What are some major red flags that you guys can pick up on that

If a cute girl initiates a conversation with someone like me it has to be a scam.

>>1206896
I mean, use common sense. If it seems bogus, then don't proceed. Being in those two cities aren't geared to rip you off. Just don't stay out too late at the bars without a couple mates and for fuck sakes, don't start fights with non-white locals. IE turks, brown people, gypsies. You fight one and all of a sudden ten more come out and jump your ass and take your wallet. Other than that, enjoy your time and take pictures. Try and get a day trip over to Neuschwannstein

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>>1206897
It's not.

Before you leave for a destination, look up scams that are common there.

Be weary of being invited to some place you have never heard of from someone you have just met, especially if they came up to you. If that new "friend" offers to take you someplace to "hang out" or do "language exchange", then offer to go instead to some neutral place, some chain restaurant. If they adamantly refuse, they were going to take you someplace and rip you off.

The most common version of this is The Chinese Tea House scam, common in China, although this same sort of thing happens all over. An attractive college age Chinese girl will approach you, be slightly to very flirtatious, say she loves your culture and wants to know more about it or practice her English, asks if you're on vacation or new to the city. She'll ask if you can hang out right now and say there's a hidden gem of a teahouse, or a restaurant or a bar that other tourists don't know about, but it's super authentic and great. She'll lead you there, and will start ordering herself tea or coffee or whatever, even if you don't. There will be no menu, or the menu will have no prices. When you try to get up to leave you'll be presented with a bill of hundreds or thousands of dollars, and the cute girls disappear and you get surrounded by dudes intimidating you.

In some variants of this scam it's a group of cute Chinese girls. The way to avoid it is to say you hate tea or that you don't drink, or that whatever the restaurant is, that you prefer another type of food. Offer to go to a Starbucks or any random restaurant or cafe where you can see is popular and has normal people going there. If they are unshakable, walk away.

>>1207082
Cont'd

Another red flag is if someone you don't know approaches you and at any point in the conversation mentions some great sale or rare opportunity nearby, they are almost guaranteed to be scamming you. Don't even bother trying to talk to them, since most of them, once they mention this great sale or opportunity, will try to get back to that topic once it is raised. You can meet a dude and legitimately have a nice conversation and be enjoying yourself, but once they let that slip, and further conversation will just be them trying to sell you on this opportunity. Happens a lot in Thailand, you'll go to some destination by a tuk tuk offering a day's worth of sight seeing, he'll be in a temple and say something about how a suit shop is having a special "Buddha Day" sale, or how a government gem shop, for one week a year, offers clearance prices, and lucky you, today is the last day!

If someone tries to give you something, and you do not know them, refuse it, if they try to jam it into your hands briskly keep walking. Can be aspiring "artists" in L.A. giving you a CD and then asking for a "donation" or scammers in SEA trying to give you bird seed. Often their plan is to have you "drop it", since they're forcibly jamming it into your hands, and then yell at you for compensation. Just keep going.

>>1207082
>>1207083
More scams? I just find this to be really fascinating reading, especially the way you write them. I googled some and they were all shit like "hurr beggars will ask you for money they might not really be beggars"

>>1207101
>New Orleans
>I bet I can tell you where you got them shoes!

What's the deal behind trying to hand you a baby? Some gypsies tried that, last time I was in Italy. Is it just distracting because it is so strange when a stranger tries to give you a baby, or what.

>>1207108
>What's the deal behind trying to hand you a baby?
probably tried to grab your wallet, its not like you're gonna drop a baby to stop them

>>1207122
I wouldn't hesitate to drop a gypsy baby ;)

>>1207101
I'll write a few more as I think of them.

This one can happen anywhere, and is based on your unfamiliarity with local currency. You will pay a bill, and they will give you the wrong change. Make sure you know the local currency before you get there, know what each bill looks like, and how the currency works. In some countries they have the face value of the bill denoted using their traditional numerals instead of or in addition to arabic numerals we take for granted, or they will have paper currency for divisions of their base unit, think of if America had a 50 cent bill, that sorta thing. Best way to deal with it is to know the currency well and call them out if they try to cheat you, although many will deny it, and getting (corrupt) police involved over a few dollars scammed is a royal pain and usually not worth it. Alternately, if you feel bad vibes, have exact change ready, which means, have lots of small bills.

Another currency scam, and a form of the above, is when you pay the taxi driver with a large bill, and he tells you he has no change. Again, having small denominations helps you avoid this, otherwise you can bertstare him down and wait for your change, and not get out.

This one happens in Thailand. You will pay for something, and this happens more with larger denomination bills, and the person will disappear behind the counter to "check it", come back with a counterfeit bill and say you were trying to scam them, returning the counterfeit bill. Now you have fake money, and they have your real money! Hard to deal with this one, honestly.

Oh, about the "wrong change" scam again, one interesting example is in Cambodia. They have their own currency, but USD is used interchangeably. Usually they use their own currency for smaller quantities and US money for larger. People get ripped off often because they pay with a twenty dollar bill, then get a mass of Cambodian and US money pressed back to them, and they get confused.

>>1206896
Did a stranger just approach you and wants you to do something? Go someplace, take his gift, check out something? Then it's a 100% guaranteed scam.

>>1207082
Man, this almost happened with me in China.

>>1206896
Just look out when you are in big squares or crowded places like train stations. Take your time to look at people and how they behave. Be weary of strangers and foreigners. Groups of blacks or gypsies are always bad news.

Tourist traps have absurd prices. If you are not familiar with prices in the region, look where the locals go eat or shop and remember the rates there. Never go where a lot of other tourists are. The prices in shops in and around major sites and the old town are often inflated. Don't buy your souvenirs there.

Churches like to charge you now to be able to enter them. That's bullshit, they are financed by tax money. If you must see the inside, just go to mass. Don't let them scam you.

Salzburg isn't nearly as bad as Munich. It's way smaller and not as a lot smaller than Vienna. You shouldn't worry too much, because if there are even scams, they are way less common in winter. The biggest "scams" I know are these buddhist monks that run around and sell shit. Just watch out for gypsies and beggars like in every european city.

>>1207304
Story?

>>1207083
The solution I have for these things is to simply not bring too much money. In vietnam I went around every where with 5$ us in my pocket basically.

>>1207082
Maybe it's because after reading that, foresight is 20/20 but you should NEVER follow a stranger to a second location.

>>1208220
It's mostly those pretentious i want the authentic off the beaten track hipsters who got scammed nowadays. You also won't hear about it much because of the sheer embarrassment.

>>1207083
worth adding that some of these just try to distract you while their pal is pick-pocketing you.

Same with "signature campaigns" - "please sign this for the deaf children / kosovo refugees/ etc.

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>>1207083
the obvious way to guess scams is
1. being offered something you didn't as for, like this guy is talking about.
2. presented with a price way below market value. it's rare that you're just going to happen to find a business that stays in business giving strangers better deals than everyone else
this is a good book on scams: general