If you are going to travel for long time then you are going to get ripped off, no ifs, ands or buts about it. It is just a question of time. Typically it will happen the moment you land when you get into your first taxi. It might not be for weeks or months, you might even think that you’ve enough experience and are wise enough to see through any scam, but your guard can’t be up all the time. Your time will come too. It probably won’t be for a lot of money, but the anger you will feel at being taken for a sucker will stay with you forever – or so it seems.

When we talk about getting ripped off we are not talking about being over charged for a product or service. Being charged 20% or even 50% more than the locals is something to be expected when you don’t know what the market price is. What we are talking about is being played like a fool – it is not the amount of money that matters (at least most of the time). Being charged for something that doesn’t materialise, paying ten times the real price, giving to a fake charity – that’s being ripped off.

Rule number one – never be rushed. If there is one thing that con and rip off artists know, it is that if their prey is given enough time they will see through their scam. That’s why it is normally just minutes after you have been ripped off that you cop onto it. Always take your time with your decisions, there is rarely a need hand over money that instant, regardless of how frantic the person you are talking to is. In the developing world nothing ever happens in a hurry anyway, relax, take your time, hours or even days if needs be.

Rule number two – do what the local people do. This is a good general rule when it comes to just about anything. From food to clothes, you are just about always better off and safer doing what the locals do rather than going to somewhere that caters for travellers. When it comes to rip-offs, if a bus conductor is asking you for money but not asking any of the locals, then it is a rip off. Bear in mind though that some places, like India, have a rip off culture and the locals get ripped as well.

Rule number three – this one may seem a little harsh, but don’t believe anyone until the evidence strongly weighs in on their side. If a taxi driver tells you that your hotel has burnt down in a fire, don’t believe him. Insist on going to see the smoking wreckage for yourself.

Rule number four – be informed. It is very difficult to rip someone off who knows what the real price of something should be. Before arriving somewhere ask other travellers what they paid for various services. Ask your hotel for the correct taxi fares to places etc. Don’t be surprised or put out if you can’t negotiate the price down to what the locals pay. As long as you’re in roughly the same ballpark you’re doing ok.

What follows are accounts of the four times to date (18/8/02) that we have been ripped off.

Rip Off 1
Amount – $12
Where – Delhi International Airport, India
When – The first day of our trip
Artist – Prepaid taxi company
Description – Delhi international airport is infamous for its taxi scams. Flights from Europe and the US invariably arrive at 2am and everyone is tired and in a strange country. Easy prey for con artists. We were forewarned and had arranged with our hotel to send a car to pick us up. The car never turned up. So we went to a pre-paid taxi stand reckoning that we stood a better chance with them then we did with a taxi driver off the rank. The fare that we ended up paying was three times what it should have been.

What we did wrong – We were not informed, we should have known what the correct fare was (300R). Also we were not alert enough having just finished 14 hours of travel.

Rip off Two
Amount – $2
Where – In a good neighbourhood in Delhi
When – Two months later, we had just returned to India from Nepal
Artists – A group of students
Description – Given the amount of money involved a lot of you will probably think this shouldn’t get a mention. However, it is this rip-off that bugs me the most and rarely does a week go past without me reliving it. We were walking to a restaurant, when suddenly 4 or 5 well-dressed, clean-cut students approached us. From this instant the whole thing smelt of rip-off. They immediately split us up, showed us fake charity IDs and before 30 seconds had passed had $2 off us. 1 second later we copped onto the scam but it was too late.

What we did wrong – We were rushed. Also there were plenty of Indian people on the street, in a rich part of town. Why weren’t they being targeted for a local charity?

Rip off Three
Amount – $0
Where – Ferry from Malaysia to Dumai, Indonesia
When – 5 months into our trip
Artist - Money exchange cashier
Description – We had exchanged the majority of our Malaysian money already, but we still had a few small notes and coins. We didn’t think that we would be able to change them anywhere else so we decided to change them on the ferry, even though we knew the rate wasn’t going to be the best. I handed over about $10 worth of notes and coins and was given a bunch of notes in return. There is about 8,700 Rupiah to the dollar and I stupidly hadn’t done the math, but it didn’t look right. When I motioned that I was expecting more, he smiled disarmingly and nodded that it was correct. I sat down and he disappeared. I did the sums and realised I’d been given about half of what I should have been. Since he was in ship’s uniform I wasn’t going to let this pass. After we docked and the bulk of the passengers disembarked I went to the captain to complain and got enough of my money back to save face.

