#2 | The Bar Scam
Another timeless classic. You get approached in the streets by two unimpressive women. Both tell you they are from out of town and “lost” in the new city, but somehow happen to speak perfect English. A short conversation and they’ll invite you to that “great live-music bar” they encountered in some side street three minutes away. Once inside there will be drinks, laughter, mild flirting – and a rigged bill featuring prices of $30 for a single beer. The bar eeper and menacing doormen will pressure you to pay. Often an ATM is “accidentally” located right inside the venue. In short, the classic version of a bar scam.
Dead-sure give-away the venue you just entered is a rip-off joint: Strangers raising their glass to you.
Where does it happen?
Tourist-infested cities outside of the Western World. Preferably in Eastern Europe. Nightlife in Budapest and in Riga are well-known hotspots.
How To Avoid It:
If you are a talking to
- a) Strangers you just met
- b) Taxi drivers
any of the two suggest a place that they want to take you to then all your alarms should go off. Once you hear “I know this great place that has (…)” followed by “let’s check it out” or “I can drive you there” then you know what is really going on here. Cut off the “suggestion” and walk away or tell the driver to keep going for the original destination.
All-in-all bar scams are rather easy to avoid since the girls approaching you cannot help but radiate the aura of a street hustler. If you are not fully blind you will be able to pick up on that and then to dismiss their nasty approach.
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