Costly Travel Scams & How to Avoid Them as a Tourist

Travel should feel freeing, not stressful. With that in mind, to best prepare you for your travels and smooth sailing, we are sharing four common travel scams that can happen on cruise itineraries on land or purely during your land vacation, and the simple habits that stop them. 

You’ll learn why these scams work and what to do instead so you have peace of mind. 

During this episode, we reference the following items that help us travel smartly and cautiously to avoid being travel scam targets, including: 

• AirFly device for a quietvox to make it cordless.
• The Keeper App allows you to securely store and access your passport photo from a computer, your phone, or a tablet. We recommend storing your iPhone or Apple Watch IMEI number as well, in case of emergency.
• Use these carabiners to more securely close your day bag zipper.
• Travel with AirTags to track your belongings if you’re an Apple device user, or Tiles for Android.

Have a travel mishap you want to share so others can learn from your experience? Contact us via Instagram or through our website, SometimesSailing.com 

Transcript

Dan (00:35)

Hello. Today we are talking about something that can really put a damper on your trip. It can derail your otherwise amazing cruise and that is travel scams, thefts and preventable travel woes. 

Now this episode isn't about fear, we're not going to scare you with anything. It's mostly just things to watch out for as you're traveling and just good habits to get into so you don't become a victim. We're sharing common scams and risks so we've highlighted four in particular for this episode.

This episode is really gonna be focused on practical advice that you can use to protect yourself while you're traveling.

Mikkel (01:19)

That's right. And although we are Small Ship Cruise Talk and we talk to a mostly cruise audience, if you have found us just simply by looking up some tips for traveling smarter, welcome.

And some of these travel scams can happen to you during your cruise itinerary. Some would be in your pre- or post-cruise land portion if you are traveling, like for instance, renting a car. So here's the overview of what we're going to talk about. 

The four things are taxi scams, rental car damage scams, theft of belongings, and pickpocketing, which kind of belongs under theft of belongings, but you're going to hear the two different things that we have been aware of from other travelers, friends and family, or that we've experienced ourselves. 

And for each situation, we are going to cover what the scam is or what it looks like, why it works, and the solution of how to best prevent it from happening. So at the end of this episode, you're going to walk away with clear responsible travel habits that are going to help you stay confident and in control. And that is what you want.

Let's get right into number one, taxi drivers charging your credit card.

Now you might think, yeah, I'm paying with credit card. So of course they have to charge it. No, no, no, that's not what happens in this scam. So we heard this from a friend of ours. It happened to her daughter in Canada. And we also saw this mentioned in a small cruise ship.

forum that we're on. This happened to travelers in Europe. So what happens is you take your taxi, you go to pay with your credit card and you pay. You think, "All good," you saw the amount, you tapped your credit card or they inserted it to pay. But later you noticed you were charged more than the actual fare because maybe the taxi driver said to you, "You know what? It didn't go through. Let me just have your card to tap again." What that person is doing is really charging your card for thousands of dollars. 

The first instance we mentioned it happened to be $1,500 Canadian dollars. The second instance we know of was €2,000. Okay, right, ouch. So you don't want to hand your card over willy nilly, might I say that? Okay, so don't trust them that you saw the amount and it went through.

Dan (03:31)

So why this works is you're tired, you're in a rush, or else there might be a language barrier there, you're not quite sure what's happening, maybe there's a lot of high pressure of just go, go, go, I'm in traffic, like, "I need to scan your card," "Let's go." So just make sure you slow down a little bit and just be aware of what you're actually paying for.

Mikkel (04:07)

Right, and to your point, I think a lot of people don't want to offend the taxi driver. You just want to be polite. You're an American. You're in their country. You don't want them to have a bad thought about you. Oh, obnoxious Americans. You're just concerned about that. So you are trying to respect their business and what they say goes.

Dan (04:12)

Mm-hmm. 

Mikkel (04:29)

But is not a time for niceties in that way. You have to protect yourself.

So, how can you protect yourself in this situation? Not only can you confirm the estimated fare before the ride, okay, but you can watch the card machine carefully before tapping. And then if they ask for your card again, you can say no, or you can say, I need to see the machine, I need to tap it myself. So don't let that credit card leave your hand, okay?

You can ask for a receipt, which of course we recommend. However, that's not going to avoid this scam necessarily. Another thing I want to put out there is that you can take a rideshare app. And that way you're never handing your credit card to anybody because in Uber, in Bolt, which is a rideshare app that we've used in Portugal, I think we used it in France as well, between those two, even in Greece when we used Uber, it calls a taxi and we never paid the taxi driver directly. It was always through the app. So you have that protection because they cannot tap your card multiple times.

