Commons Scams to Avoid in Athens
Today, I'm in Athens, Greece! It’s an amazing city full of history and beauty, amazing food, fashion, shopping…and scammers. It’s that last part we’re going to talk about today, and what you can do to avoid them.
The Perils of a Popular Destination
Part of traveling on a budget is knowing how much to pay for things and not paying too much. Sometimes, that can actually be more of a challenge than you might expect. There are a lot of scammers in Athens and it’s pretty easy to get caught up in it. There are many times when people will try to charge you money for things you wouldn’t expect and people will literally come up to you and try to put items in your hands and then demand payment for them.
It can be…a bit of a scene. Don’t get me wrong. Athens is awesome in so many ways. But this is a tourist city. People from all over the world come here speaking all kinds of languages and Athens, comparatively, has residents who are at a lower income level than many large cities in America and other European cities. It’s relatively cheap and affordable to visit Athens because lots of people here don’t have a ton of money.
And that means you will encounter a lot of very creative scams. I’m going to go over the ones I saw and personally experienced, so you can learn how to avoid them. The last thing you want is to pay money for something that you shouldn’t have to pay for.
A Rose by Any Other Scam
So, let’s talk about roses. You will see very pleasant-looking people walking around with absolutely lovely roses, long-stemmed. They will hold a rose and attempt to make you take it, sometimes even aggressively so. They will tell you it is free. They will tell you anything to get you to take that rose.
And once you do, they will demand payment and demand payment and will not leave until you give it to them. It goes without saying that they won’t take the rose back, either. So in order to get out of the situation and avoid a scene, you will give them like $10 to $20 for one rose.
There is only one way to avoid this and that is to never take the rose under all circumstances. Do not accept it. Do not accept it. And also, walk away. Because they will try even to tuck the rose into your clothing or your bag, if you’re carrying one, if they get the chance, so you need to just walk away. Keep your hands closed and near your sides. Don’t even open your hands to ward them off, like a gesture, because they’ll get that rose in your open hand. So do not accept anything, get away.
You’ll see people with the roses all over the city and especially around the popular tourist areas, so always stay aware of them and do not accept the rose.
That Statue Just Moved
Another very common scam is the living artworks. Which at first seems really awesome and cool, because you’ll see people all dressed up and all makeup-upped and they look incredible. They dress up mostly like living statues and it’s really neat.
Until you try to take a picture of one to preserve the moment. Which I did, because I took pictures of just about every single piece of stone I saw in Athens. I was completely out of control. So I see this person all done up, it was my first day in Athens, and I took the picture. And the man smiled at me and waved me over, so I could stand next to him and pose for a picture with him.
What a nice guy, right? You wish. This guy then proceeded to charge me money and got a whole attitude when I put up a fight about it, because are you kidding me? So you need to watch out for this one, too. Just because street performers are all around Athens does not mean you are free to take their picture and you absolutely should not pose with them because they will want money.
So after this whole incident with this guy, I only took pictures and videos of street performers in a super low-key way. That’s my recommendation. Don’t let them stop you from doing it, but don’t let them see you doing it.
Don't Get Scammed in a Cab
In a previous post, I talked about getting scammed when riding cabs in Athens. So you can hear the full story about how I got scammed this way, but basically, you need to make sure you are only getting into cabs that are clearly maked. They will have the name of a cab company right on the cab itself. You will also see a meter inside the cab.
Also before you get into the cab, tell the driver where you are going and ask how much it will cost. Get an idea of how much a cab should cost in Athens. Familiarize yourself with it, so you have a working knowledge of how much cabs ought to cost because I got scammed this way and the videos I watched before going to Athens indicated that this is a pretty common scam many people encounter.
Don’t spend more money than you need to spend. Don’t accept things from people. Don’t accept rides from strangers. Keep your head on a swivel while you’re in Athens, avoid the scams, and you’ll enjoy your time here even more.
Comments