TV DOCUMENTARY - BE WISE TO THE SCAMS

Hi all,

I’m making a documentary series about tourist scams around the world in order to draw less experienced travellers’ attention to the (albeit small) risks they face, and hopefully help them to avoid falling victim to these schemes. I’m hoping to draw on the experience of the seasoned traveller for some of these tales. I love travelling myself and definitely DON’T want to scaremonger or put people off travelling – just arm them with the facts so they clear steer of the scams.

Have you ever fallen foul of a scam in Canada? Have you been drawn in by friendly strangers and ended up parting with your cash or been the victim of a complex bit of thievery? Or have you heard of any scams that other travellers should be made aware of?

If you are interested in taking part or have some interesting information that could help please post and/or contact me on kate.evetts@electricsky.com or call me on
+44 1273 229 674

Thankyou
Kate

The only scam ive fallen for in Canada is to be told that Poutine is edible and labatts is drinkable.

Holy crap, I got nailed by those two scams as well.

I felt sooooo stupid afterwards...

Cheers,
Terry

I once bought a ticket for the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Great idea for a documentary. You may be hard up for evidence in Canada though. This place is almost as clean as a whistle. Obviously the larger cities have a bit of scams and crimes such as pick pockets on the subway (ttc) and the odd bag snatch. My girlfriend went to school there and she never had a problem in four years; she walked around by herself for the most part too. Most of the crime in T.O. is gang related, which does not apply to travelers. Homeless citizens are polite and pose no danger to anyone (some people are intimidated).
ps- again... great idea!

Car break-ins can be a problem. Thieves here in Winnipeg seem to target cars with our of province license plates; locals never leave anything valuable in their cars. I know that the hostel here has a strict policy of no baggage left in cars.

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<hr>The only scam ive fallen for in Canada is to be told that Poutine is edible and labatts is drinkable. <hr></blockquote>

Ha !

All tourists fall for that one ...

Did you fall for the Mae West and pepsi scam as well?

Be nice beachie, after all, im a dumb aussie dont forget :)

hehehe

I guess that means you fell for that one too ...

Kate,

Your first post for this subject was about writing a book, you didn't get any responses and now it's turned into a TV documentary.
Which TV channel would that be in Brighton....??? I noticed the 01273...

Laura

Hi Laura

I never mentioned a book - maybe someone else is writing a book about something similar? The TV company is called Electric Sky Productions.

Back in 1980 - 81, I backpacked around Europe and the Middle East for a year.

In Egypt the people were very hospitable and friendly so I first didn't notice that I was being taken for a ride when this one guy sat down at my table in a restaurant and began chatting. Long story short, he told me of how his sister was getting married that weekend in Alexandria, and that he wanted to invite me along, but that his car had broken down and he needed 35 Egyptian pounds - back then about 50 Canadian dollars if I remember straight - to pay the mechanic to fix it. I told him I'd go get the money for him back at my hotel and meet him back at the restaurant in an hour.

Wonder how long he waited.

Another trip - this time on bicycle from France to Morocco via Spain and back - I was approached again at a restaurant in Sevilla by a couple of guys who tried to get me interested in a dope deal. They wanted me to pay to go in with them on a drug deal! Haha, like I wanted to spend the rest of my life in a Spanish jail.

Both were very smooth talkers and someone more gullible might have gone for it. Lucky Mom told me before I left not to accept any wooden nickels.