Scam Artist Avoidance TipsThe scam artist can sometimes make you feel like the main purpose of being in India is to be parted from your cash in an infinite variety of inventive ways, so we cannot possibly discuss them all here, but if you can avoid at least these, it’s a start. And if you have been victim of a scam, please warn others here. At the bottom of this page, you can add your own scam busters to save the next unsuspecting first-timer!
Scam Artist Tip #1: The Old Switcheroo
The best example I have of this one happened to me at the Wednesday market at Anjuna Beach, Goa. I wanted to buy a necklace for a friend, but I was umming and ahhing about a particular one, not sure if I wanted it. There were kids everywhere, but the main sales girl at this stall was young, maybe less than 10 years old, but she was sassy and fun and bossy, basically telling me I had to buy it. I bantered with her for a while and decided to buy the necklace. Then I succumbed to one of the oldest scams in the book, “the old switcheroo”, where the necklace I was admiring was substituted with an identical but broken one (ie. one of the stones was missing) when it was wrapped. Instead of getting angry later when I realized what had happened, I decided to laugh and mentally tip my hat to the girl, she had done very well! I could afford to laugh it off as the necklace cost less than five dollars; I guess it would be different if it were emeralds and diamonds, but anyway, I decided rather than buying my friend something else, I would give her both the necklace and the long story of its purchase, which she enjoyed as much as I did!
Scam Artist Tip #2: The Old Switcheroo on the InternetOk, it was stupid. Last time I went to India, I was taking my husband for the first time and wanted to make sure his first couple of nights were a reasonably high standard, to ease him in gently. We were arriving into Calcutta, where I’d never been either, so I didn’t already have a recommended hotel in mind. So we searched on the internet and found a great hotel at a reasonable price and made a reservation online.Here’s the thing. The hotel on the internet was lovely, but it bore absolutely no resemblance to the flea pit which we had actually booked, so instead of a nice hotel at a good price, we got a crappy hotel at a comparatively expensive price. Ouch. Instead of the beautiful bed linen and nice furnishings pictured on the internet, we had a windows that opened onto sewer drainage—we had to hold our noses when we went to the bathroom and keep the door shut other times. I definitely had to use the lavender to ward off bed bugs and the most annoying part of it all was that the hotel owners were less than sympathetic. Basically, they said, they had nothing to do with it and we should take up our complaint with the internet website owner (if we could find them). Cold comfort farm indeed. I guess it was lucky that we had a reservation at all, it could’ve been worse. We arrived at about 1am, so I wouldn’t have liked to have gone looking for another hotel then! If I had created this website beforehand and picked a reputable hotel from a reputable site this wouldn’t have happened, so it’s buyer beware of the old switcheroo.
Scam Artist Tip #3: Shoe-ShiningOk, this one is gross, but so far I’ve only experienced it in one part of central Delhi, where my friend Kara was targeted, so hopefully this is as far as it goes. What happens is that a small gang of boys (pre-teen or early teen usually) will press you to have your shoes shined and will be quite insistent.If you refuse, for example, if you have shoes with fabric straps that cannot be shined, the little scam artist will throw dung on your shoes and legs, abuse you and run. Yuck. Just what you need when you’re off for a great shopping day in Connaught Place! All I can say is beware of them and carry cleaning wipes or tissues with you, so if this happens you can deal with it. Just so you know, most regular shoe shiners will have a little roadside stall or something similar, they won’t be wandering the streets in a gang. But in India, there’s no set rules about anything, so use your own judgment.
Scam Artist Tip #4: Fast metersThis is an auto rickshaw scam, where drivers agree to use the meter price for a journey (usually multiplied by a certain factor, this changes depending on the city). But what they don’t tell you is that they have adjusted the meter so that it runs fast, showing you’ve gone further and then are liable for a higher price. I wouldn’t worry about this scam too much as on your first trip you won’t know what the regular trip lengths are anyway, and remember I told you to surrender to the fact that you will pay more than a local.I mention it here for when you too succumb to the charms of India and want to stay and live. You’ll notice it then. (I guess it’s the Indian equivalent of a taxi going the long way :-)
Scam Artist Tip #5: Dodgy Water BottlesMake sure you carefully inspect your bottled water bottles. If anything seems amiss, don’t drink it. Just get rid of it and buy another bottle somewhere else. I found no troubles when buying from a regular store, even ‘hole in the wall’ kind of small stores, but I did have one bottle that was very suspect when I was last in Lucknow. I was very thirsty and bought from the nearest vendor. Even though I inspected the seal and both the hard plastic seal and the clear plastic overwrap were intact, when I opened the bottle, it smelled a bit funny, definitely more like dodgy tap water than spring water.I found out later that Indian scam artists are as skilled as any other artisans. I was told that there is a way to refill the bottles through a small hole in the bottom, which is then replugged with plastic...which brings me to my the next tip: When you finish with a bottle of bottled water, crush it (I think they even put directions on some of the bottles to ask you to). This is to make sure that the bottle is not easily refilled with tap water and sold on to the next unsuspecting customer!
Have A Great Story About A Scam?Have you or your friends been scammed in an inventive way? I'm not talking about normal exchanges, like I paid more than a local for something (that happens daily, just go with it), but something with daring or cunning or fraud. Then share it here so others can be prepared. Pay it forward :-) What Other Travellers Have SaidClick below to see scams identified by previous travellers...
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