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What would you do?
I was in Istanbul last month. I saw two people being scammed.
Here's the setup. Istanbul's tourist district is full of scammers. They prey on naïve Westerners who are good people, and thus believe that other people are good people too. On the first day, I was standing near
Hagia Sophia with my sister, looking lost. A scammer slithers up and says "The Mosque is closed. Where are you from?" My sister, a sweet and innocent person, answers honestly. "Seattle". The scammer is smooth. "I love the fish market. I used to drive a Penske truck near there for my carpet business." He's not letting us talk and he's trying to get us to do something. I'm not sure what. After a little back and forth I blurt out, implausibly, "we're busy", grab my sister and walk away to a stream of insults from the scammer.
I figured that he just wanted to charge us for an overpriced tour. Searching online, I realized it's worse. After giving you a "free" tour, they try to get you into their carpet or art shop. "I just need to pick something up. Please come in." Free food and tea is given, as well as a hard sell on an overpriced carpet. At this point, the tone changes, and people might feel forced to buy a carpet because of the "implications".
After our encounter, I was hyperaware of this sort of scam and I think I saw it happen twice.
The first time, I saw a tourist woman being led by a Turkish man. After following them for a couple blocks, they entered this ceramics shop. I kept walking.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Testi+seramik/
The next day, on nearly the exact same block, I saw another woman being led by a Turkish man. This time, the destination was an ATM machine. The woman withdrew some cash while the man stood back doing weird air punches. They headed the other way and were gone.
What, if anything, should I have done? I wasn't 100% sure that the women were being scammed. And, of course, by intervening I could have put my own safety at risk as well as the safety of the women.
In the United States, I would have called the police at a minimum. I might also ask the women if they needed help, or even just "accidentally" bump into them and strike a conversation. Here, I felt paralyzed. In the end, I wasn't worried for the women's safety. But I could see they were going to have a bad and very expensive day. I suppose I also felt disgusted at Turkish people for allowing this as well as disgust at the women for being so obvilious. Not sure there's a right answer here. I just want to see what people think.
Ahh the naive Westerners who are good people and think everyone else is good people as well.
I honestly have no idea the point you are trying to make.
Just found that phrasing silly.
I think westerners are very aware of homeless people who might pull scams or uncomfortably ask for significant amounts of money. But we aren't expecting nicely dressed polite people to pull that. But I've got no idea how easy non-westerns are to scam, honestly I'd assume they're about just as easy to be convinced of the scam but are less willing to part with their money because they have less.
I'd say non-westerners are probably harder to scam but not by much. The actual tricky scams are not the obviously totally very interested in your life and where you are from street vendors, it's the vendors who up their prices because you are white or obviously not a local. Bonus if they get it precisely to the point where it wouldn't be outrageous in your more prosperous country but is daylight robbery in theirs.
Much harder to catch because of course this one specific item costs radically more in proportion, it's a foreign market and things work differently!
And no one is immune to that without extensive market research.
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