This video tells you about the main scams in Istanbul, Turkey. Don't get ripped off and be careful. Also just like any major city, watch your pockets for pick pockets in busy areas. Stay safe people! Subscribe for more content!
thanks bro i saw this video last week and now i am in instanbul now and the shoe shine scam nearly happened but when the brush dropped i instantly remembered your vid and kept it moving
Really helpful!! When I was there for work last year I had the following scams tried on me on one night: - Bar scam (approached by 2 separate guys wanting to have a drink with me) - Shoe Shine scam (had a brush dropped in front of me on the pavement) - Turkish Tea scam (was offered a free tea, only to have lots of shop keepers coming into to my 'captive' spot and try to sell me stuff. Passively aggressively of course) Thankfully I didn't pay out for any of them 🙏🏻
Turkish tea thing isn't fully scam, it is the "Ne vereyim abime?" marketing technique. The bar scam is similar, but it may be normal (sometimes) in Turkish standards as some of Turkish people are way too social. The shoe shine thing is probably a scam.
Im cuban and in my country the same locals wont allow people to scam turists.. this brings a bad name to the country and will dammage the local business. Even thieves are run out of the mayor turist areas. Great practise. Cuba being a comunist country is very safe.
Thanks bud for the info, I’ve been Istanbul many times and different parts of it. You left out a few more such as: the perfume guys, (lol play like you don’t want it and watch the price drop rapidly) the supposedly young Syrian refugees (gang of girls) that hustle around sultan Ahmet area always asking for money and asking you to buy food for them. Supposedly Syrian mothers that use their children in expensive prams to ask you for money and buy food. A questionable one where they go around raising funds for a cause like children’s charity or something. A general rule of thumb, a real beggar when they ask are even happy with pittance. I have had people keep asking for more and saying I have 5 kids and so on. Also I have had someone throw it on the ground in disgust because it was the last bit of change I had and was like 10p or something. Just be careful people it’s quite hard sometimes to distinguish between the real deal and the numerous street con artists. I have seen the young girls who begged me last night To eating big Burger King meals in brand new clothes the next evening. hiding their faces from me but when I caught them they just laughed.
Ye i never give money to them, sometimes i buy food for the children but thats about it. Like most places in the world beggars are either part of organized gangs or are being forced to do it by their parents. Quite sad that instead of going to school they have to go out and beg, i feel sorry for them.
The bar scam, it’s the same in China , Beijing , Shanghai, single male all alone beautiful Chinese girl comes up and talks perfect English ..I nearly fell for it but at the last seconds I realised about the single male scam. Thanks to guys like urself who put up these vids, cheers
I've traveled to over 12 countries. Last week I went to Istanbul and I never have people tried to scam me like that. It happened multiple times a day in the most blunt way possible. Legitimately, whenever you go to the market to buy something try to negotiate to pay only a fifth of what they asked for. Watch out for "fixed price" stores; they're also a scam, usually.
@@IstanbulHacks Well, when taking a taxi and the taximeter shows an amount and the driver keeps the change even when I was asking for it, I would call that scamming. I never said it was just at the market. It happened everywhere.
Thank you so much! Taxi driver tried to scam us. Said 250 tl. We insisted on meter. Only 90tl! BUT the best was the shoe shine scam. Guy did it opposite the Dolmabache Camii, near Besiktas football stadium. He dropped it. I told my wife to ignore it and walk on. He shouted back at us. I'm guessing something less than complimentary about my mother! Thanks again, brother. Teshekur!
Thanks for the video. Very helpful. Can you suggest me how the best way (fastest way) to go from Fatih Area to National Defense University? Is taking subway (M2) line is recomended? Thanks again
@@sabrikaymaz4816 these kind of scames are everywhere in the worl including London and you will be surprised Paris is the worse. But yes it is good to know a bot about what to look for and how to be safe.
This seems to be a nice city, I hope I can visit sometime in the future. Seeing and sharing places like this is why I love traveling and make videos so much!
I do not know a lot about my family history. Therefore, I was SHOCKED when I found out via genetic genealogy that I am part Turkish and Iranian. I look forward to taking a trip to Turkey when the world returns to normal. Thanks for the video!
