Encountering trouble

What do you do when you meet people who try to scam you when you're travelling?

Scammers can spot a tourist from miles away. No matter how experienced you are, they will always know - the telltale way you dress different, the accent, the fumbling with machines and look of unfamiliarity in your eyes when you're in a new city.

When I was in Milan, I encountered scammers not once but twice. The first time, it was a bunch of people who were trying to give us 'free' wristbands; the second, we were buying tickets at a Metro machine when two guys tried to make us use our credit card instead of cash, and failing that tried to snatch our change.

The first time was alright. I had an elbow pressing the opening of my bag, which was zipped, in towards me - and they were obviously scammers, but they weren't invading our personal space or anything at least. I made sure that everyone around me was standing at least a metre away. I checked my bag afterwards and nothing was missing, thank goodness.

The second time was far worse. Buying tickets at a Metro station, someone was signalling that one of the machines was out of order, so I went to a different machine thinking he was one of the station people.

It wasn't until we had started putting change in to buy our tickets with that these guys started being aggressive - they kept gesturing and signalling to us to use our credit cards instead of cash, and even started pressing buttons on the machine to make the transaction terminate. For those unaware, banks in Europe issue cards with a chip system; debit and credit cards both require a PIN for a transaction to be approved, rather than simply signing for it.

If not for the fact that we'd already started putting money in, I would have switched to a different machine entirely. Obviously, these scammers wanted to steal our card and the PIN of those cards.

I also really wanted to kick them in the nuts, but I don't think that would have been a good idea in an area where it was likely that more of them were nearby. I didn't want to get into more trouble than trouble was worth.

Failing that we obviously didn't let these scammers anywhere near our cards, the machine dispensed our tickets and these guys tried telling us the transaction was over (they started waving their hands wildly and used their hands to block the plastic flap where the machine dispenses stuff at the bottom) before we'd got our change. Clearly, they wanted us to go so they could get the change. I had to be extremely quick about getting the change so that I'd get it before they did.

Of course the moment I was in the safety of the train I checked my bag. Nothing was missing, thank goodness.

On one hand, I don't know how obvious it could possibly be that these guys were scammers. I mean, if you're trying to rob burgle or steal, I would have thought it would have been done stealthily at least. But on the other hand, once I had calmed down from how angry I was, I started wondering what on earth might have happened that people would have been forced to such desperate measures.

Not about the card, I mean. Sometimes people just steal cards because they're an easy way to get quick cash. I mean about the change. The machine was only due to give us a few cents worth of change back from what we'd put in  - is a few cents worth of change really worth all that hassle and troubling?

Or was it the case that they were just a bunch of idiots who liked seeing people get frustrated and were trying to harass us for the sake of harassing us?

Scammers can make or break your trip - they can completely put a dent in your entire mood, and that can ruin everything. Not to mention, the hassle of losing your wallet and having to call up a thousand different companies and bureaucracies to let them know that your cards and ID have been stolen - that's trouble if I ever saw some.

I'm trying to figure out the difference between what makes a person a beggar and what makes a person a scammer. Both are in need of money. Neither pay particularly well, especially if you're a scammer at a machine scraping for change. But one is the source of clearly more harassment than the other. It's easy to say that if you remain 'good' you'll become a beggar rather than a scammer because you'll never want to cheat others out of their money.

I'm starting to think things aren't quite as simple as all that, though.

More on my thoughts to come.