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10 Travel Scams to Avoid
Joe Yogerst August 11, 2009
How not to get hustled here and abroad
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See our slideshow of 10 Travel Scams to Avoid.
Entertainment and sports events are a natural attraction for scam artists. Anyone is potential victim, but out-of-towners are especially vulnerable. Each year comes fresh tales of people traveling thousands of miles to attend an event only to discover that their package tour didn’t include tickets or that the tickets they paid for by sending cash or money orders never really existed. Elton John and U2 are among the big-time concert tours, the NCAA basketball Final Four and the Rose Bowl among the headline sporting events targeted in recent years by scammers offering unbelievable deals on tickets to anyone naïve enough to send them the money up front.
Once upon a time, the Super Bowl was the holy grail of scammers. Unscrupulous travel agents had no qualms about accepting thousands of dollars for packages that included flights and hotels but no tickets to the event. The U.S. Department of Transportation came down hard on Super Bowl scammers with new regulations and tough enforcement. But the specter of getting ripped off still looms—the local media in both Pittsburgh and Arizona issued travel package warnings earlier this year for Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa.
See our slideshow of 10 Travel Scams to Avoid.
“You want to know what you are buying,” says Tim Kelly, team leader for Aviation Consumer Protection in the Aviation Enforcement Office at the U.S. Department of Transportation. If the travel package is supposed to include admission tickets to the event you are attending, Kelly’s advice is to “ask the operator at exactly what stage in the process will I receive physical game tickets or event admission. Do everything you can to get the tickets in hand before you leave home.” Kelly also recommends paying with a credit card rather than cash or money order because of the built-in refunds that most card companies offer if goods or services are not delivered.
Counterfeit merchandise is another huge travel scam, especially for anyone traveling to Asia, the source of so many bogus goods. There was a day in the not-too-distant past when a fake Rolex was the height of Third World travel chic. But nowadays the knockoffs—specifically fake medications—can be downright deadly.
“Sunglasses, handbags, DVDs—every product in every industry is liable to be knocked off these days,” says Caroline Joiner, executive director of the Global Intellectual Property Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “I often tell people that if your product isn’t being counterfeited, then you probably have a brand that isn’t worth much.”
See our slideshow of 10 Travel Scams to Avoid.
Nobody’s going to get killed by a counterfeit handbag, adds Joiner. “But consumers are at risk of buying counterfeit products that pose a real danger.” At the top of her list are knockoff pharmaceuticals cut with everything from harmless filler to motor oil, highway paint and glue. She also cites bogus electronics with faulty wiring or potentially hazardous batteries, as well as shampoo and perfumes (with fake luxury branding) that contain harmful amounts of bacteria. “I’ve seen things like fake diabetic testing strips, surgical mesh for repairing abdominal walls during surgery and even an entire Ferrari that was counterfeit.”
There are all kinds of money scams, from hotels that charge exorbitant commissions to change currency to moneychangers passing you bills or coins that are no longer in circulation.
“I was back in Moscow a few years ago and saw with nostalgia they were still trying to pull the ‘wad of money’ trick in Red Square,” says veteran travel scribe Robert Reid, author of the Lonely Planet guides to the Trans-Siberian Railway, Central America and Myanmar. “Some goon rushes by you and drops a wad of dollars—could be more than a thousand—and another goon steps in and picks it up, offering to share it with you. If you take the offer, the other goon will track you down and demand all of the money. I kinda find it cute that they think it can still work—sadly it probably does.”
See our slideshow of 10 Travel Scams to Avoid.
Another frequent scam is the hotel that doesn’t live up to what’s advertised. Beach hotels that are nowhere near the sand is one of the more common tricks. But one that’s often overlooked—much to the detriment of air travelers —are “airport hotels” that are nowhere near the actual airport.
