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Scam:

Overcharging

These scams are based on your ignorance of the area and rely on getting you to pay well over the market rate for goods or services. Some will rely on a helpful local steering you to the goods, but others will simply involve quoting a high price to you. In some countries this is institutionalised: foreigners have to pay more even for genuine sights. Getting a general sense of accommodation price ranges and the like is the best way to prevent being overcharged. In some places it's assumed that you'll bargain down overcharged prices, in others you will just have to walk away or pay up for goods although you should still challenge the amount in the case of a service if it is clearly overpriced.

Scenic taxi rides

Since you don't know the area, taxi drivers can take advantage of you by taking a long route to your hotel and getting a large metered fare. The best prevention is knowledge: it's hard to learn a new city well enough to know a good route before you arrive for the first time, but it might be a good idea to ask your hotel roughly what the taxi fare should be when you book or to arrange a pickup with them if they offer the service. Often you can negotiate a fixed price with a taxi before you get in.

Gem and other resale scams

You are taken to a jewelry shop and offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to purchase gemstones or jewels at special discount prices. Another customer in the shop, well-dressed and perhaps from the same country as you, tells how he made incredible profits last year by reselling the gems and is now back for more. But hurry! The sale ends today and you have to pay cash.

Of course, once you get back home and try to sell your booty, it turns out to be low grade and worth only a fraction of what you paid for it. This scam is particularly prevalent in Bangkok, but variations on the theme with other products that can supposedly be resold for vast profits are common elsewhere too.

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