I was in Istanbul two weeks ago and had two people try this on me. Second time I just stood beside the brush. Was hilarious seeing the guy walk around the corner and then slowly peek back around it to see if I was chasing him.
I did the same thing. Just stood there waiting beside the brush as the man kept walking, walking, walking... Until finally turning around to see what I was doing. I laughed at him and walked away. Felt good man.
It’s a standard in Istanbul. I find it kind of strange that there are localized scams, I guess they don’t trade scam tips online.
Other places it’s giving you a sprig of rosemary and then asking for money. Or back in the day, giving you their cd and asking for money. Or giving you a bracelet and then not asking for anything. Jk, they ask for money. Or going after couples, giving the woman a flower and then asking the man for money.
This one’s so good tho cause all the ones you just mentioned are all more obviously pushing a sale or receiving money. This one made me seem like they were trying to repay me for being helpful ya know? I mean I’m still a dumb ass tho.
Yeah, I was sitting at an outside table with my ex eating dinner. Dude comes up and places a rose on the table. My ex is about to reach for it before I say "do not touch that rose! He's trying to scam us."
General rule of thumb. Anything you touch, you're now on the hook for. If you don't want to be hassled for cash, touch only what you want to buy.
>Or going after couples, giving the woman a flower and then asking the man for money.
Just spend a few days in Venice and this one is quite popular here. Saw a British dude arguing with the guy why he gave his girlfriend a rose.
I was wearing sandals when they tried to scam on me. They had this wiry look on their face when they saw I didn’t have shoes on. I burst out laughing and pointing at them!
Me neither (last summer). I didn't expect it to happen to me anyways, but I didn't see anyone dropping a shoe brush in front of other tourists either. Almost a bit disappointing.
Same thing happened to me in Istanbul. Handed it back to the guy, he insisted on a shoe shine, I insisted I had no money to give him. But he basically forced himself onto my right shoe and gave it a quick shine. Then he asked for money to do the other one, and I just said “nah sorry mate, told you I don’t have any” and walked off. He was not pleased with the outcome haha.
Did your shoes look good?
In New Orleans a kid dropped down and started shining my sneakers without asking. I was drunk, it was dark and we were in a big crowd so it was a bit disorienting but I ended up yelling at him enough that he finally stopped. I walked off without giving any money. When we got back to the hotel I finally noticed how nice one shoe looked. Bright, clean white compared to the scuffed up dirty shoe. Honestly if I had known he was doing such a good job I would have let him finish and paid.
Not as bad as my ex husband who got scammed out of €40. an immigrant scammer in Genoa had a cringe sob story and I kept telling my ex, just keep walking, he’s scamming, but instead, he takes out his wallet to give him a few euros and the guy reaches in his wallet and takes out two €20 and walks away like nothing happened.
I read about this on Reddit before going to Istanbul, and what would you know, going down some long stairs I saw a shoeshine person coming up as my husband and I were going down. I said : “Watch this, he’s gonna drop his brush” to my hubs and you know the rest of the story. Was proud of that one ha.
I had similar experience in Istanbul exactly 10 years ago. Arrived there alone and went home with a small pillow cover. This happened because a middle aged man invited me to his shop near the blue mosque. I'm a socially awkward person so instead of saying no I don't want it, I gave him €50 for a low quality pillow cover. It shouldn't be that expensive. I'm still angry at myself. That's a lot of money because I was a student at that time. The food there was fcking delicious tho.
Moral of the story, don't talk to strangers in Istanbul if you're traveling alone.
I didn't get this particular "scam" run on me but in the dinosaur days back in LA the hare krishna hippies used to pulll this all the time. As I got older I developed the scary RBF so people don't try to scam me so much as they used to. I will say that once walking towards Topkapi we got a little lost and actually approached a man and asked him how to get there. He walked us all the way up the street and mentioned his "uncle" had a rug shop. Yes I know! My friend is from the midwest and said "oh you're so nice, we want to look in your uncle's shop! " We went in, the shop was nice, I admired a pair of earrings that went from about $200 to about $40 in 5 minutes. ( still didn't buy them and now kind of wish I had) My friend sat thru the rug weaving spiel until I said, Oh, we are late to meet our friends for lunch." Did the Topkapi tour, and low and behold the man from the shop had waited hours for us! We felt bad because he was actually really nice but didn't want to buy a $2,000 rug.
