Currency Exchange Scams

It seems that western countries are accelerating towards cashless societies where every payment or transaction might be monitored or tracked by entirely benign and friendly government overseers. 

But in the gambling world, cash remains 카지노사이트 a powerful tool for managing one’s bankroll, tipping staff, or sharing profits away from prying eyes. 

Sure, crypto offers some financial anonymity while also being in the sights of authoritarian regimes that would prefer some control over whatever monetary tools are used within and without their borders. 

But for most offline transactions, cash is still king and there are countless scams to be wary of in your travels. 

I Need A Guy Who Knows A Guy

Exchange rate cons are so common that anyone who travels regularly will know where to find them, which is often at a “legitimate” bureau de change in airports or tourist hotspots. In Paris these money changers are ubiquitous and seem to compete with each other, but everywhere you go the rates and fees are all so wrong that bad deals happen.

If you are not a Parisian who knows a man who knows a man, you know another man.

On a helpful visit many years ago, I found myself with a lot of money to exchange before heading home, but I soon struggled with the exchange rates and rates offered around town.

Luckily, my friend and hostess, 에볼루션게이밍 who was also a frequent traveler, took me to her small office in an alley up a flight of stairs on a side street in a nondescript part of town. .

I didn't find this office for love or money, but that day I saved a good chunk of my loose change for lunch and a few card tricks between friends. 

Ever since, I’ve always asked local contacts where the “place” is to change money and am often lucky to find someone with a guy who knows a guy who knows another guy. 

In Macau, we changed our cash at the cage in several casinos; in Tokyo, a local friend navigated Japanese rules and paperwork to get me the best deal while in Ho Chi Minh City. 

A friend visited a little apartment where his cash was whisked away for 10 worrying minutes until an old lady returned with fresh dollar bills that his local contact carefully checked before completing the transaction. 

Herein Lies A Problem

The risk in each of these situations is that you could easily be entering into a scam where you can be robbed or ripped off with counterfeit cash so in each of these cases, I (or my friends) relied on a trusted local contact who knew “the lay of the land” in terms of fraud and deception. 

I’m not saying that theft doesn’t happen in Tokyo but there are clear signs whether a business or a procedure is legitimate and in Paris, my friend was too important a guy and too smart to be taken in by (or to facilitate) this type of con game, 에볼루션게임 so I had confidence in that scenario. In Macau, casinos exchange money easily and regularly, as long as the money (and whoever carries it) is not a crime and offers a better exchange rate than at home.

By the way, is there a stranger who takes money before exchanging money for a Vietnamese apartment?

Thank you, but I will decline

Cash can be risky for a variety of reasons, so when moving and exchanging cash, you need to be careful not to expose what you are familiar with in one place to scams in another.

Of course, my friends and I tend to ask our trusted local contacts where to find better deals. But if you're not sure, you'd rather queue up behind the tourist than the staff do with a calculator. 

Counterfeit Exchanges

Across Europe and in many parts of the world, fake exchange offices attract transient victims to lose money either through bad arithmetic, counterfeit cash, or outright theft. 

In many cities an office isn’t even necessary. 

In Prague, for example, bogus money traders prey on tourists near legitimate (though ridiculously expensive) currency exchanges and approach people claiming to be from an exchange with preferable rates. 

The scam is simple since it’s easy to spot someone checking posted exchange rates, highlighting that they must be carrying cash and are therefore worth scamming!

So once a likely target is spotted, the hustler knows they are ripe (worth taking) but also what they want and are actively searching for at that exact moment in time. 

Knowing what someone wants is the con artist’s most powerful advantage and in this scenario it can be all too easy to leverage this information into a quick and easy deception. All the scammers have to do is punch the tourist before they even approach the currency exchange counter and talk them out with the promise of a better rate and no fees.

 It goes without saying that many people would like to seize this “opportunity”.

The twist (in Prague) is that these fake currency converters do not exchange people's money for Czech crowns, but for foreigners' visible expired Belarusian rubles, and (apparently) no value at all. There is no

Throughout town, you may see signs warning you not to change money on the street.

But humans often fall victim to their own impulses. 에볼루션바카라 Imposters know how to trigger using age-old psychological tricks that never fail to manipulate people in the heat of battle. 

And it’s not just exchange offices where these scammers prey upon the unwary. 

At ATMs, clever con artists wait for travellers to withdraw cash, spotting anyone who receives large denomination notes, such as 2,000 CZK, then offers to break their bill in exchange for four 500 CZK notes that are actually – you guessed it – expired Belarusian bills. 

Familiar Territory

As with many con games, being unfamiliar with a city or country means you might be easy prey for this kind of “fish out of water” con so care must be taken in any cash transaction on foreign soil but also at home. 

In the UK, I was once approached in the waiting area of a bank with a proposition to swap cash since I had dollars and they had pounds; the logic being that the bank would only take a chunk of our money when we could both save by exchanging directly. 

My “swindler sense” told me immediately this was too well practiced a pitch to be trusted so I turned down her “kind” offer and sure enough, before reaching the counter she left the bank to find another sucker. I can't say how common this is within banks, but while financial institutions can afford to spend more on fees or less attractive interest rates, booking requires a great deal of trust and a level of risk unknown.