Every city has them, but some examples are more egregious than others. The Ramada Inn Miami Airport North is actually 10 miles from Miami International. The Country Inn & Suites at Denver International Airport is nine miles from the field. The Hampton Suites LAX Van Nuys is near an airport all right—a general aviation field in the San Fernando Valley with the code VNY. The real LAX is 18 miles due south, a drive that often takes more than an hour in freeway traffic.
“My advice is do your research,” says Brooke Ferencsik, senior manager of media relations for the popular TripAdvisor web site. “The more educated you are about a given hotel, the better off you’re going to be.”
Hotel parking valets are another menace, especially those tempted to steal valuables from cars in their charge. You also have to be careful about where they park your car. Drivers automatically assume their vehicles will be moved into the hotel lot. But in the case of smaller hotels, they may not even have lots. Your car could get parked on the street. And if the meter runs out or the vehicle gets towed from a red zone, the owner is stuck with the ticket, not the valet or hotel.
See our slideshow of 10 Travel Scams to Avoid.
“We like to think that hotels and other organizations with a reputation screen their valets carefully,” says Joanne Helperin, senior features editor at the Edmunds.Com automobile web site. But while researching an article on valets, Helperin discovered there is very little consistency when it comes to screening the people who park cars for hotels, restaurants and other establishments. “Some people require a background check and some require nothing at all.”
Helperin advises people not to leave valuables in their car. “If you have to leave something in the car, leave it in the trunk covered. Or carry it with you.” And if something should go missing? Don’t hesitate to complain no matter what the blurb on the back of your valet ticket says about liability. “If something is taken from your car or damaged they are still liable. Don’t let them point to the back of the ticket and say it’s not their problem. It is their problem. It’s very important that you file an incident report and make the hotel management aware of it. As with everything else, documentation is the key.”
Despite the phenomenal growth of airport security over the last seven years, getting scammed at the TSA checkpoint is still a distinct possibility. Often it’s just a crime of opportunity—somebody who decides on the spur of the moment to snatch your iPod or cell phone from one of those ubiquitous plastic bins. But there are thieves, working solo or in tandem, who make a living off airports. They can be poised behind you in the TSA line and snatch items from your carry-on as you are going through the metal detector. Or they can be in front of you: One member of the team takes what seems like forever to get through the scanner while his or her partner walks away with your laptop that has already gone through the x-ray machine.
See our slideshow of 10 Travel Scams to Avoid.
There have been several well-publicized cases over the past few years in which victims were able to remotely activate the camera on their stolen laptops and identify the culprits. But you can’t rely on stupid crooks.
Steve Lott, head of North American communications for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) suggests several ways to keep from getting ripped off at airports. “I always recommend keeping an eye on your handbags and carry-ons at all times,” says Lott. “Don’t go through the metal detector before your bag does. If you require secondary screening, always ask a TSA agent to get your bag from the belt and bring it with you to the screening area. Be vigilant and avoid distraction. And before you leave the TSA screening area, always double check that your valuables are in place.”
Another air travel nuisance is the checked baggage fee. The extra charges ($15-$25 per bag) began to appear in mid-2008 when oil prices skyrocketed to an all-time high of $145 a barrel. At that time, the fees were understandable and generally accepted by air travelers. It didn’t really become a scam until last winter when oil prices tumbled to $33 a barrel and the fees stayed in place.
Many leading foreign carriers—including Virgin Atlantic, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Air France —reduced their fuel surcharges when oil started to sink. But most U.S. carriers didn’t budge. In fact, some continue to add new baggage fees, including Alaska Airlines, which started charging $25 for a second checked bag on July 7th.
The only major American carrier that has yet to introduce checked baggage fees is Southwest, which unlike many of the other airlines hedged itself against volatile oil prices by purchasing long-term fuel contracts. “Southwest doesn’t believe in unpleasant surprises,” says spokesperson Olga Romero, referring to checked baggage fees. “At the moment,” she adds, the Dallas-based airline “doesn’t plan to add fees for the first or second registered bag.”
See our slideshow of 10 Travel Scams to Avoid.
