5 Worst Tourist Scams in Italy 🇮🇹 

I was adressed by a Deaf/Mute scam once in Malaga. I wrote "IT'S A SCAM" in capital letters on the paper. The man suddenly was neither deaf nor mute

I once became a 'victim' of this wrist band scam ..... I stood my ground and walked away with the gift keeping to say 'thanks, thanks for this beautiful gift' .... the nice person who gave it to me shouted something in a language I did not understand. I assume he was saying something like 'I love you'

Take note: not a single scammer in this video was actually Italian

The real shame here is the italian police. They do nothing. Once i was there with a group, one of us got robbed at the metro (kids do it at plain sight) and when we found a police car, they literally roll their tongues talking with us just like they could not speak or understand us talking in english. That was truly ridiculous! When we found the nearby police station, the same cops were there, warning the others about our arrival, so the others didnt open the doors. When finally a car drove out their garage, we enter there. Instantly the cops rush from the station, saying "you cannot be here!". Keep it in mind, if you need some help, you wont get it. This is what i remember from Italy, bravo!

As an Italian I sometimes feel ashamed of how Italian cities are plagued by these scammers, particularly illegal sellers. In my hometown of Bologna there rose sellers enter so many times in restaurants and they are soo annoying

I'm from Italy, I worked 10 years in tourism in Florence. Thanks for this. Italians know how bad it gets with these and many more tourist traps (most of them affect also the locals as well as italian tourists), but way too many people and institutions passively accept that there is nothing more they can do about them as the solutions are complex, costly and difficult to execute. We need people like you giving more visibility to the issues, sadly the only thing that moves us to action is international shaming.

One scam I caught onto quickly was the "return half you change, then wait to see if you leave" scam. This happened a couple of times, so I know it wasn't a fluke. You go to pay for something, wait for your change and they at first give you half of it, then pause. Many people think they've gotten it all back and leave. Luckily, I can be a bit particular in making sure I get the correct change back, so I start counting it...then the scumbag owner says, "Oh, here's the rest."

Just yesterday my family and I were visiting the pantheon and there were so many guys carrying bracelets and throwing them at people. I was over by the fountain when 2 tourists were stopped by one of the bracelet scammers and I was roped in. He threw the bracelet at me and I jumped out of the way and told the guys to drop the bracelets and walk away. The bracelet scammer got more aggressive and started cussing me out and telling me to go back to my country (I was born in Italy) I walked away back to my family and the guy followed me and started cussing me out. My dad told him to buzz off but he didn’t until pantheon security walked by. The whole time I was in line for the pantheon they were circling us. A few hours later my family and I were riding some electric scooters through Rome and we ended up back in the pantheon we’re we saw the same guy, this time he was going home and he saw me. He pointed me out to his friends and started running after me. Of course he couldn’t out run the fully charged lime scooter I was on so since I have brain cells I drove away. Don’t take anything from anyone in Rome. Please. (Thank you for reading through my essay)

Wait, what? A video outside Czech Republic? Omg! So nice to see you 2 expanding the channel. I hope to see you guys around all europe.

It's the same deal in Rome but 1000 times worse. The 'wrist band' scammers are really agressive and you can't go more than a few min without someone trying to slap a wristband on you.

I have traveled extensively in Europe while living in Austria for close to 10 years. I learned early on, “Do not accept anything or sign anything from people canvassing on street corners, 100% scam.”

I was a victim of the wristband scam too, when I was 16 years old and walking up the steps of Sacre Coeur in Paris. A black guy approached me and ask me what time was to put me a bracelet on my wrist and then demanded money from me. I said no but then 3 other guys approached me and one of them put a blade near to my back, so I gave them my entire wallet. The worst of all is that it happened in a fucking crowded touristy place and nobody gave a fuck. This makes me still mad nowadays.

As an Italian I can say these scams happen almost in every big city here, so if you are a tourist watch out for that.

I had that wristband scam in Rome and it was exactly the same scenario. African guy asks a quick question, then gives a couple of wristbands, asking where you are from and "oh that's great and says whatever he knows about that country", shows his kids, asks for money. If you reject or don't give him enough money, he just takes them back.

I happened to be in Rome earlier this year, and these guys were so annoying. You couldn't sit down on a public place without them trying to "gift" me or my girlfriend something every 5 minutes even tho we always declined right away. One of them tried to take my girlfriends arm to put the bracelet on. That was when I got really loud, and they got aggressive as well. Luckily, there were Karabinieri right around the corner, or it could have ended badly.

