car in a foreign country, in the best case, you risk paying twice as much as in a regular taxi and visiting the driver’s brother’s souvenir shop, but in the worst case, you can become in a kidnapped.

How to avoid it: Never use a private taxi in a foreign country.

The shoe shine in Istanbul

The schemes of some cheaters are less harmful. The shoe shine of Istanbul came up with a plan to help you lose your money. Usually one of them drops a brush on the road, supposedly from time to time, and a trusted tourist hands it to the shoe shine. He thanks her and offers to clean his shoes for free and during the cleaning he is telling the story of his life that hits the heart, after which just a stone will not give the poor worker money.

How to avoid it: Why? If you need your shoes cleaned, just accept the offer and pay for the service.

A bustle near the metal detector.

You’re putting your bags on the conveyor belt, but the next person in line passes by in a hurry. Then you stop near the detector and you are taking keys, coins and other small things out of your pockets for a long time. While you wait patiently, the person who was in the queue before you, the accomplice of the first, grabs your bags and runs away.

How to avoid it: Keep a close eye on your luggage and try not to show off your wealth.

A fraud on a bus

This riddle scheme: how stupid people can be! According to an insurance company, many people found themselves in this situation in the United States and Canada.

The scheme is as follows: a man approaches you in a bar and offers to win thousands of dollars if you join a fraud during a trip on the bus in which passengers will imitate a line.

They will say that most of the passengers will be aware and all will say that the driver was at fault and then they will receive compensation from the company that the bus belongs to. The only thing necessary is to give 250 dollars to your new friend and he will give you the bus number and the time of the trip.

The next morning you get on the bus and conspiratorially wink at your fellow travelers, gradually understanding how stupid you are.

After tourists return home from their travels, they feel distressed after having similar situations and often blame the tour operator. Sometimes your tourist complaints are really weird.