Description

THIS SERIES Over the last few decades, I’ve interviewed nearly 2,000 world travelers and adventurers. I am weaving the best of their nearly 10,000 fantastic travel tales into a psychology of travel as revealed by these very telling stories. These are travelers I’ve encountered on planes, trains, buses, ships, tours, safaris, and in campgrounds, bars, cafes, restaurants, and pubs. These courageous travelers have freely shared their most personal travel experiences, some good and wonderful and others even horrific and life-threatening, which I, in turn, get to share with you now through my True Travel Tales series.

THIS BOOK is a collection of tales of schemes perpetrated against travelers. If you’re conned or scammed in your travels we hope you escape them with only minor inconveniences. This book collects a variety of schemes that happen to travelers, but mostly these won’t happen to you. You’ll read examples of often elaborately orchestrated schemes that unscrupulous actors create and carry out on you if you’re unwary. This book includes common schemes designed to separate you from your money. Although scammed victims will often credit con artists with undo creativity, most often victims would just as soon not be victims, to begin with. Indeed, the stories in this book run the gamut of clever ruses played out on unwary travelers. Even the manufacturers of alluring beautiful carpets for sale in the Middle East see you coming! How easy they fool you. Travelers pay ridiculous prices for items they could’ve paid far less. Is bargaining so distasteful, or have they not bargained nearly long enough? Scams have been around since time immemorial.