The wristband scam happened to me and my wife in Italy too. We were in Milan and four african men came up to us and tied wristbands on our wrists saying it's a gift and that it's good for fertility (wtf!). Asking us where we're from, saying they love Zlatan when they hear we're from Sweden, then showing pictures of their "families". They got very agressive when we said we don't have any cash and said we stole from them... We couldn't take the wristbands off to give back as they were tied. It was a scary experience. We were out sightseeing in a ruin and we were all alone with these people. It's so sad that this is the first thing I think of when I think back to our vacation there. :(

5:57 as an Italian, I am truly ashamed that nobody came to your help. Italians are afraid to intervene, because there is a high chance that police would turn against them, not the scammers. This is the reality we live in. Scammers and thieves are tolerated, but if you react, you are in trouble. I live in Serbia now and if something like that had happened in Belgrade, five big Serbian guys would have made sure it never happened again.

Big props for always throwing yourself between the scammer and the camera as protection

If everyone stopped visiting Italy for a couple years- I guarantee the government would miraculously start caring about the tourist scams/abuse.

As a person living in Florence, I'm so sad to see these scams affect the mood and joy of the tourists. Getting scammed on the street, Ponte Vecchio, or at the exchange office can destroy the mood for a whole trip. This video is great, hopefully, people visiting will know what is going on and not get caught by surprise anymore. The one positive about these scams is that they're rarely confrontational or turn violent. They want people to feel for them, and therefore they avoid being aggressive. The funnies thing to see is when the police come to Ponte Vecchio on bikes to disrupt the painting scams, they get away real fast.

Pretty out of date but a friend and myself went on a 1 month holiday through Italy, spending a week in Florence and the surrounding area. As South Africans, it was hilarious that we came thousands of miles to a foreign country, just to have the same Nigerian/Congolese guys trying to scam us there, that try it back home

i like your friendly presentation style when politely confronting and addressing it. keep up the good work.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of bracelet scammers in Rome. I constantly saw people falling for it too. Thankfully I already knew of it when I went but it’s still incredibly annoying

Guys I'm Italian and we are pissed too, they are everywhere and they really harass you, you just need to say NO in a firm voice, don't worry not being nice to them. Also people didn't help you because they didn't understand what you were saying and you were just talking, it happens so many times that someone argue with scammers that we got used to it

Another thing to be aware of-- the subways of Italy are riddled with pick pocketers. Be especially aware if the escalator is out and you have luggage. Out of no where, "good Samaritans" will show up to lend you a helping hand getting up the stairs. Just realize that they want your wallet.

Was there last year. Amount of scammers seemed unreal to me.. nearly got in a fight with a wristband dude, and helped a women get out of the step on a painting scam.

I love your channel, having traveled a little bit myself across Europe. I encountered all of these scams multiple times. So very very useful! Wish I found you a few years ago

as an italian this is very sad to watch. unfortunately these traps are also used on locals and you can trust me when i say that EVERY italian has fallen for at least one of these scams, especially the wrist band one, so we’re all just used to them now

Ah yes the good old wrist band scam... When I visited Rome with my parents, I got a wrist band and my parents just walked on like they didn't know me.... Well I got a free wrist band from that 😂

I was in Florence 17 years ago and there were already this scammers around. I was strolling around with a friend, took a wrong turn and suddenly 5 of this wristband guys surrounded us. I was 17 years old at the time and got really scared. Good to see that the city got rid of them.....

Scammers aren't native European

As Italian, specifically from Florence, I can say: except from the "high price" (tourist traps) the other are all illegal. Many time police ignore them because they're unharmfull, sometimes the local police go on "patrol" and all the seller run and hide (without no one that really follow them) until police go away. It always amused me to see this patetic scene with scammer who run and police who just walk and look around then turn the corner and all the scammer coming out again. Some tips from a local: - Do not buy or sign anything on the street. Only real shop or market stall (here in Florence in example the ones in San Lorenzo) are legal and legitimate, anything else (donation, flying toys, art pictures, art audio guide etc) are pretty much scam. - Many, many, many restaurant and cafè in any italian city center are tourist traps. Not all, but many of them are traps. Best way to be sure to avoid traps is going further from city center (with the problem that is highly possible that there they do not speak english) or try to ask locals, if you can the best is ask to young people (from 20s to 30s) since they more likely speak english and usually hate and avoid like pest any tourist trap places. - Info points: if they are not from the city goverment, there is an high chance that they have "marketing" contract with cafè and restaurants. This also happen when you ask for information to your hotel staff, every hotel have "marketing" contract with restaurant and bars, so is pretty difficult that they give you valid information. - Look close any single price and fee on any menu, usually here in italy just because you sit on a table you get to pay the "coperto" fee, wich is usually 1 or 2€ but in city center can be even 4/5€. - In the city center restaurants ABSOLUTELY DO NOT choose any tipical or regional plate. They overcharge the price in absurd way for the tipical food. If you want regional and local food go outside the city center, the best place for regional food are in the suburbs or in the country side. - If you come from place with different currency do not change money, use your card instead, by law every single shop, bar or restaurant is forced to accept them. If you absolutely need to have cash for something (I know that many bar find excuses to not accept cards for a single espresso in example) use atm that are located in a bank or in post office (Poste Italiane). Avoid at all cost ATM and Cash Machine that are not from post offices or from banks, in the city center there is always plenty of both so you absolutely don't need to withdraw from ATM in some tourist shop and pay absurd fee on your money.

