Victon Posted 15 hours ago Posted 15 hours ago I am in Istanbul as I typed this. Based on your experiences, have you been scammed here? Or any input about scam in this beautiful city? I have met this experience twice in a day, where bonie and clyde came to pretend that they wanted to visit my country and they asked me whether I had cash from my country, they wanted to see it. then suddenly this man tried to look further inside of my wallet and tried to touch my money and I react quickly and saying "hey, it's my property" and then they get upset and leave. the other day, there's this man walking and dropping his shoes' brush and my friend saw it and we called him and then he approached and said thank you but he insisted of trying to polish my shoes and luckily we just left and walk like nothing happened. The real one was, in a hotel where I stayed. So there's this charming charismatic man around 40s. I was being generous that day that I wanted to buy baklava and asked the receptionist of the hotel which is this man's nephew. He then took me to the nearby hotel to find the baklava and I thought that it will be just fine to offer his uncle some, so we bought it and ate at the lobby and I was carried away with the seemingly comfortable situation, but he planned something while we were there. He said that his friend is coming and he needed to pick him up but he had already being persuasive about going to the club and I unconsciously gave him the permission to take me there. long story short, we went to pick his friend (from Swiss, as they told me) but then he only had a bag, I wasn't suspicious about it because they seem friendly and smooth operation. They planned all of this narrative and successfully took me to the club and after all said and done, this man told us that we must pay for the club and he said it's around 12000 liras or 20000 liras, I didn't remember exactly because I was under the influence of alcohol. I gave almost all of my pennies and he still dropped me to nearby ATm to take some cash and I took some cash and gave it to him. on the bright side of the experience tho, I had the time of my life in the club and also a lesson learned. Do you guys have any similar experience? 1
RideOrDie Posted 15 hours ago Posted 15 hours ago if you are a foreigner in istanbul 90% of your time will be spent dodging scammers. even buying stuff from shops or street vendors they will overcharge you insane prices as soon as they clock you as a foreigner. Quote the other day, there's this man walking and dropping his shoes' brush and my friend saw it and we called him and then he approached and said thank you but he insisted of trying to polish my shoes and luckily we just left and walk like nothing happened. this is a very common scam, i'm surprised they are still trying it.
Victon Posted 15 hours ago Author Posted 15 hours ago 9 minutes ago, RideOrDie said: if you are a foreigner in istanbul 90% of your time will be spent dodging scammers. even buying stuff from shops or street vendors they will overcharge you insane prices as soon as they clock you as a foreigner. this is a very common scam, i'm surprised they are still trying it. Yes, it's so sad that this city is so beautiful yet the system is corrupted
P.O.P Posted 14 hours ago Posted 14 hours ago Do not visit Türkiye, people do not respect anything or anyone + İstanbul is overrated trash
Victon Posted 14 hours ago Author Posted 14 hours ago 10 minutes ago, P.O.P said: Do not visit Türkiye, people do not respect anything or anyone + İstanbul is overrated trash We also visited Bursa, Uludag and Goreme, Cappadocia. We had wonderful experiences there and nothing like scammers in Istanbul.
Daddy Posted 14 hours ago Posted 14 hours ago Always funny to see people getting scammed in such interesting ways. Like why do you speak to those random people and show them your money? Don't take anything from people you don't know cause they will ask for money immediately. Don't go with strangers to a club? You sound like you're too nice to randoms which is cute but also dumb. Those low-life scammers ruined going on holidays inn big cities cause they are EVERYWHERE. 1 5
Kanzutte Posted 14 hours ago Posted 14 hours ago 55 minutes ago, Victon said: I have met this experience twice in a day, where bonie and clyde came to pretend that they wanted to visit my country and they asked me whether I had cash from my country, they wanted to see it. then suddenly this man tried to look further inside of my wallet and tried to touch my money and I react quickly and saying "hey, it's my property" and then they get upset and leave. This type of scam is also popular in bangkok, Thailand and Bali, Indonesia. But the culprit usually not locals
narid Posted 14 hours ago Posted 14 hours ago (edited) I was there earlier this year, and from all my trips abroad, Istanbul was the one place where I felt like I was being scammed in every interaction. Just awful, and gives it such a bad reputation. Edited 14 hours ago by narid
shakeyourbombom Posted 14 hours ago Posted 14 hours ago Yes and I still love Istanbul But the scammers went way too far. It's so crazy the scammers there speak good English and the police don't 3
Victon Posted 14 hours ago Author Posted 14 hours ago 6 minutes ago, Daddy said: Always funny to see people getting scammed in such interesting ways. Like why do you speak to those random people and show them your money? Don't take anything from people you don't know cause they will ask for money immediately. Those low-life scammers ruined going on holidays cause they are EVERYWHERE. They first look like regular visitors (not local from what I observed) and they asked me to take their photos and they will pretend to be nice, asking where we came from and telling same old stories about going to visit where I came from and their next strategy was to ask to look at our money , to see the physical money. That's where your instincts tell you that it's not right. They just spot people on holidays and tried to scam.
