I have heard of this specific scam happening in Buenos Aires as well. It's a particularly nasty one.
It's unfortunate, but I would say that on my world trip about 50-60% of English-speaking locals in non-English-speaking countries were trying to get my money somehow. I feel bad for the ones who weren't, because I had to treat them with such suspicion.
But, the rule is, if somebody doesn't have anything better to do than talk to you, they're probably after your money. I never stop walking if someone starts talking to me on the street, until I have an idea of their intentions.
Actually, this gives me an idea for a blog post on the lines I've been fed in this process.
I think it holds true for major US cities (though usually you're just being panhandled instead of conned). The exception to this is generally people asking for directions This seems much more common if you're on a bike, which if you think about it is pretty clever. I wonder if there is a tourism book out there somewhere that advises you to ask bikers for directions over other people.
That's an excellent point. I always tell people that there's a huge difference between Beijing/Shanghai and the rest of China, for instance, in this regard.
I'd like to write a blog post about all the various lines I've been fed, and I'll try to emphasize that.
> I have heard of this specific scam happening in Buenos Aires as well. It's a particularly nasty one.
Yes, it happened to some friends of ours visiting us here in BsAs last year. The particular squirted substance was probably some kind of ground-up plant; it left grass stains.
> But, the rule is, if somebody doesn't have anything better to do than talk to you, they're probably after your money.
This is true in tourist areas and shopping centers. So I avoid them as much as possible. In the rest of the world, especially outside of big cities, many people are perfectly happy to talk to strangers without any kind of financial exchange.
I live in Baltimore. If someone wants your money here, they'll hurt you to get it. For whatever reason, people seem less inclined to use violence outside the US.
When I was in a puddle of misery after the backpack was gone, a lot of locals clustered around us to find out why I was crying (these ones, at least, were sincere). A few of them mentioned that I was lucky not to stabbed — apparently thieves will come up behind someone, stab them with a small knife, and run off as the person collapses. So it didn't happen to us, but apparently violence is used as well.
Grrr...I hate to be this person, but why, oh why, is this on Hacker News? This isn't a "hack" or anything new...they've been doing this to tourists for as long as there have been tourists.
you're right, that reminds me to sign up for that sex change operation. With the +400 vagina modifier, I should be able to stay at the top of hackernews all day. amirite? This is aimed squarely at the reparation voters btw. Tech is a meritocracy with exception to half the population. And I'm not even sexist, just kinda peeved at the hypocritical double standard. Women have it hard in startups. BULLSHIT. Everyone has it hard in startups. Women get all the attention in an attention economy, which is worth more than money.
... and yet in reply to a completely neutral comment proposing that the article might be relevant because one of the two people in it was just featured in a very highly rated article last week, you create a one-off account and go on a full paragraph gender rant ...
Edit: I agree with the top poster, I was expecting more in-depth analysis when I hit the link. But voting up a follow-up story to someone who was just highly featured in the community is not exactly an inexplicable response.
You don't necessarily need to get travel insurance -- lots of homeowners/renters insurance covers thefts even abroad. I got robbed of my MBP and Kindle in the train station at the Madrid airport in October and the loss was covered. Probably worth checking into when buying insurance in the first place if you're a traveler.
A couple of years ago, a couple of prescription drug addicts stole some lawn tools and GPSes from our unfortunately unlocked garage. The local police (we live in a relatively affluent suburb) ended up coordinating with other local police departments and eventually caught the thieves. The police office I worked with thought that these same two guys were likely responsible for over a hundred similar property crimes. One is now in prison, and I'm not sure about the other guy. Unfortunately, my specific loss was not one for which they were prosecuted. Otherwise, I think I could make a claim against the 37 cents/hour (or whatever) those guys are paid in prison.
I'm told that the 80/20 rule applies to petty crime -- a handful of semi-pro thieves are responsible for a majority of the thefts. Given this, it seems that catching a few people who steal laptops, bikes, purses, etc. would actually have a significant impact on local crime levels. A problem with my particular case is that the thieves had already gotten rid of most of the stuff they had stolen, so proving in court that they had committed the crime would have been difficult. How viable of a start-up idea it would be to create "bait" laptops? The company would offer a turnkey service to law enforcement agencies. A special laptop would be provided to the police. It would appear normal at first glance but would record audio (and video?) and transmit GPS locations via a cellular connection. The police would place this laptop in an unlocked vehicle and leave. When the laptop moved, they would be notified via services provided by the start-up. From there, the police could either apprehend the thieves quickly or wait to see where they took the laptop (to get probable cause for a search warrant?). The back-end system would then produce court-ready evidence for the prosecution -- printable maps of activity, times, etc. Perhaps audio/video snippets ready to be played in court?