I spent two weeks travelling Italy with my sister a few years ago. We were scammed on the first day, very aggressively too (the wristband scam but they surrounded us and demanded money). I noted that the police stood by and watched. We also noticed that food prices were significantly higher than we had budgeted for, I guess “tourist prices”. We paid for breakfast included in all of the hotels we stayed at(a significant extra cost)- a slice of cake and an espresso was a little less than we’d hoped for. Overall I was glad we saw the sights but didn’t feel safe or valued as a tourist, thus am in no hurry to return.

Thank you guys for your help to others! Great job!

I was already harassed with the slips of paper for signatures and the wristbands in exactly the same way 28 years ago in Barcelona. If at all, I only fell for it once when I was 21 years old. It's amazing that it still seems to work. Good that you @HONEST GUIDE point out that you don't have to expect any support from your environment. Apart from that, Italians are generally a very open, relaxed (often too relaxed), grounded and honest people. My tip: off the beaten tourist track, you will not only find real life and the beauty of the culture, but also many small family-run inns frequented by locals. These restaurants (trattoria, osteria) are recognisable because they are simply designed (paper tablecloths) without a lot of frills and without tourists. The food is authentic, tasty, uncomplicated and the prices are fair. If you honour this, you will quickly be accepted after initial scepticism. Viva la dolce vita!

Haha, Laughed so hard as you suddenly spoke some words in german. Love this channel, guys. Can not wait to visit prague again, but this time knowing your channel!

The wristband/bracelet thing is very common in Spain. I had to fight off a couple of african women who literally just randomly grabbed my 2 year old girls arm to put bracelet on and wouldn't let go of her arm. Made me so angry.

Rome does have scammers around and pick pockets but still don’t let that stop you from visiting! Thank you for the heads up!

Well done guys...one of the very few blogs working HONESTLY and for the tourist community

I called out the bracelet scam in Rome when it was happening to a woman. I told her to throw it on the ground and just leave. She listened and walked away. The scammer turned on me and started yelling profanities and wouldn’t stop following me. I had to buy some food at a nearby shop, and the owner kicked the harasser out.

My scam experience in Italy (Roma): Sat down in a restaurant, server came introduce the dishes, picked different dish, server asked if I want to change the sauce without telling me the price, changed it, bill came, sauce cost 25 euro.

Thank you very much for all these alerts, sir. You take good care of yourself and make sure your back is watched.

You are doing such a great job with your scam videos guys, I really appreciate that! Good luck and thank you for helping us ❤

Italy needs to do undercover sting operations and deport all the scammers.

I've been to eight different countries and while I had a lot of great times, there was always this tension of always having to be on your guard because of the non-stop scams people were trying to perpetuate. It's incredibly aggravating and exhausting to never be able to fully relax because if you do, someone will be right there waiting to take your money.

Late to the party but the biggest scams in Italy in tourists restaurant are in my opinion: 1) "Would you like some truffle on your pasta?" followed by adding a little shed of truffle in your dish and a good 20-30 euro to your bill. 2) "May I suggest this wine?" or "The wine you ordered is out of stock, may I suggest this replacement?" Followed by 100-600 euro bottle of wine. (while usually 1l of house wine is 4-5 euro)

Thank you for the advice, it's a shame that this problem is not taken as seriously as it should. I went to Turin with my family on vacation and we stopped in a square to have lunch. Suddenly we noticed a apparently-poor man who started searching in trash bins . My father felt bad for him and gave him 10 euros to go eat something. We later found out that the guy was used to search bins right in front of tourists, pretending to look for food, just to use all the money on beer. That's because of people like him that I, and probably lots of people, struggle to trust the ones in need

We fell for that bracelet scam when in Paris with my family. Again it was a group of africans that tried to be really friendly and told us about how friendly their people are and how rough the migration was. Then when we refused to pay they became agressive and gathered a circle around us and again, 0 people helping out.

