Quoting AndyF
Quoting Sujit1961
Stop cash transactions. Well almost. Use cash only for local travel and food.
I disagree strongly. Every time you use a card or electronic payment you leak data and expose yourself to ID fraud or card fraud.
At least with cash you limit your risk to the amount of cash you have.
thats very insecure of you andy. It doesnot happen here in India unless you share your card details + pin
Quoting Sudhanshusol
Quoting AndyF
Quoting Sujit1961
Stop cash transactions. Well almost. Use cash only for local travel and food.
I disagree strongly. Every time you use a card or electronic payment you leak data and expose yourself to ID fraud or card fraud.
At least with cash you limit your risk to the amount of cash you have.
thats very insecure of you andy. It doesnot happen here in India unless you share your card details + pin
You are not aware of it happening - yet. But since they're electronic records stored in several databases, the problems could still appear in the future, basically during your entire lifetime. With everything and everyone constantly being hacked - how certain are you that your financial records won't ever be exposed? Anonymous cash transactions cannot have that problem.
Paying electronically is certainly convenient, but it has inherent problems, particularly where privacy is concerned. Distrust all big organizations pushing to make it even more convenient, or the "phase out" cash; chances are they're hoping to make a lot of money with your personal information.
[ Edit: Edited on 10-Apr-2019, at 11:13 by Sander ]
Quoting Sander
Quoting Sudhanshusol
Quoting AndyF
Quoting Sujit1961
Stop cash transactions. Well almost. Use cash only for local travel and food.
I disagree strongly. Every time you use a card or electronic payment you leak data and expose yourself to ID fraud or card fraud.
At least with cash you limit your risk to the amount of cash you have.
thats very insecure of you andy. It doesnot happen here in India unless you share your card details + pin
You are not aware of it happened - yet. But since they're electronic records stored in several databases, the problems could still appear in the future, basically during your entire lifetime. With everything and everyone constantly being hacked - how certain are you that your financial records won't ever be exposed? Anonymous cash transactions cannot have that problem.
Paying electronically is certainly convenient, but it has inherent problems, particularly where privacy is concerned. Distrust all big organizations pushing to make it even more convenient, or the "phase out" cash; chances are they're hoping to make a lot of money with your personal information.
well i have been using electronic payments for years now. cards for like many years and payment apps for like 4 years now. Well what I ma saying it that frauds related to these doesnot happen here much in india unless you speak out your card details along with PIN or password to the wrong person. I dont know the situation of these frauds in your country. Anyway thanks for your concern and for making us aware of these frauds.
thats very insecure of you andy.
I don't think it's insecure - I've been a victim of ID fraud so I think it's being realistic.
(Actually the retail companies who were defrauded using my details are technically the victims but it was a right pain for me too.)
I also don't for a moment believe that India is immune to electronic crime; if so it would be the only country in the world to not have any, and let's face it it's a pretty scammy place in other ways so I imagine the chancers are using this just like other methods.
If I can avoid shedding data I do. Paying cash is a no brainer.
Reading about this gave me a change to reminisce about my experiences in India. I found the country quite fascinating and loved the food but had some of my most frustrating travel experiences there. This was a long time ago, but it sounds like some things haven't changed. Since I do not have blog for those days, I will tell my story here.
The first time I did not even make it into the country. Back in 1980 I was backpacking with a friend. We took a bus from Pokhara, Nepal to the border. We were on our way to Varanasi. My friend passed right through immigration and had our packs on top of our next bus. But I was not so lucky. The guard told me that someone with a name "similar" to mine had done something bad in India. I knew he wanted a bribe but was not sure how to do it. I was also quite sick, both cold and stomach issues, and was nervous about just offering money. I decided to argue. That didn't work. He would not let me in. We spent the night (Christmas eve) in a dingy hotel in the little border town and flew back to Kathmandu the next day. Later I was advised that I should have offered to pay for communication to Delhi (telex in those days). Of course no communication would take place.
In 1987 I flew into India with my wife. We landed in what was then Bombay and took a bus from the airport to a hotel our friends had recommended. The driver refused to take us there. Luckily, we were close to it, so demanded that he let us off and walked the last few blocks. Our next stop was New Delhi where we arrived quite late. We asked for a hotel recommendation at the airport tourist office and were told that due to some event that there were hardly any rooms available and were sent to a disgusting dirty and loud place. I was amazed at how my wife could curl up in her sarong to avoid touching the sheets. We left first thing in the morning and found a great place in the middle of town. There were lots of hotels rooms available.
