Actually,(now we've had fun at your expense)I guess it is useful to occasionally have reminders of these city scams just to keep visitors on the alert.For such a huge cosmopolitan city Istanbul is remarkably friendly and this can lead to visitors lowering their guard a bit,but there are scams in any place where tourism is found,always some folks looking to use unsavoury ways to part you from your cash....
In most other countries in the region, the scam artists rip you off completely. Although they'll try to get you to pay three or four times the going rate, at least with the shoe shine scammers in Istanbul you'll get a shoe shine!