Wow! Seeing the Italian police blatantly ignoring the ripping off of tourists has changed our minds about wanting to visit Italy and spend money there. Thanks for this valuable information.

Excellent work team, thanks for the alerts, these scammers are getting ever more creative. I don't get paranoid but in these situations I remember ABC - Accept nothing, Believe no one, Challenge everything.

I got hit with the wristband scam in Rome a couple of years ago. Dude said it was his wedding soon and he was celebrating it, the wristband, the "it's free" the picture of a kid, the good vibes, the goodbye then turn around asking for a donation for his kid, it all went exactly the same.. Scumbags.

I have been scammed with the "wristband scam" in Paris. About 8 Africans surrounded my wife and me at Sacre Coeur, demanding money. After they steal the money from me, I talked to the police who were 10 meters away, and they said there was nothing they could do. It´s so sad that local police in Tourist cities just don´t care if the tourist is being robbed.

As an Italian I can attest to Florence being particularly bad in terms of tourist traps. It's one of the more "commercial" cities in Italy, filled with tourists the entire year. Definitely not an accurate picture of the entire country.

Beyond appreciative of these videos.

As someone who loves travel this break my heart, i have meet someone who very kind and someone who is mean. The world is so huge so that we often meet different people. Hope we can respect each other.

I am Japanese and when I was traveling France and Italy, don’t know how many times I was called and yelled “Hey China!” from these scammers. Luckily I can speak English so I responded them just to make sure they understand not all Japanese is quiet.

What bothers me even more is that the police is always present but they just don't care

I can't get over the way the deaf guy could hear questions softly spoken through a mask and answer them. Must've been a bloody miracle! 🤣

Thank you so much Honest Guid ❤️❤️❤️❤️👏👏👏👏.

I went to Jamaica years ago and they played the same scams … they will fill your hands with souvenirs telling you they’re all free and if you walk away, they start asking for money. In my situation it gets to a point that I was very afraid … thanks God someone from Jamaica notice I was getting very upset and nervous. I will never forget his name he got me out of the situation and stay by my side for more than 15 minutes😢

I heard stories of people being physically attacked by scammer during the day and in plain sight, and this video just confirms it is possible.... Those passerby are truly spineless... A whole freaking crowd of it.

I have a simple rule that's easy to follow. When strangers approach you randomly in the street ignore them and walk on.

Once you've encountered a few scammers, you recognise their patter straight away. In Rome, about 5 years back, I kept on being told 'Nice shoes ' all the time, despite wearing the most worn, scuffed pair of work boots. After being told this for the nth time, in Vatican Square, I decided to see what the scam was and engaged. Was the wristband scam. He put a wristband son, said it was a 'gift'. Then got his phone out and showd me what was allegedly a photo of his kid 'back home ' and of course this is where he asks me for money. I just took the wristband off and gave it back to him before he realised what was happening and walked off with no bother. A more recent scam, was one someone tried on me last year. In Krakow Square, a man asks me the time, which of course I give him. He then proceeds to ask me where I am from and tells me he's from Ukraine and gives a sob story about how he and his family fled to Poland and now have no money. Pretty big scumbag move to try and make money out of something like that.

thanks for putting yourself in these situations so i can see how it's done. I know i hear about it but dont see it first hand.

Congratulations for 1 million subscribers! Keep up the good work, love from Australia 🇦🇺 🇨🇿

A girl from my high school in Germany experienced the wristband scam on a trip with her French class to Paris. The scammer started a long discussion with one of the two teachers (male; 1,85 m; a lot of muscles) who wanted to help her. After about 5 min. the other teacher (female; 1,50 m; not physically strong at all) approached the two arguing men and asked if there is a problem she could help solving. When the scammer started to tell her what happened, she quickly responded that she was willing to call the police to resolve the problem and took out her phone. That was the scammers sore point, because most of these scammers don't have the legal documents to stay in France forever and police doesn't care as long as they don't cause any trouble. The scammer ran away immediately and the whole class learned that you don't need to be physically strong to stand your ground. Sometimes it's just a good argument that helps you out.

I’ve always liked your videos now I love your videos and now love you. Thank you sooooo much!

Me in Florence this January with my Canadian wife... A guy gift her a bracelets I said inmidiatly I'm not going to pay for it! my wife was surprised with the gift, I said I'm not paying for it no one pay for a gift. The "vendor" get angry so he trow to me one bracelet I give it back to him telling him to find a real job. I'm italian we have to deal with this Africans, est, middle est or Arabic scammers every day. Be careful when you're in Italy

if you notice most of the scammers weren't actually italian :)

As an Italian (I'm from Como) i can confirm it happens in all the big cities. The best thing you can do is say you have no physical money with you, and that you only use your credit card, and most of them will just walk away.