While riding in a taxi, if the police prevent your car (and no person else’s) and tell you to pay a street rate, they’re lying. The cab motive force is probably a terrific man and inform the cop no, which took place once, or he is probably a terrible guy and let you know he can’t move until you pay. You can either pay the “quality” or “fee” or “tax”, whatever they call it, or you could argue. In the give up if the driving force gained’t go, and also you’re going to come to be paying. It received’t go to the road, it’ll cross for his subsequent beer. On the alternative hand, tolls are actual and the passenger does should pay.
Quoting dishapatani
The following is a list of alleged scams and scandals in India since Independence. It consists of political,
I think you have missed the context that we are a travel forum. The subject is scams that an individual traveller may want to be wary of.
Very interesting
Quoting JetlagWarriors
Have been in India almost a month now. Great place to travel, worst part is all the dishonest and shady people. Just wanted to share a list of potential scams we've run into, and hopefully can hear of your stories to help us through the next month.
1. In Delhi, plenty of people will try and get you to a government building. They will ask you where you're going, and no matter where you say -- you should head to the government building first. You need a map, there's a better spice market near the government building anyway, those train tickets are no good, etc. Once you get to the government building it's just a travel agency trying to sell you train and bus tickets at an inflated price. Fairly easy to see through but a big waste of time. Almost every traveler we've seen that has been through Delhi has been approached and told they must go to the government building. We even talked to one couple who bought all the inflated tickets. Over 100 Euros down the tubes.
2. Buying train or bus tickets is always an adventure. Learn to know where the important information on the ticket is -- including price of ticket, class of the train, time it leaves, where it's leaving from etc. They will try to divert your eyes by highlighting certain areas or folding the ticket a certain way as the ticket is a printed piece of paper. We had one bus ride that instead of having two seats we had one bed. We paid for two seats (more expensive) and he sold us one bed to share and kept the rest of the money. We also ran into another couple that paid more than twice what they should've -- and when we showed them the price on the ticket we noticed all the important areas were highlighted -- except the price. He even went over it with them and pointed to departure time, bus terminal, seat number, etc. Almost every time we've asked when the train/bus is leaving -- the answer is 'what time do you want to go?'. One guy tried to sell us tickets at 7 am when we wanted to go for 7 pm. Luckily we had already been tricked once so we knew the check the ticket for every detail.
3. When waiting for a train, the train will not be cancelled. EVER! We had one honest guy who sold us train tickets explain this scam to us. He said the train will most likely be late, even up to 2 or 3 hours late, but it will not be cancelled. He kept repeating: it will NOT be cancelled. A man may approach you and ask to see you ticket, and tell you the train has been cancelled, but for a little money he can get you on another train. At this point he might even put you on the same train you would've gotten on anyway, or one going in the wrong direction. This has never happened to us but a German couple we met had it happen to them. Luckily they didn't fall for it.
4. Anywhere there is a temple or holy place, people will tell you in order to enter you need to pay, or need to be blessed, which costs money. Make sure to look around and see if the man is approaching all foreigners, or all people, and if he is the only one collecting money. Look for signs and clearly labelled information. Question him and be firm. Some temples you have to pay, no doubt. But if a man doesn't seem to be properly hired by the temple make sure he is not being dishonest. Ask locals to help you! People walking by will shake their head and motion you to walk past him.
5. An unwanted service that is done without you asking. Example: Got my head shaved (single blade razor) by a barber in Pushkar. After he was done he put moisturizer on my head, which is typical after a shave. Then he wiped his hands off and massaged my neck a little (less than 2 minutes). He went to massage my arms and I told him that was ok, I just wanted the hair cut. He told me to pay him 500 rupees and pointed to a sign that said 'full service - 500 rupees'. I said what?! We agreed on 200 rupees. He said he massaged me and that's full service. This type of thing is very common. If you are walking through a fort (400+ year old walled city) someone will walk up beside you tell you 'this room was the queens makeup room' or something. You must tell him right away you don't want a tour guide! If you say 'oh wow' he will tell you more and more and then you owe him money.
6. The price of the hostel changes. You book two nights for 400 rupees a night. You decide to stay a third. The owner says the cost will be the same as for the third night. When you check out -- he charges you 800 rupees for the third night. Double the price! You ask him and he says the first two nights were paid as a one night + one night free deal. So per night is 800 rupees. This happened to a Czech couple we met. Evidently there was a yelling match and the hostel owner wouldn't budge.
Ivana and I have been to 10+ countries now, and we have never seen anything like the incessant dishonesty that is in India. That being said, we like travelling India! We have liked every country we have been to. I don't want this post to turn into simply bashing India. I have met a lot of backpackers here and most of them enjoy travelling India, and we immediately help each other with scams we might run into. It's like a routine when we meet other backpackers -- giving them a heads up on how to not get tricked and asking for advice. That's what gave me the idea for the post. We like to travel India, and want to be able to do it safely. So let's help each other!
Thanks.
This is interesting and loved it. I am looking forward more to this.