Also, you want to check your credit card within the days after you travel. So it doesn't have to be two days after. It could be when you get back home, depending on the length of your trip. And another thing is if you don't have guardrails in place for your credit card, we're encouraging you right now to log into your account online and set up email alerts if something is charged over a certain dollar amount. 

So you are emailed immediately or text messaged— depending on your bank and the preferences you set— of unusual charges. I've had this alert on our American Express for years. You know, 30 out of 31 times it is our charge, but sometimes it's not and you want to be alerted right away.

Dan (06:33)

Right, so the big takeaway on this is just slow down. Be aware of what you're paying for. And if you need to take a little extra time and ask more questions or not jump out just to rush the transaction, it may pay dividends down the line.

Mikkel (06:48)

Yes.

Dan (06:50)

The second scam or the second situation to watch out for is rental car damage claims. So this happened to us in Spain and truly what it is, is...

You rent a car, you return it, and then maybe days or weeks later, the rental car company claims there's damage. So it'd be a scratch, a dent or something that you caused. So you get the blame for it and then you get the bill for it.

Mikkel (07:17)

A note about this is you might be thinking, but we have insurance for when we rent a car, we opted into the insurance. We have protection on our credit card we charged it on. We have travel insurance. We have all those things. The headache is the most annoying part of this because you have to argue with the car rental company. 

So it works because most travelers are eager to get on the road. You do a little quick glance at the car. Again, you're trying to be nice. It's their business, not yours. They tell you, "Don't worry about the minor scratches. Don't worry about documenting it. It'll be fine." And then without proof, it is your word against theirs. So thank goodness when we were in Spain and we rented a car to go from Madrid to Seville, and we drove and we stopped in Granada, Cordova, —brought the car back. Nobody was there when we dropped it off, which is very common. They have key drops for that reason. And you, you know, park the car. What did we do to protect ourselves? And thank goodness, right, Dan?

Dan (08:26)

That's for sure. was a lot of picture taking. I think there were some videos that happened, but we also did that when we picked up the vehicle. And I think the thing that saved us there was one particular shot that there was the scratch or the damage was in the shot and the employee was in the shot where we picked it up from so that really covered us and we were able to argue our case that, "Hey, this damage was there when we picked up the car."

Mikkel (08:55)

And the images are time stamped on our iPhones. And on top of that, I want to encourage you to write it on the paperwork when you pick it up. Now, we've had people tell us there's no way to document that, or we don't have that capability. It's digital. We get that. But make sure you have multiple safeguards and protections for yourself in place.

Of course you want to have travel insurance. Of course you want to opt for car insurance. If you don't do it through the car company, you want to make sure your credit card has that travel insurance. All these things. And you want to take photos and videos. And you can also write down the name of the employee you spoke to who told you, you didn't have to document these things if that happens. Unfortunately, you have to document it all. We have a Google Doc. 

We just open, we write it in our phones, we use our iPhones, we have Google Drive on our phones take these notes and make sure it's not some random piece of paper that we scribbled a note on that we put in our purse or our backpack and that we can't find later. You always want to make sure you know where these notes are.

Dan (10:00)

It may sound like a layer of paranoia in there, but it's really gonna save you a lot of time and a lot of headache just to document it. And it's not gonna take that long. So definitely suggest that you cover yourself upfront.

Mikkel (10:14)

And again, as Dan said, you take photos and videos when you pick it up and again, when you drop it off. Because when we dropped off the car, you don't want them to say, "The car is not here. We don't have the keys." I'm not even kidding. Document: take video of you dropping the keys into the key return. Take photos and video of where you park the car. I also heard of one couple who accidentally dropped it off at the wrong rental company return.

Okay, so you'll have those photos to understand where it was visually, which could help the rental car company as well.

Dan (10:50)

So the third topic today is theft. And there's a lot of different ways this will happen, but this particular way is setting your item down and then getting distracted.

Mikkel (11:02)

So you're at a cafe and you set your phone down on the table. You're checking into your hotel and how many times have you put your bag somewhere else. It's not directly under your feet. I'm not talking about checking it with the bellhop. I'm talking about putting something down for "just a second."

Dan (11:19)

And it's easy to do, right? Like you're digging through your bag to find your passport or maybe you're distracted by something that's happening. You just set your phone down. But there are plenty of people waiting for those moments to happen.