JoJo Posted 12 hours ago Posted 12 hours ago I never got scammed when I was there a few summers ago. However, sometimes store owners literally pulled me off the street and pressured me into buying their products. I don't know if that's typical. 1
KillingYourCareer Posted 11 hours ago Posted 11 hours ago Of all the places I've been to, Istanbul has the most creative scammers! I visited a lot in 2014-2017 and each time a new scam appeared, it was fascinating, especially because I'm blatantly a foreigner there so they tried it with me. I'll never know if this was supposed to be a scam, but one time (I was 17) this guy who must've been around my age selling tea at the great bazaar tried to invite me in the back of his shop to try an aphrodisiac tea with him... he was cute, but fearing the scammery I said NO I trust you, I'll just buy some of it! 4
Victon Posted 10 hours ago Author Posted 10 hours ago 29 minutes ago, KillingYourCareer said: Of all the places I've been to, Istanbul has the most creative scammers! I visited a lot in 2014-2017 and each time a new scam appeared, it was fascinating, especially because I'm blatantly a foreigner there so they tried it with me. I'll never know if this was supposed to be a scam, but one time (I was 17) this guy who must've been around my age selling tea at the great bazaar tried to invite me in the back of his shop to try an aphrodisiac tea with him... he was cute, but fearing the scammery I said NO I trust you, I'll just buy some of it! That's a perfect words to describe it in one sentence 😂 The guy who asked me to the club is just a bored dude and saw me as a perfect target because of my generosity, I didn't blame him. That experience taught me more about setting firm boundaries. I look at the experience about earning something that I needed in order to grow mentally, spiritually (literally more mature) I know that we're always learning but this lesson is like permanent change in my psychology makeup. I did confront him tho about the situation the next day I messaged him I felt really stupid for the party last night, it was fun and I did really enjoy it because I appreciate that you asked me go go there, but in my conscious mind as of now, I wouldn't go there if I had to spend a lot of money On the bright side, the experience was awesome I had one in Bali where we can just order drink and have fun 🤣 Only need like 20 US dollars to feel at heaven Then he replied with short sentence It's different culture At this point, he realized that I have an awareness of what's going on. It's maybe not a big deal for him but it's important for me to stand up for myself. There's still some conversations going on and I eventually accepted that event and forgive myself for not knowing what I got into. I was angry about it, people seeing your kindness as a weakness. I got a feeling that he's surprised that I actually confronted him and make him feel small about how he manipulated me. Then I forgive for my own freedom to just feel good. - That's a good decision, instead of following his own projection you made your own choice to just buy it 👍🏻
shakeyourbombom Posted 5 hours ago Posted 5 hours ago (edited) Guys, you won't believe. I reported to the travel police there after getting scammed and he took me to the office of the Istanbul Tourism Bureau. I met the director there. He was talking to me with a cigarette holding in his hand. I'm not forgetting his broken English too. Edited 5 hours ago by shakeyourbombom 1
Miss Fortune Posted 4 hours ago Posted 4 hours ago I would say it's probably in your best interest to be a little more aware. Any tourist-heavy city you go to will have scammers. You just need to be better at recognising them and then avoiding them. I found everyone in Istanbul to be incredibly kind and friendly. Also, I found little local places were super appreciative when you tried local dishes. It was very hectic in places but even the crazier market areas accepted "no" when you said it once, which isn't always the case.
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