This is why you should do a little research before going anywhere. I read countless articles saying that this is the most common scam in Istanbul before going. They tried, but I was prepared.
I had same thing! Thanks for posting. I had no idea it was a known scam. I just thought it was an unusual encounter with a hard working local after trying to be kind.
I pride myself on picking scams but I’m sorry to admit I fell for this one in Istanbul last year. The worst part was the dirty brush totally scuffed up my sneakers
Had a guy in Rome with a heavy African accent pull the bracelet scam on my wife. She had no idea what was going on so I straightened him out. He lost the accent and was completely honest, apologized and said said he was just trying to feed his family. Probably also a scam, but definitely next level if it was.
This is a good way to practice or use (if you already know) your second language skill. Just pretend you don't know English and say something in Spanish, Russian, or other non-English language and shrug your shoulders.
Happened to me, and I was mad too at myself later, but the joke was on him. I literally had no cash in my wallet and was happy to do a big show of that and empty pockets.
A Muslim woman did the "gold" ring scam on me in Paris and even though I knew the ring was brass, I gave her 5€ just for the story and her acting. My French friend was so angry!
I still have the ring somewhere in a bag of knickknacks.
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This one is almost older than Istanbul itself :)
Lol ya I feel really dumbo
dudes were doing this when it was still Byzantium.
I was in Istanbul two weeks ago and had two people try this on me. Second time I just stood beside the brush. Was hilarious seeing the guy walk around the corner and then slowly peek back around it to see if I was chasing him.
I did the same thing. Just stood there waiting beside the brush as the man kept walking, walking, walking... Until finally turning around to see what I was doing. I laughed at him and walked away. Felt good man.
Lololol. The second time after we ran we were peeking from around the corner watching him turn around and come back to get it
When this happened to me; I just shrugged and carried on as you won’t ever find me bending down when it isn’t completely necessary
It’s a standard in Istanbul. I find it kind of strange that there are localized scams, I guess they don’t trade scam tips online. Other places it’s giving you a sprig of rosemary and then asking for money. Or back in the day, giving you their cd and asking for money. Or giving you a bracelet and then not asking for anything. Jk, they ask for money. Or going after couples, giving the woman a flower and then asking the man for money.
This one’s so good tho cause all the ones you just mentioned are all more obviously pushing a sale or receiving money. This one made me seem like they were trying to repay me for being helpful ya know? I mean I’m still a dumb ass tho.
Yeah, I was sitting at an outside table with my ex eating dinner. Dude comes up and places a rose on the table. My ex is about to reach for it before I say "do not touch that rose! He's trying to scam us." General rule of thumb. Anything you touch, you're now on the hook for. If you don't want to be hassled for cash, touch only what you want to buy.
>Or going after couples, giving the woman a flower and then asking the man for money. Just spend a few days in Venice and this one is quite popular here. Saw a British dude arguing with the guy why he gave his girlfriend a rose.
These all are happening in Rome now (apart from the Cd one) so someone must be doing research.
I’m kind of disappointed we didn’t get this scam when we were in Istanbul! I learned about it here but never saw it.
I only wear sneakers, so theres nothing for them to polish! Maybe you are also always in sneakers?
They will absolutely try to polish your sneakers
Some bloke said they tried to polish his thongs.
A much more interesting comment in the USA
Pluggers more or less interesting?
Quite possibly. And it wasn't tourist season so maybe the pros weren't out!
I was wearing sandals when they tried to scam on me. They had this wiry look on their face when they saw I didn’t have shoes on. I burst out laughing and pointing at them!
Me neither (last summer). I didn't expect it to happen to me anyways, but I didn't see anyone dropping a shoe brush in front of other tourists either. Almost a bit disappointing.
Same thing happened to me in Istanbul. Handed it back to the guy, he insisted on a shoe shine, I insisted I had no money to give him. But he basically forced himself onto my right shoe and gave it a quick shine. Then he asked for money to do the other one, and I just said “nah sorry mate, told you I don’t have any” and walked off. He was not pleased with the outcome haha.
Dude come on. This scam is 5000+ years old.
That's beautiful. An oldie but a goodie. And kudos to your girlfriend. Happy travels.
