Ever Been Ripped Off?

[NimrodClover]

In my travels, mostly North America and Europe I would have to say the worst cities where I ran into "crime" like this, i.e. taking advantage of "The Stupid American" were Rome, London and Vancouver.

Rome really was petty street crime, pick-pockets and purse swipes... oh and lots and lots of begging.

London was more of the let us send you somewhere expensive, on a long taxi or train ride or lets charge you all sorts of "extras".

Vancouver - been twice - both times swindled by taxi drivers.

[TheMistMelody]

I got ripped off at the mall.my mom gave me $20 to buy me some shirts, and shirts only.& Im a teenage girl, just geting into make-up, & these nice people told me to come try some on. 2 are teens a little older than me, probably 17, & ones a man, looking in his 30's. Then they started puting makeup on me, showing me how to use it, telling me how pretty I looked with it on, and they got me. I wasted ALL $20 on 2 small things of eye shadow. My mom wasnt to happy when i told her what happend...

[Haggar185]

i got ripped of at the Munich airport. i had acquired some old coins and stuff through out Europe. i was told that i could not carry on my bag due to the luggage bin size. there was a very guff looking turk fellow, because i tried to get some thing out he gave me a bad look.i was told to just hand over my bag every thing will be ok, he smile. i passed it off to this guff looking turk...when i arrived at Gatwick, lot of stuff missing. coins, euros and other trinkettes

[lateblossom]

I was ripped off here in America my homeland. Looking for a job and in the paper there was this ad for a postal study exam. Ended up paying 150$ for it...never used it after realizing it's impossible to get a job at the post office unless one of the workers passes away or quits (ha!)...right over the phone. Ouch. Well, thank God money goes but money comes. I'm 150 dollars savvier, and still blessed.

[TokyoNerd]

I remember the same thing happening to me in a Korean store while on a school trip in Washington D.C. If you referred someone to the store (our classmates) and they bought something, they you get free stuff, (headphones, speaker, etc...) I would have said no. Aww, I'm sorry you overpaid. You live and learn. Great story!

[Cookieblood]

I'm was ripped off not long after I moved to my current location which is Reno, NV. I was working for Wal-mart. I had been working for them for over a year already but that had been in Oklahoma and I ended up getting transfered here. Well a few of the rules and stuff are a bit different so I was a little overwhelmed and this gentleman (well I guess he really wasnt) noticed this. And he proceeded in asking for change and ended up getting me so confused that I ended up giving him 50 extra bucks.

[stephenworldwide]

Thanks for the story, I will look out for that sort of thing in my travels. Once, about 12 years ago, I was with friends in Prague, Czech Rep, my friend got ripped off. He decided to exchange currency with some guy who was standing on a street corner, near the "official" money transfer office. This was a bustling downtown area at night. The stranger gave a stack of money and left, but inside stack was worthless Rubles, we couldn't tell. Moral: use the official money transfer office!

[MargaritasAntesPorco]

i don't understand why u bought anything--

thats a very common scam in china--i had the exact same thing, i mean totally exact same situation, in shanghai 5 years ago---they took me up to a room in non descript building--showed me these cheap knock-off "works of art"---

i merely smiled, said i wasn't much one for art, promised(lied) that i come back w/ friends who loved art after i had my lunch,....and then got out of there quickly.

No way i was gonna buy that cheapo stuff

[espjuan]

I am sure the chinese get scammed too.

[softypapa]

Terrific story! Yes, I have been ripped off several times (I never learn). The scariest was when I was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight in downtown Kingston, Jamaica. After relieving me of my wallet my robber simply sat down on the curb to count his loot. Another foreigner was shot and killed the day before while resisting his robber. I guess I was lucky.

[BusanKevin]

WOW! that is a really scary story. I have LUCKILY never been threatened with a weapon. i have unfortunately ben jumped a few times and beaten up when I was younger. I wasn't robbed though....just acts of random violence. Each time by a group of men (I was in the wrong place at the wrong time). That was a long time ago though. These days, some kids just look at me with surprise when they realize I am not Japanese person ;) hehe

[alexplot]

Modern china has no more traditional values. Damn communists that destroyed everything!

[Deuszxable]

This has nothing to do with Communism, it's just part of Chinese mentality, the Chinese work hard but some of them will do anything to earn a penny.

[dylbyl1234]

ya i have been ripped off befor i bought a bike for 30 bucks at a garge sale it fell apart the next day and i was sad for days

[ARAStERA]

Where are you always walking to in your videos? lol

[BusanKevin]

Not walking anywhere in particular...just walking!

[haseo09876]

you got scrued off lol |;0

[fomiz]

Unfortunately Kev you fell for the most common scam in China at the moment.

Hold comfort in the fact that you are not the first and most likely not the last for this to happen to.

[BusanKevin]

Yep...I was a sucker...

Live and learn I suppose. Mind you...they only got me for about $15!