Mikkel (11:32)

Oh yeah, and they look like us. They're just wearing regular clothes. They're at the Christmas Markets, just enjoying their lives, having a glass of Glühwein, but they are ready to prey on unsuspecting, trusting travelers. This happened to me when I was in Austin with a girlfriend years ago, having a grand old time during happy hour. My purse was right underneath me. An employee who worked there was able to steal it from underneath me. The employee we were actually interacting with, he was off duty for a while. 

We ended up catching him because he used my credit card at a convenience store and the convenience store was able to get the video footage and it was him. But I could not believe it. I am a skeptical New Yorker. I am always aware of where my belongings are and I was shocked that he was able to steal my purse, steal my iPhone, steal my wallet. Thank goodness I was with a girlfriend who had a phone, who had money, who had credit cards and we could figure it out. But this happened to me, it can happen to you. And then another situation, we have a friend who was in the Christmas Markets in Budapest, right? It was Budapest. He was at one of the tables enjoying whatever he bought to eat with his wife. He put his backpack with his camera in between his legs.

Dan (12:46)

Right.

Mikkel (12:57)

Looked down and it was gone.

Dan (13:00)

The thieves use a lot of different diversionary tactics. Maybe draw your attention into something, maybe a loud noise or a conversation or two or three working at the same time. So one will distract you, the other two remove your belongings. So just be really aware of what's going on around you and who may be trying to draw your attention away from your belongings.

Mikkel (13:25)

Right, and this works because you're just having fun. You don't think it's going to happen to you. You don't have safeguards like strapping your bag strap around your leg or your chair. And even then, right, like if it's a backpack and you put the straps in the leg of the chair and you're not paying attention, somebody could open the backpack and take what's inside. What I do is I put the bag—purse, whatever it is, day bag—around my leg, and then I hold it in between my legs, in between my two feet, and I make sure the zipper is in a direction that if somebody touched it, I would be aware. 

You can also take a little clip and close around the zipper and around the strap so it's not that easy to open. Like, it's a little more difficult, there would be another step. Even a carabiner, again, it wouldn't be impossible to open, but it would be a little more difficult. What other things would be great for safeguarding against this happening?

Dan (14:26)

So be aware of where your belongings are. Once you start maybe eating lunch or having conversation, you get distracted. I would also say avoid leaving your phone or tablets on the table. Make sure you put those away. Even for a second, you put it down and then they're gone. Or even somebody running by the table, just will grab it and then it is gone.

So a simple habit to get into is before leaving any location, just pause and do a visual check and make sure you have everything with you.

Mikkel (14:56)

Everything including your phone, your wallet, your passport. That brings up another good point. You want a photo of your passport somewhere safe that you can digitally access. We keep a photo of our passport in an app called Keeper that I will link to in our show notes. We have a photo of our passport in there and we have our IMEI numbers of our Apple devices. Let me tell you why that's important.

I couldn't believe this story, but we learned from other people's mishaps, which is why you're listening today. A friend of ours was in Madrid eating dinner at a restaurant with his family. Four people at the table. A beggar comes into the restaurant. Now this is an upscale restaurant. I mean, it's not like white tablecloths, but it's a really nice restaurant. So don't think it can't happen if you're traveling on a luxury budget.

Beggar comes in, is shaking coins in a cup, goes back to the last table. This is where our family and friends are. And as the employee at the restaurant was telling the man, "You can't be in here, you can't be in here," trying to get him out... He leaves and they realized later on that one of their phones was on the table and when this beggar was shaking the coins in their faces and distracting them— right, the element of distraction— he snatched the iPhone off the table and took it. When our friend went to use his phone, could not find it. It was missing. They went to file a police report. So if this happens to you, want to file a police report. Okay.

Definitely file it. You never know. You might be able to get it back, but maybe not. But they said to him, we need your iPhone IMEI code. And I thought, what the heck is that? We've never needed that. Here's how you find it and record it somewhere like Keeper that you can digitally access, if need be and you don't have your phone. Because you can access Keeper from a computer. 

So you go into your iPhone, you go into settings, you click on your name in your iCloud account, then you scroll down to click your device. So in this case, your iPhone, it could be your Apple Watch...and you'll see there's an IMEI number. You need to write that down because if your device is stolen, it's kind of like your iPhone's fingerprint or your Apple Watch that the police are gonna need that number. This is how there's proof that it was yours.

Dan (17:35)

So you also want to enable your device tracking features. So like the Find My iPhone and that'll help. So maybe if my phone was stolen, Mikkel could then track that phone and then place devices such as Airtags or a Tile into your luggage or your valuables so if they do go missing, you can then have some level of tracking.

Mikkel (17:41)

Yes.