@@aw1wcmvzc2l2zq2 I find this comment amusing, because I struggled with my racial identity when I was a child. I even asked my mom if I was adopted on several occasions, because I was the chocolate one who didn't look like I belonged. Perhaps this was the impetus for me gravitating towards a career as a physician-scientist. I have a graduate degree in biomedicine, and I am also a physician in training. Science is wonderful, because it shines a light into a world divided by irrational thought, racism and bigotry. Understanding genetics allows one to comprehend that genotype (a person's genes) differs from phenotype (physical appearance). Therefore, I am allowed to acknowledge my Asian ancestors who believed in Allah or Buddha, my African and African-American ancestors who responded to hate and subjugation with love, my European ancestors who founded a city less than 100 miles from where I currently reside, and my Native American and Mesoamerican/Andean ancestors who called America home when the average European believed the world was flat. I am an amalgamation of all of these ethnicities, and as more people begin to discover who they truly are genetically, perhaps more individuals will begin to respect races or cultures that they once considered inferior. My actions today help shape the world that exists tomorrow. I teach my child, who does not look African-American, and who may ask me the very same question that I asked my mother, (if he is adopted) that he has distant family in places across the globe, and their voices deserve to be honored and respected. Too much blood has been shed due to divisions based on religion or race, and I refuse to pass on any belief that adds to the pain of others.
Big cities around the world have scammers in tourists areas and they will try to scame u their own way . They could be Venders , jugglers , beggars or guy in three piece suit . Just mind ur business and never stop to talk to strangers if they approach and you will be fine . Thanks for the video
you forgot the tour guide trap. I'm hungarian so this "tour guide" nice fellow came close and heard me speaking Hungarian, so he started saying Hungarian phrases and so began asking personal questions where are we from where do we stay in Istanbul but I told him we know this place because we spend summers here for 10 years now (of course I lied) but he didn't give up! Followed us for more than 2km from behind, and kept intervening again trying out his Hungarian phrases... So tour guides! approaching you like normal nice guys who just want to give you some advices on where to go what to do but then they get stuck on you until you pay good money.
Tessekurler thank you brother for the info. Greetings from Indonesia. I will go through your other videos. I just found your channel today. I will see if any video about recommended apartment for family but affordable price. 😊😊 I visited turkey 2012 with a tour. This time maybe 2022 i will not use tour, but will bring my mom, sister, nephew niece to stay like maybe 2 weeks in turkey .
I have run into the Taxi scam in Istanbul and Antalia. You better have the exact money or be ready to fight for your extra money back. The Taxi drivers take the extra money as their tip :-)
The scam about the guy who takes you to a club and make you pay just happened to me last week. The girls started drinking 3 bottles of champagne outta nowhere and I ended up paying 600 euros. The starting bills was even 3 thousand euro. He even said the exact same thing of splitting half/half. In the end, I learnt that you cannot try to be as smart as them as they have already evaluated all the possible options and how you will behave. They do it so often they will find a way to trick you.
@@IstanbulHacks Ah thank you mate. I felt shit for a couple of days cause it's such a waste of money which I could have donate for example. But what can you do? I never spend much anyway, so it's not a massive tragedy.
@@IstanbulHacks One important thing that I would like to highlight is that it's actually super effective on experienced travelers, like the one you mentioned in the video. In fact, I'm very extrovert and used to make random friends in the street when i travel solo and tbf that's how i met some of the most amazing friends i have right now. Hence, I'm a perfect victim for that. Indeed, they can speak very candid about everything. One of the girl (probably escort?) had a deep knowledge about Dostoevskij and we had a pleasant conversation about literature and art before she f****d me by ordering a bottle of champagne outta nowhere. Be really careful guys
@@IstanbulHacks Yes. It's called Oasis. I think it's close to Ortaköy. And I still have the phone numbers of different girls and the guy who approached me. Do you know if we can do anything with that?
On my visit to Turkey, I have encountered Taxi (currency scam), Shoe shine, and Bar scam. I fell for the Taxi scam and lost around 350 TL. Then I became alert and was OK.