There is a very simple way to avoid most of scams: ignore any chat attempts with strangers

Your videos are always great, thank you

I went to Florence and the painting scam was everywhere. After the 5th time of encourntering it i went out of my way to intentionally walk on the painting with my group and we all shuffled on them and destroyed them and ran off.

I got the wristband thing in Rome. Didn’t give him any money though, so I have a free bracelet.

Thanks for gave useful advices Maybe these advices will need to my Europian trip It could very helpful thanks💪

Love your videos!

As an Italian I would like to thank you.Not even italian understand what a beautifull country we have and how important tourism is for us , and those scammers are destroying it.

When I was in Rome early in the morning, I literally saw someone arrive well dressed, with a backpack, they pulled out there cardboard, put some junky clothes on overtop and then rubbed coal on their face before starting to beg that they were a homeless poor person... It is so hard that we are supposed to give to the needy and yet there are fully capable people who could work, but are taking begging money away from the truly disabled.

Thanks for sharing and warning everyone.

This is the most useful video about scams against tourists. THANK YOU!!!!!

Thanks for exposing those scammers, they are a plague to our society, love from Italy!

I remember when I visited Italy, I was constantly targeted by the wristbands scammers. Several of the people in our group found out the hard way on that. It went as far as them following me for an small time around a fountain behind me. This was in Milan.

Thanks, keep on sharing.

great camera work. we almost saw 1 frame

"What Time Is it?" "It's time you get the fuck out of the way" As an italian, i can assure that this Is the best answer possible 😂

I had the exact wristband scam happen to me when I visited the Bahamas. Some woman just fronted the wristband for me and asked for a donation, I very tediously unknotted the band before she could tighten it and gave it back to her to avoid that kind of pressure. I don't travel internationally a lot but I'm glad my intuition was correct

Thanks these videos are great.

For what I could see when I visit Italy and France the police seems not to give a shit about tourists, those scams happens at the day light in the middle of the crowd and they do nothing. It is perfectly fine to scam a tourist that brings money to your country. Fortunately, I was aware of all of those scams, and there are a LOT of them.

Not a single Italian helped you...that says alot. I would not want to go to a place where the locals take the tourists for granted and dont want to protect them from scammers.

As a Roman, I’m happy that you came in Italy to warn tourists about these scams. Wristband trick is the most popular scam. Harald Baldr’s video is hilarious and sad at the same time. Hope to see new abroad videos

Btw - in Israel you pay 9€ for a glass of wine completely legally. The whole bottle of the same wine would cost in supermarket - 15€. But in a restaurant the price goes up 5 times. The same is for beer. 0.5 bottle of Goldstar beer -7₪ NIS in the shop (1,7€) and 35 in the bar (9€).

Mate , you are doing a great great job 👏. Cudos salute

I live there and I've definitely seen more people willingly buying the prints than accidentally stepping on them and buying them for guilt 😭 To the point that I always ask myself who in the world would want a printed JPEG file that's been laying on the super dirty ground. The fact that it's actually supposed to be a scam kind of reassures me though 😂

I have visited Italy several times. My first visit was to Milan and oh boy... That square in front of Duomo was infested with the scammers. I experienced this for the first time, but got over my innocence very very quickly. I had this bracelet forcibly tied around my arm. I also had a dove-scammer approach me. There were lots of birds, doves, on that square. And one guy just gave me some seeds and asked to hold them and he summoned those doves. I do not even remember how. I guess he whistled. And the whole flock suddenly flew at me. I dropped the seeds because I was scared. It happened so suddenly. After that first day I learned how to behave like a local - just stare blank point in front of me, walk past them like they are invisible, and not make ANY eye contact with anyone who looks like they might want something. I used the same tactic also later on in Rome, in Florence and it worked like a charm. But I agree, it is so bad in Italy. I have not seen anything that bad in any other country.

It's the same in Lisbon with the prices. We had a local with us and a restaurant tried to scam us anyway. She discussed with them, they took the extras from the bill, joking around, but we could see they are unhappy beeing catched.

We found the wrist band scammers in Rome and especially in Florence where they were very very agressive, yelling at us when we ignored them.

Man it makes me mad to see and hear stories about scammers in my city. It's a travesty that our law enforcement does not speak a lick of English thus being next to useless when a foreigner approaches them

as an Italian thank you very much! I used to watch your videos about prague some time ago, they were really interesting even if ive never been in prague, and its really amazing that you are doing it here now!

Love this video

Great guy, great videos 🎉