[lemondroplisa]

I went to Las Vegas with my parents once, and we got a discount on tickets for a cool show from our concierge. we find out that they were pulling the "bait and switch" on us. :P It was worth it, but half the day was taken up by pushy salespeople who tried to sell us timeshare...

[JoeCubicle]

During college, I was at work and we were going out afterwards so I brought some clothes and left them in my jeep. My favorite pair of Girbaud jeans and my best Sperry Topsiders (so late 80's). When I got back out to my jeep, the door was ajar and the pant and shoes were gone. Damn. I still went out just dressed as a food service dude. Man I loved those jeans.

Face to face rip offs, no problems, helps being 6'1" and 270.

[ManaStar]

Well, it didn't happen to me, but my friend went out to a bar the other night and only bought 2 beers, equalling about $6 and then he closed his tab out. The next day, he checked his online bank statement and the bar ended up charging $160 to his account somehow, so he figures someone must have used his name for their tab or something. Thankfully he called and got it removed from his account.

[Radrey]

When I first got to Japan. I had to be somewhere at a certain time after I got off the airport. My Japanese was awful. so instead of taking the limo bus... I took a taxi. Mostly because the taxi cab driver who coaxed me into his mini van told me there was no bus that went to the miyako hotel. Yeah.. So there is a good 25,000 yen down the drain.

[highpriestrsw2]

poor Kevin Teacher.

I've only ever been to Italy and they were very nice there except for one guy who kept trying to get me to buy his bicycle in Naples. I was pretty sure it was stolen but luckily my friend who was my tour guide is a very big muscular guy and when he confronted the guy he QUICKLY left us alone. From then on I wished I knew Italian so I would've understood the conversation during the confrontation between them better. He later told me the bike selling guy was a junkie.

[youwrotethis]

That was a good story. Hear about the kid who got the new DS and instead there was a chinese newspaper and rocks inside? Dang Chinese Scumbags >_> Nice scenery by the way :]

[BusanKevin]

Think I just saw something on sxephil yesterday about that! That sucks....royally screwed!

[technovidiomaster20]

I was on a school trip in calafornia and I went to eat at a mexican restraunt with some friends. When we ordered our food I got somthing cheep or at least what I thought was cheep on the menu but the menu was layed out in a bad way so I ended up getting somthing extrimley expencive and I could not aford it and alot of my friends had the same thing happen to them so we ended up throughing all the money we had franticley into a pile and we just berley had enough to pay off the bill.

[mosby6801]

Wow! (Don't you love the high pressure, where all you can think to do is buy/give money so you can leave?) I remember one this guy followed me(dark out)when I get to my car he asks for money, then makes up this huge fake story(couldn't keep his own story straight). So I give him some money and he still doesn't leave until I promise I believe his story. Funny part over the next two weeks he tried to use the same messed up story on me to get money. : P

[DerSchnurrbart]

Big trouble in little China.

[BusanKevin]

GREAT movie....always loved it! Wish I could be as cool as Kurt Russell in that one! ;) hehe

[YouMockMe]

yeah... the damn taxi drivers....

[6663000]

Great story. I really love these storytime videos. haha

I hope to do lots of travelling in Asia in a few years so I am eager to learn about stuff like this, among other aspects of Asian countries of course :P

[bennycredenza]

Another vacation?

lol.

Your story videos are the best.

[BusanKevin]

Yep....vacation again! Japan has a LOT of holidays...I love it !

[KayBurlay]

Smart one Kevin Teacher :)

Making the video of the Taxi Driver Rip Off soon ?

[blah22322]

Never been ripped off.. love this video!! your story telling rocks! i get pretty into it

[ribboncontroller]

great story! I'm leaving for tokyo and sendai on may 3rd from here in LA, but I'm not worried about any scams in japan

If anything I kinda feel like the LA swindler :D

[BusanKevin]

I think you'll be pretty safe in Japan. I think most scams happen in countries where foreign travelers are seen as "rich." You'll have nothing to worrry about here....it's pretty cool!

[phampants]

lol thanks for shaing. now i'm going to be extra careful when i travel this june!

[APOKALYPSE34]

I heard about that happening a lot .

I was ripped off on a guitar and man was I pissed off. This music shop has been known for pull this all the time .

[BusanKevin]

Yeah...some music shops even back home have that reputation!

[kanarakuotoko]

i lived in china for 3 years, i always enjoyed it when i met travelers, i warned them about all the scams that were going on.

[BusanKevin]

I wish I had met you then!!!hehe The second time I went to China I didn't get scammed....lots of people tried though!

[CSIS25]

I think i will stay away from china lol

[kageromaru]

Nope, not once, never. :o

[uglyengineer]

I had a bunch of folded papers in my back pocket in Rome once, which some one deftly lifted from me; it was only once I was back in my hotel I realized they were gone, those guys are so good. They were folded kind of like a wallet so I guess that's what attracted the thief. Only problem for the thief was the papers were totally worthless (playbills or something I liked and had stolen myself earlier...)

