On a recent trip to South America I discovered a few travel scams that I had not encountered before. There was the official airport exchange booth, situated directly on the other side of immigration, where we were handed 8 counterfeit bills, mixed in with the other currency. There was the famous switch routine that up to now I had only read about, where the taxi driver takes a bill and quickly switches it for a bill of a lesser amount, and then suggests that the customer made a mistake and owes more money for the taxi ride. But one of the more clever and least expected scams involved postage!
#1) After a very long line up at a government post office, we finally reached the counter, where we asked for international postage for 8 post cards. The clerk showed us the stamps, took our money and then started to put the stamps on the first post card. When we said that we would put the stamps on ourselves he explained that he would do it and we could go. Not knowing the customs in the area, and thinking that this was similar to a hotel where you may pay for postage and the concierge mails the postcards for you, we really thought nothing of it. Except that only one out of the 8 people to whom we wrote postcards, received a card—and that one was most likely the card on which the clerk affixed the postage while we were watching. In other words, he waited until we left, trashed the post cards (it took us about on hour to write on the cards that morning) and pocketed the cash that we had given him.
Lesson? Ensure you get the stamps you paid for—in your hand—and put the stamps on yourself—and then mail the postcards yourself. That is the safest method….but
#2) The old joke is ‘how do you steam a stamp” and the answer is “call it a bad name”. (Get it?) Well steaming stamps can pay off in a country where high unemployment makes the price of mailing a letter very challenging. Hotels either have a mail box in which clients can deposit their letters and cards, or they accept the mail by hand at the front desk, already stamped, with the promise to post it for the client. Not all hotel clerks do this. It is not unheard of for the front desk clerk to put the cards aside and then, when he/he is home, to steam the stamps off and either throw the cards in the trash, or deposit them in a mail box without stamps, where inevitably they will be rejected by the postal service—but at least the clerk can honestly claim to have ‘mailed’ the customer’s cards and letters.
Lesson? Mail your cards and letters yourself. Find out where the nearest post box is located. If for some reason it is not practical for you to mail them yourself, then when you hand it to the bellboy or concierge or front desk clerk, make sure you write down their name—in front of them—so they see you doing this. Then thank them and hope for the best.
#3) The D.I.Y Scam. It is no secret that in an era of technological breakthroughs, people are getting used to DIY (Doing it Yourself). But when postage is concerned, it is at least advisable to do your homework. The scam is sell more stamps than the client requires.
You go to a street vendor and find some postcards. When you pay for them the clerk asks if you need stamps, and he/she proceeds to sell you more stamps than you really need for each card. Or the clerk sells you fake stamps or even non-stamps—and you fall for this because you did not Google information about the stamps used in the country or the scams traditionally practiced in that country. In other words, you have inadvertently scammed yourself by not doing your homework. It’s the old D.I.Y rip-off.
We are not talking about major financial losses with the postage scams—but travellers might spend $20.00, more or less, on postcards during a 2-3 week trip. That $20.00 may not mean a lot to the traveller but to a local. $20.00 may represent a significant amount of money.
Forget the cards and just Twitter or Facebook? You could do that, and perhaps postcards are old fashioned, but you know, these days when you actually get something in the mail, it is usually meaningful, and certainly unique. The challenge is to ensure that the postcard actually leaves the country with stamps on it. Now that you know the scams out there, you can take precautions. Forewarned is forearmed
-Steve Gillick, President and COO, CITC
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