What I did wrong – I didn’t do the maths. I knew the rate and should have calculated how much money to expect.

Rip off Four
Amount – $5
Where – Probolinggo, Indonesia
When – 6 months into our trip
Artist – Bus ticketing agent
Description – At this stage into our trip you would think that we had enough experience to spot any scams but we were tired and our defences were down – that morning we had been awoken at 3 am to see the sunrise at Mt Bromo. We got on the bus to Bondowoso in Probolinggo, ignoring all the touts and agents trying to sell us inflated tickets. When we got on the bus, the bus conductor came to us for the fare. He was asking for 25,000 Rupiah, when we though that the fare should be about 5,000. It smelt of rip off, we reckoned it was a rip off, but he was on the bus and had proper tickets and we duly paid him. Only when the bus departed did the actual conductor board.

What we did wrong – We were rushed. Also the conductor only asked us for the fare, none of the locals. We should have waited for someone else to pay and followed suit.

As your life changes, your transportation needs change. When you were single that two door sport coupe was perfect for you and your girlfriend. But now you are married and your baby just turned 4, so it is time for a new vehicle. Or, perhaps the vehicle you had is just on its last leg and is headed for the garbage heap. It happens to everyone, so we all must eventually become acquainted with the techniques of shopping for a car. It can be a daunting task.

We know that retailers get their vehicles at wholesale so that they can sell for a profit. We know that they often try to slip in extras that we may not need in order to boost up the price, and they are also offering their salespeople special incentives to make money. The trick to car buying is to somehow come out, as a consumer, with a little bit better deal than if we just walked in and paid whatever the salesperson wants us to pay. There is a little room for bargaining, and we all need to learn how to use that room.

Smart consumers take the time to learn the tricks of vehicle buying and selling, so that they are prepared for the onslaught of the talented car dealer. They speak their own language, so you need to tap into that lingo, learn it for yourself, and use it to talk the salesperson into a better deal for you and your family. Where can you go to learn that language? Is it better just to try and find a good friend to go with you, someone who knows a lot about cars?

While it often helps sometimes simply to bring a strong willed friend with you to the car dealership, here is a guide that you can read beforehand and bring along with you as well, it’s kind of like the armor you put on before heading into the arena.

Our guide will help you to learn how to spot scams from salespersons, what the best time of the year is to purchase a vehicle, how to get a good buying price, how to finance your automobile, and how to negotiate the opening price. Reading through this guide will give you the tools necessary to talk confidently about your purchase with the salespeople at the car dealership, and give you a better chance of getting a car that will meet your needs without crashing your budget.

So many people are turned off by talking to car dealers, but it is important to remember that they are simply trying to make a living just like you are. Buying a car does not have to be intimidating or unpleasant. This guide will show you how to avoid unpleasant problems, and show you how to have a little fun while you shop.

Your friend may be talking about a bargain of a deal they got for their car. This may very well be associated to a car that acquainted some fishes and dolphins. You’ve seen them on TV. Remember the hundreds of thousands flood cars that we all saw on TV. Approximately 500,000 sedans, trucks, minivans, sunk in salty, contaminated floodwaters. Those cars swam in the wake of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Yet, saw their way back to dealerships and from there to the streets. Car Experts warned everyone to look out for them, since they are basically rotting from the inside out, and are totally unreliable. It’s against the law, evidently the enforcement to restrain the frauds is extremely lax, and the profit margins are stunning.

Some car dealers as I always stress have no sympathy for a buyer that doesn’t do their homework. The dealers have the right to buy the swimming cars from the auctions, turned around and sold them to unaware buyers. An immoral dealer can buy a flooded car at a private dealer auction for approximately three grand, invest an extra grand to detail the car, and replace the fabric. The car will then be retailed for over ten grand, but the buyer just bought a car from a flood damaged car sale.