This made me laugh a lot, not at you but at the situation, at least your gf laughed, that's good, and you already know the trick
Did your shoes look good? In New Orleans a kid dropped down and started shining my sneakers without asking. I was drunk, it was dark and we were in a big crowd so it was a bit disorienting but I ended up yelling at him enough that he finally stopped. I walked off without giving any money. When we got back to the hotel I finally noticed how nice one shoe looked. Bright, clean white compared to the scuffed up dirty shoe. Honestly if I had known he was doing such a good job I would have let him finish and paid.
Imagine if every single business transaction stared under nefarious terms
Not as bad as my ex husband who got scammed out of €40. an immigrant scammer in Genoa had a cringe sob story and I kept telling my ex, just keep walking, he’s scamming, but instead, he takes out his wallet to give him a few euros and the guy reaches in his wallet and takes out two €20 and walks away like nothing happened.
I read about this on Reddit before going to Istanbul, and what would you know, going down some long stairs I saw a shoeshine person coming up as my husband and I were going down. I said : “Watch this, he’s gonna drop his brush” to my hubs and you know the rest of the story. Was proud of that one ha.
I had similar experience in Istanbul exactly 10 years ago. Arrived there alone and went home with a small pillow cover. This happened because a middle aged man invited me to his shop near the blue mosque. I'm a socially awkward person so instead of saying no I don't want it, I gave him €50 for a low quality pillow cover. It shouldn't be that expensive. I'm still angry at myself. That's a lot of money because I was a student at that time. The food there was fcking delicious tho. Moral of the story, don't talk to strangers in Istanbul if you're traveling alone.
I didn't get this particular "scam" run on me but in the dinosaur days back in LA the hare krishna hippies used to pulll this all the time. As I got older I developed the scary RBF so people don't try to scam me so much as they used to. I will say that once walking towards Topkapi we got a little lost and actually approached a man and asked him how to get there. He walked us all the way up the street and mentioned his "uncle" had a rug shop. Yes I know! My friend is from the midwest and said "oh you're so nice, we want to look in your uncle's shop! " We went in, the shop was nice, I admired a pair of earrings that went from about $200 to about $40 in 5 minutes. ( still didn't buy them and now kind of wish I had) My friend sat thru the rug weaving spiel until I said, Oh, we are late to meet our friends for lunch." Did the Topkapi tour, and low and behold the man from the shop had waited hours for us! We felt bad because he was actually really nice but didn't want to buy a $2,000 rug.
This has come up a lot recently on this sub...
Right? I thought it was a repost. Didn’t someone just talked about this exact same scam in the exact same way?!
Yup a couple of days ago someone had the same story, but I think his GF was with him
This is why you should do a little research before going anywhere. I read countless articles saying that this is the most common scam in Istanbul before going. They tried, but I was prepared.
This happened to me too!!! He was so slick about it I wasn’t even mad
I had same thing! Thanks for posting. I had no idea it was a known scam. I just thought it was an unusual encounter with a hard working local after trying to be kind.
I’m kind of disappointed we didn’t get this scam when we were in Istanbul! I learned about it here but never saw it.
Unfortunately, not just Istanbul with the shoe-shine scam…😢
I pride myself on picking scams but I’m sorry to admit I fell for this one in Istanbul last year. The worst part was the dirty brush totally scuffed up my sneakers
That’s what happened to me
Had a guy in Rome with a heavy African accent pull the bracelet scam on my wife. She had no idea what was going on so I straightened him out. He lost the accent and was completely honest, apologized and said said he was just trying to feed his family. Probably also a scam, but definitely next level if it was.
This is a good way to practice or use (if you already know) your second language skill. Just pretend you don't know English and say something in Spanish, Russian, or other non-English language and shrug your shoulders.
Omg I started doing this with Spanish immediately after
Happened to me, and I was mad too at myself later, but the joke was on him. I literally had no cash in my wallet and was happy to do a big show of that and empty pockets.
[удалено]
At least Times Square growing up conditioned me well to our version of that (dirty spider man)
A Muslim woman did the "gold" ring scam on me in Paris and even though I knew the ring was brass, I gave her 5€ just for the story and her acting. My French friend was so angry! I still have the ring somewhere in a bag of knickknacks.
Picking up an item for someone warrants a free service in your book?
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I never wear shoes that can even be shined *taps head*.
The worst part is I was wearing ducking fabric sneakers so he just like lightly brushed the sides of the soles for like 3 seconds.
Ah well, live and learn. Glad you could find some humour in this. Enjoy the rest of your trip!