Hello everybody! I love traveling and I know that Turkey is a great place with wonderful and by far very honest people. However, there are always a few that try to take advantage of our tourist ignorance. Even the best of us get taken every now and then. I would like people to share the scams that they avoided or got caught up in while traveling in Turkey. I would like it to be strictly about scams of hussles in Turkey. Thanks for sharing and I hope we all learn something here.

1. In Alanya...on 3 different occasions while waiting for change at different shops the owners engaged me in conversation. Half way out the door I realized I did not have my change and went back. On all occasions the owners acted as if they had simply forgot. THe first time yes/maybe...but the second two times...

2. Taxis never have proper change and feel comfortable telling you to forget about your 12-15 liras in change. I also discovered that they suddenly had poor math skills when counting out the change due back!

3. And my favorite one...the credit card machine didn't work the first time because it did not print a receipt. So let me run your card again! Where after leaving you discover that you received a double charge.

All of these incidences occured in Turkeky. Let me know what you discovered.

I don't think this is limited to Turkey!!

I usually find learning a little of the language and using it avoids people scamming you. In fact, I usually find the opposite - if I say as much as I can in Turkish, I'll usually get some kind of discount for making the effort!

Ironically, I was in Gothenburg, Sweden, last month and took a taxi. The driver was Turkish so I started talking to him. He suddenly switched off the meter and charged the minimum fare which was at least a quarter of what it should have been!

I don't think there are typical tourist traps in Turkey (though.... men? ) but if you want to know just about tourist traps IN Turkey, see this page: http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Middle_East/Turkey/TravelGuide-Turkey.html almost every city has something they warn about.

all shops in bodrum will charge you as much as they think they can get away with but thats just tourism, certainly though a little of the language goes a long way(in saving your pennies).