Buyers, please watch out for those toxic flood damaged car sale. Those are contaminated with bacteria, mold, and mildew. If you were someone that doesn’t care about the mentioned reasons, do you care whether your airbag inflates or not? The electronic systems in those cars are corroding away as time passes; as a matter of fact the corrosion is happening at a mad speed. Even if you don’t buy a contaminated car, a friend or a family member may end up riding, and having their lives risked by one. The good news is, that are currently organizations that are testifying before Congress, and working to pass laws that would prevent the cars from entering the market. Please make sure you report the car to the non-profit organization consumers for auto reliability and safety.

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Carjacking is one of the most prevalent crimes in many parts of the world. Just as car technology has evolved so have the methods of carjacking. Hot wiring cars is not a viable method of car theft. With today’s car alarms and electronic ignitions the best technique is to steal a car that is already running. The most common scams are:

The Bump The thief bumps the victims vehicle with his from behind. When the victim gets out to access the damage and exchange information the car is stolen. The Good Samaritan An accident is staged in a remote area. Perhaps an injury is simulated. The victim stops to assist and the vehicle is stolen. The Ruse Another vehicle flashes lights or waves at the victim to get her attention to indicate a problem with the victims car. The victim pulls over and the vehicle is stolen. The Trap The victim, living in a gated community, is followed by the carjackers into the driveway and while waiting for the gate to open the thieves pull in behind him, blocking him.

When bumped from behind or responding to another driver’s attempt to alert you, always drive to a safe public place before getting out of your car. When living in a gated community call ahead for the gates to be open and/or wait until the gates open to pull up to them. Before stopping to help at an accident, it may be best to call authorities and report the accident rather than stop. Never leave your car running with the keys in it. Carjacking can be a crime of opportunity. Many thoughtless people leave their car running with the keys in it to run in an convenience store or in their own driveways. In Florida it is against the law to leave your vehicle with the keys in the ignition. This would place some responsibility on the car owner as well. To help reduce the possibility of carjacking practice these prevention tips:

Keeps windows and doors locked while driving When stopping allow at last one car length between you and the car in front of you for maneuvering space Don’t stop at isolated phones or ATM machines Watch for strangers approaching your car. Drive away if you are in the car. Walk away if you’re not. Keep purse and valuables out of sight in car If you can’t drive away from a threatening situation honk you horn to call attention to yourself.

Buying a car with a bad credit is not leaving car buyers with a lot of options. Sometimes their only choice for finding finance for their new purchase is a car dealer loan.

Car dealer loan deals are not that bad as many people think. However it is true that they may hide a lot of surprises so if you are planning to use a car dealer loan you should be extra careful.

The first thing to watch out for is if the interest rate is fixed. By fixed we mean clearly stated in your contract and that all is written in a way that wouldn’t allow the car dealer to change it later.

What many car dealers do is to approve your car loan application, make you sign the documents and give you the car. Later they just give you a call to say that in fact you do not qualify for this loan because you are with a bad credit (which you already know anyway) and that you will have to pay higher interest rates. If you fall into this situation either try to find financing from another place or report this scam and fight back.

Another very popular scam applied by car dealers is to make you find a co-signer for your loan dumming you that this is the only way to get finance since you have a horrible credit history. It will not be difficult to convince you first of all it sounds reasonable and second of all the car dealer will make you believe that this will in fact repair your bad credit.

Later you will discover that your name is not included in the loan documents and that the loan in the name of the co-signer although you are repaying it. Not only that this is in fact illegal and may lead to serious penalties but it is not helping your bad credit at all. If a car dealer offers such thing to you must refuse.

If you are a bad credit customer and have difficulties finding a loan, it is quite obvious that you should not overstretch. This means to buy a reasonably priced car and not to buy any extras such as extended warranty. However many car dealers will try to trick you by making you believe you must buy a warranty that will increase your loan in order to qualify. Since you are desperate in getting the car you would say OK. However if you think for a second you will easily see that this is simple trick to increase your loan.