The unwary traveler is ripe prey for a professional scammer and they don’t even need sophisticated tools to rip you off. The “dirt on shirt” scam uses just a bit of smudge, some napkins, and a small group of conspirators with nimble fingers to relieve you of your belongings.

Globe Spots describes it thusly:

You are walking in a crowed street and suddenly you get something on your jacket. It can be anything from coffee to dog pooh. Faster than lightning a diverse group of friendly locals want to help, offering to clean your jacket with their very convenient napkins. Before you realize what is going on your wallet/money belt/camera/daypack is changing hands. The solution is to “be cool” when it happens, decline their service firmly and walk away fast. You can always check out the stains in a safer place later on. If you don’t realize the scam before they are freeing you from your valuables, yell out and act aggressively. Trick thieves are rarely into attention and violence, but use your good judgement

Have you ever gotten fleeced while traveling? Sound off in the comments.

Travel scams [GlobeSpots]

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