I did some quick Googling and could not find such a service. I wonder how one goes about selling to law enforcement agencies? Would they be able to make a purchase without 17 visits from a sales rep? Is this even a viable product? Thinking about my own community, I would love to hear about my police department working to reduce random crimes like these. There have been a couple of murders since we moved here a few years ago, but those have both been committed by family members of the victim. My greatest local crime risk is petty property theft.
This service is well known in car theft investigations except the cameras are supplemented with the ability to remotely cut the engine. Follow the car until it's safe to storm it. Boom goes the dynamite. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait_car
I've watched a few episodes of the "Bait Car" show on cable and should have mentioned it above. The Wikipedia article suggests that my proposed scheme would not constitute entrapment. I wonder how much time would pass, on average, before a criminal would take a laptop from an unlocked vehicle in a "nice" part of town?
Ever wonder why you read stories in the foreign press about France, Germany, Italy or some other European country deporting its Roma (Gypsy) population? Well, now you understand why they do it. And before anyone says, "He never said they were Gyspies," he's from the U.S., doesn't speak Italian and obviously isn't savvy enough to pick them out, at least when they aren't trying to be noticed. Gypsies do stuff like this to tourists through out Europe. They are a menace, and resist any attempt to assimilate them into modern society, preferring to live in their camps and beg, cheat, and steal to sustain themselves. Yes, downvote away, but it is true, as any European can and will attest.
While I'm sure that Roma, Sinti, etc carry out a disproportionately large number of these crimes, the way they are viewed and treated in Europe is just ridiculous. It's just straight up racism and the deportations sound like pure politics.
I think he doesn't mean robbed. Robbery is theft with the use or threat of violence. Yes, I know that the dictionary mumbles something half-hearted about it being the same as theft.
Just wanted to post that it was pretty stupid of me to travel without travel insurance — I've been so wary of insurance scams, I don't know why it didn't occur to me that this might happen. I was thinking that travel insurance wouldn't be a benefit because I wasn't likely to get sick or hurt, which was really, really silly reasoning now.
That said, thank goodness we were in Rome for three weeks — I have a new passport book (the US Embassy is awesome), and a friend shipped me a spare laptop and phone for the remainder of our trip. We started out with a really bad event made worse by poor decisions, but at least (3 weeks later) things are going well now.
But I thought pickpocketing was a lost art, according to the Salon article we were discussing earlier?
Perhaps a lost art in the old school sense of a mark, a pocket quietly picked, and no one being the wiser, but the run down of events and parties involved sounds identical to the pickpocketing scenario Salon laid out. Just with a more elaborate distraction than bumping into your shoulder.
When I was in Rome, a couple of youths tried the old trap-the-target-in-the-ticket-barriers trick on a friend of mine. Luckily another guy I was with realised what was happening, shouted "watched out" and the two guys scarpered after giving us a cheeky shrug.
I wish I knew about the brown goo trick before we went abroad — I would have been a lot more wary and alert. Thanks for the tip about the ticket barrier, I'll watch out for that as well.
This sucks. The part I can't stand is that these seem to be ongoing, easily trackable/predictable crimes. I wonder if travelers would contribute to a kickstarter project to post a few people at a smaller but high-risk train station and see if it's the same small group of bandits operating repeatedly and assist the police in identifying them so they can be aprehended. Do one case study first and hopefully learn some lessons that could be applied more broadly.
Sounds great, except the impression I got from the police was that they didn't care — we were stupid tourists (well, yeah, but still). They were literally around the corner, but no police at the station (1pm on a weekday) and they gave us the paperwork to fill out for the police report but never actually looked me in the eye. I really don't think they'd care enough to actually stop the crime, unless it started targeting locals.
Interesting corollary: If you see someone covered in slime, do not point it out, and especially do not offer to help; you might be mistaken for a thief.
Cargo pants with buttoned or zipped pockets, bag locks, and never letting go of your bags will go a long way in preventing theft while traveling. Also, the ol' money belt may make your butt sweat, but it's the place for passports, cash cache, and backup credit cards.
It's unfortunate, but I would say that on my world trip about 50-60% of English-speaking locals in non-English-speaking countries were trying to get my money somehow. I feel bad for the ones who weren't, because I had to treat them with such suspicion.
But, the rule is, if somebody doesn't have anything better to do than talk to you, they're probably after your money. I never stop walking if someone starts talking to me on the street, until I have an idea of their intentions.
Actually, this gives me an idea for a blog post on the lines I've been fed in this process.