[k3a9y]

yeah in mexico i got this necklace for probably $30 dollars(I bargained too for a while and got him to go down) but then I found it in Cali for $10!! Same exact one!

[Call1us]

When I went to Berlin with friends we were waiting for a tram. These people who I can't only really describe as looking like Gypsies came up to us, the asked "Do you speak English?". I was like "Um yeah" and they thrust a card into my face which said words to the effect of "We come from Lithuania and have been living in Berlin for the last month, please we need money to help feed our children". Now I'm not the most generous of people and a skeptic too, so I said I was skint and had no money...

[Call1us]

They asked my friends and they said the same. I saw them asking plenty of other people too. Then when I got back into the UK, I mentioned it to my family. My sister who had also been to Berlin two years ago piped up "Oh yeah they were there when I went". So much for living in Berlin for only a month,,,

[kageromaru]

Gipsies and Turks are doing it all around the world. You're lucky you didn't meet the stab-on-refusal type. :)

[BusanKevin]

Pretty crazy!I suppose for some people, it's their only was to make a dollar! not very honest though...

[enbejey]

Yeah, it's unfortunate people have to be on guard for these things! I come from a shady city, so I've been pretty good at keeping my guard up when traveling.

[BusanKevin]

Well, I am much better at it now...since I've traveled a lot since then. Japan is really safe though, so it's easy to let that guard down....just have to remember to put it back up again when going elsewhere.

[enbejey]

Yeah! Japan is really safe comparatively. At least you got some fancy decorations! Haha. Just trying to look on the bright side.

[bestiaccia]

Amazing story, and nice walk!! :D

[reynoldsair]

thanks for the story. i'll keep it in mind next time i'm in china~

[BusanKevin]

be one your toes a little! Beware of Kobe You Tubers as well...they may rip you off....!!! Muwahahahahahahaha (evil laugh)!

[psmtheman]

I haven't been ripped off because I'm fuckin cynical and I don't trust anyone. There are a shit ton of rip off artists in New Orleans and I've gotten used to avoiding those assholes.

[MicknFumi]

lol...well look on the bright side, you didn't end up with a tattoo that does not mean what you beleive it to mean like some people have...not me, I have none...but my missus has pointed out a few silly ones. 1 on a friend, but she just chuckles...he's like yeah, I got this tattoo & it means this 'n that...but she does not want to burst his bubble.

[BusanKevin]

yeah...when we were in Canada, my wife noticed several people with very "strange" kanji tattoos! I'm sure they were told it meant one thing, but it meant something else.

[subarianEra]

Is your wife japanese?

[BusanKevin]

Yes she is :)

[subarianEra]

Wow really.. that's sweet. I thought she was caucasian. Maybe you should show her sometime on camera :D

Anyways, do you know the singer Hikaru Utada? Apprently she's really famous, and sold over 52 million albums world wide, and holds best selling artist in Japan in history.

[winDragon79]

BEST SINGER EVER. end of story.

[demonvamp33]

another great story hehe i would be kinda scared

[WildRebecca]

Story time! I would be scared lol. That was bad for you but hilarious to me. My sister told me about gypsies in France who would hand you a card and tell you they were deaf, dumb, or something like that lol. they wanted money of course and they spoke very little English . Strange...

[BusanKevin]

I've heard about that one too!

[weeknightingale]

You were Shanghia'd in Beijing!

[BusanKevin]

true that!

[NintendoGamer86]

I've never been ripped off, but if i'm screwed then their screwed. :P

[HaxorLee]

I'll tell if you if i get screwed when i come to japan in a couple of months :P

[BusanKevin]

when are you coming here? Where will you be? Coming to Kansai?

[HaxorLee]

Hopefully in July or August.

And Kansai is definitely the first place i'm going to.

Most of the Japanese i'm learning isnt the Girly Tokyo dialect, but the more "Manly" Osaka / kansai Dialect. So yes i'm a fan of the more rural places in japan.

Hope to see you there :P

[BusanKevin]

For sure! Let me know when you'll be heading this way. We can meet up for sure.

[Flint133]

Thanks for sharing!

[ericsurf6]

Good story, I can relate. I've been scammed traveling around in Asia but everything was so cheap that I didn't really care.

[BusanKevin]

of course....that was true in my case too. Really....I was making good money and only lost a little....made for a good tale though!

[zeroteku]

Your stories are always interesting! But no, I haven't been ripped off, at least, not in a blatantly obvious manner... yet.

[betamaxdc]

bro you're always on yasumi

[BusanKevin]

I do have a fair amount of time off...but...often....1 day in my job is like 10 in another!!! hehe

[cyb3r0r30]

Are you under the rokko island bridge?

[redmuzam]

this does kinda of look like Rokko Island

[BusanKevin]

Port Island :)

[BusanKevin]

I live on Port Island...the "other bridge"! hehe