Why it’s good to get scammed. Experience is almost everything in the travel game, that’s why I wouldn’t recommend anyone to travel too far off the beaten path on their first trip. You need to learn too many lessons before catching yourself in the wilderness.
I’M A CYNIC. IF GOD HIMSELF APPROACHED ME I’D ASSUME HE WAS OUT TO GET ME
Conmen and thieves target you because you lack travel experience and remain oblivious to their countless methods.
The difficult thing without experience is firstly knowing when someone is ripping you off or even spotting these devious characters and their body language, after all during our first trips we will often have our guard down and remain fixed in holiday mode!
QUESTION EVERYTHING
I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to this and when I have a random person approach me, I immediately ask myself, ‘what do they want, is this a scam?’ Yes, it isn’t always the best way to travel and I have wrongly considered a normal person to have an ulterior motive when their intentions were good but in general it has stood me in good stead. But don’t expect them to give in at the first sign of you pushing back, they are persistent, often using different techniques depending on your actions.
TIPS:
- Keep your valuables zipped in a separate compartment in your bag.
- Avoid having a lot of valuables on you or in your pockets.
- Ensure you agree a price before and pay only once the service has been provided.
- Do not walk away with random people to a place unknown.
- Keep your bags on you at all times. Keep your valuable bag at your front.
- Padlocked bags are not as secure as you might think.
- Keep your valuable bags on your knee during taxi, buses and train rides.
- If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Why it’s good to get scammed.
CHALLENGES
I find the hardest thing is arriving in a new country and receiving change for the first time. Vendors might hand you a wad of fake coins that you can’t use. It’s so common that even the vendor handed my taxi driver in Burkina Faso some fake coins until he told the vendor to catch himself on. After 2 years of travel, I didn’t know this was even a thing until I experienced it.
At the Zoo in Ouagadougou, the worst zoo in the world, the ladies at the desk adamantly refused to grant my guide free entry (that’s how it works here, your guides entry is always free). They clearly stated that I either had to pay the fee or they would deny me entry. Eventually, after a shouting match, they let my guide enter free of charge. This might sound unusual for us in the west, but the attractions benefit from this system because the guides bring more business.
RELATED READ: HONEY TRAP SCAM IN BEIJING
SAFE
Whenever I encounter a scam, it always involves mind games and never turns aggressive or physical. That is not the style of conmen, they are there to gain your trust and that is a sure-fire way to lose that and create unwanted attention. I hate to say that nearly all conmen come across as friendly but its true, they can be incredible pleasant but do not let this get in the way of meeting genuine locals who are keen to help. If they wanted to get aggressive, they would have robbed you from the start and even after 10 years of travelling I have never been robbed in that way.
RELATED READ: GETTING SCAMMED IN BANGKOK
IT WILL HAPPEN
Depending on where you go, you might witness or experience this countless times throughout the day. In many instances, you cannot learn these techniques until you fall victim to one, so it’s best to accept that sooner or later you will fall for the tricks. However, unless you naively hand over huge amounts of money, it is rarely anything that will ruin a trip. However, after such an experience, you will travel smarter as you’ll know what to look out for and realize that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
So the fact is; we all get scammed or conned as part of the learning curve! I struggled to forgive myself the first time I got scammed as I was always so careful, but learning of the holes in my armour proved to be a valuable lesson.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Hearing that traveling is safe but that you should also expect scams at some point is never easy. You cannot pick up on all the weird and wonderful techniques without actually being a mark.
SAFE TRAVELS, DS x
Check out my YouTube for some up close and personal encounters with scammers.