Dan (18:02)

Our last clever, sneaky scam is pickpocketing. And if you've ever traveled to Europe, you you've seen the signs around, "Beware of pickpocketers" or "Pickpocketers work in this area." That's a real thing. It's probably one of the most common crimes in major cities worldwide. And good, right? Like this is what they do for a living. And it's...

Mikkel (18:22)

Mm-hmm. Yep, it is their profession.

Dan (18:26)

And it is rarely obvious what's going on until it's way too late. We've talked about it another episode where I don't like to wear the quietvox device when I'm on a tour, because it feels like that is a big target that you are a tourist. So a lot of different ways they work in tandem and solo. But it all goes back to a lot of it, like we talked about earlier, is the art of distraction.

Mikkel (18:39)

Mm-hmm.

Mikkel (18:52)

Mm-hmm.

Dan (18:52)

So some of those ways is maybe they bump into you, maybe they shake the can of coins like we talked about, or they get really close into your personal space and just start talking to you or accusing you of something and a partner will come in and grab your bag wallet.

Mikkel (19:12)

They can also casually overlap their jacket with your purse. And you don't even realize. You just think, "Oh, excuse me." You know? But it's already happened by then. And a lot of the time, because you're distracted, because you are trusting and believe in the good in humanity—and we're not saying don't, we're just saying be aware of this—you don't realize anything is missing like Dan said, until much later until it's too late. It also works because you're a tourist, you're on your phone, you're taking photos, you're navigating crowds, you're checking the map. The map could be printed or on your phone. You're focused on your task and touring and the experience. This could also happen if you are with a group of people. If you are solo. If you're just two people. They prey on travelers. 

So how to prevent this: Looking alert, at the very least, can reduce your chances of being targeted. Don't walk and look down at your phone. If I'm looking at my phone, standing still on a corner, Dan is alert, looking around, looking at me, looking at the situation, looking at surroundings. If somebody gets way too close to us, we've had our Spider-Man senses go up and said to each other, like giving each other a look, like,

Dan (20:29)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mikkel (20:34)

"We need to walk away from here because this person is on our tail." I had a really scary situation in the Sacre-Coeur area in Montmontre, in Paris. was alone that trip. I felt so unsafe. This guy was chasing me. I went in to the church and alerted the security and they said, "Oh yeah, this happens all the time."

So scary, but it's just the truth. Okay. So if your senses are heightened and your hairs on your arms go up, like something is wrong, don't ignore that feeling.

Another point I want to bring up with the quietvox that Dan, that you just said is it's why we use

our AirFly, which allows you to be wirelessly listening to the quietvox.

So just to kind of brief you, the quietvox is if you're on a cruise or a group tour—we've had quietvoxes during just land tours that we've signed up for—but the quietvox allows you to hear the tour guide through your ear. So even if you're 20 feet away from them, you can still hear what they're saying.

So you can tuck your quietvox in your pocket with the AirFly and you don't have to have corded headphones. It also allows you to make your hearing aid Bluetooth device work the quietvox. And why this is important is because otherwise the quietvox has a lanyard that goes around your neck. Most people wear this quietvox in front of their jacket.

They have corded headphones, the corded earpiece, and you look like a target. Now, it's obvious you're in the group sometimes, but it's less obvious if you have all these safeguards like we said. So the AirFly is linked in the show notes. You can also use it on the airplane, which is a really nice thing.

Dan (22:14)

Another piece of it is bring your own umbrella because it's so nice to use the hotel's umbrella or the ship's umbrella. However, there's a big logo on there saying that you are a Viking passenger or maybe that you are staying at the Hyatt or whatever the case may be.

That can also highlight you as being a me, I'm a watch guy. I love to travel with my watches. 

Mikkel (22:33)

Yep.

Dan (22:39)

However, I have a travel watch that is not showy. It is not expensive. So anything like that that you don't want to really call attention to yourself, keep that at home or definitely tuck that away. So even use your phone, take a picture, but then put it away pretty quickly.

Mikkel (22:56)

I hope that this has helped you to prepare wisely. The goal here is not to assume the worst. Travel should be exciting and feel freeing and exhilarating. This was simply to travel smarter and be aware of these scams that have happened to us and other people so you have the best trip possible and you don't lose anything important like your passport or your wallet or your peace of mind.

We want to hear your story. If something has happened to you that you want us to cover, you want other people to learn from what happened to you and you think it'll help someone else, please reach out and contact us. We are @SometimesSailing on Instagram. You can contact us in the show notes if you are listening to this and if you are on YouTube, please reach out to us via the social media link in the show notes as well.

Dan (23:55)

Until next time, thanks for tuning in and keep cruising.