@@BayPizzaTR It was my first time in Turkey, I was all alone and sitting next to the driver on the front seat. The taxi driver started screaming at me in Turkish, I panicked because I didn't expect it. I was worried what if he drove me somewhere or stabbed me, all my luggage including my passport was in the taxi so I just told him to stop and I got down with my luggage safely. Then he just drove off quickly. On my second trip I was more alert. I hope it does not happen again but I will remember your tip, thank you. I love Turkey :-)
A common ploy a while ago was a young kid sitting in a sorry state by his spilled shoeshine box complete with one or two smashed polish bottles next to him. Evidently looking for sympathy from passers by. Scam. Don't fall for that one either. I haven't seen it for a while but it could start up again.
i was planning on going to Ukraine next summer and thought I would spend a week or so in istanbul on the way but really dont know if I care to now. I am male and will be traveling solo. How is it for a single 55 year old male that thinks hes 35 in Istanbul? I noticed in a lot of videos theres many many men there. It seems they outnumber the women by a very big margin.
There is potentially a barber shop scam. Once you sit down in a barber shop, they may charge you a fortune! How much does an average haircut cost in Istanbul?
Another scam is when someone will tell you they don't have money on their travel card to get back home, this happen to me, I knew it was a scam but gave her some money (40 liras) anyway just in case it wasn't. LOL!
I saw this too late. Got scammed by number 3. 42,000 Turkish lira. I'm hurting/crying, feeling an pure f..king idiot, a bloody fool, the lowest of the low. You never think it will happen to you, but I met so many friendly people before my last night eg. took me to extremely cheap restuarants, bought a Galatasaray ticket on the street and was given their scarf. Then no3 happened and was scared I would be beaten up, the usual sh.t, he'll pay half, the girls were Russian which I even stayed clear of. They seen me coming and I think it will take me along time to recover from this as I'm not rich, just a fool.
@@IstanbulHacks thanks for the kind words, it happened last Saturday so it's a bit raw and I guess time is a healer. It could have been worse if I had got badly beaten up or maimed (it happens). Maybe they should have a big sign on the street to warn tourists or your video should be shown on all planes arriving at the airport; really.
I fell for the shoe shiners on the Galata bridge. I thought it only happened to me... now I don't feel special!! :DDDD I payed like $5 !!! seriously. He said he has 3 children and travels 50 km every day in order to make a living, I even felt sorry for him, but now I know who was the real poor person here - me for not knowing about this scam.
I had a shoeshiner hit me near the Tunel. I eventually tried to give him 20 TL to get him to go away. He tried to grab my wallet, so I hit him in the face. He took off.
It's highly regrettable (!) A country which is known as the LEADER OF ISLAM in the whole world, is CAUTIONED how to avoid SCAMMERS (?) What Mr Tayyip Erdigan is doing (?) Cannot he take measures in addressing/resolving this issue? If proper initiatives are taken, in no time this can be solved... It's not a shame for Turkey but for the whole Islamic world... Practically for the whole world...(!)
Women be careful. I went to Icemeler and I’ve had men sleezing over me. One of the managers of a restaurant was so friendly with my parents, but when I went to the toilet he wouldn’t let me go in unless I offered him a kiss. I was absolutely shocked. I walked away from him. In a bar I was groped by a member of staff when my parents turned their backs to leave. I was wearing a top and trousers, nothing revealing. I was conservatively dressed. My dad was also offered camels for my hand in marriage. This was back in 2002 but you have to be very very careful.
Sofia shaik I’m not sure if things have changed because 3-4 years ago I heard someone at my old workplace say the same. Just be careful! The manager I was referring to wouldn’t let me passed the kitchen door to go to the toilet which was outside and adjacent to the staff kitchen. He put his hands above the door and said to give him a kiss and he’d let me go. I was 20 years old then. My parents were in the restaurant at the time, if I’d told my dad he would have smacked him one. Everywhere we went my dad was offered a camel for me. At first we laughed it off, but then it was happening so much, and when we looked at their faces they weren’t laughing. If my dad said no they’d offer something else. Just be very careful over there, and stay in public places. They are friendly people don’t get me wrong, and not every man over there is the same, but many of them will try their luck with Western women. I’m going to Istanbul next year, but with my husband, and I’ll be with him the whole time. It should be fine to go alone too though, and you’ll have a fantastic time in Turkey honestly. It’s just something to be aware of and just keep yourself safe!
