Common scams helpful locals · Helpful locals in Common scams
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Helpful locals in Common scams
Helpful locals in Common scams
These scams are based upon the idea of offering you help or advice that is actually deceptive, trusting that you will rely on the scammer's "local knowledge". They usually involve giving advice that results in you paying for something that you otherwise wouldn't or going somewhere you don't want to go. Some scams in which a helpful local offers to cut you a good deal can be outright fraudulent such as convincing you to buy fake gems for example but many simply get you to pay for something that you wouldn't pay for if you knew the area better.
One of the biggest traps of these kinds of scams is the desire to be polite to people who are polite and friendly to you; and the scammers know this. While you shouldn't become a hard-nosed nasty person, you should receive unsolicited offers of help with polite caution, and, when you are reasonably certain that you're being scammed, there's no need to be polite in fending it off: feel free to walk away or speak firmly at the person. Yelling for help could be necessary, but it will often just attract more (unwanted) attention. Pretending they don't exist, which entails not making eye contact, not walking faster, not saying 'hello' or 'no', will often humiliate them or tire them out without frustration on your part. Do not respond if they call you racist to attract your attention. Another common mistake is to say 'no thank you', in which case they have their 'foot in the door' tactic up and running and feel that they can engage in a conversation with you.
Another trap is the "too good to be true" offers: they are almost certainly not true.
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Common scams Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.