Tourists sitting targets for conmen

Holidaymakers are prey for thieves and cunning conmen all over the world. SUE WILLIAMS warns of what to expect and how to avoid.

An Australian tourist walking down a street in the Peruvian capital, Lima, one day had a baby tossed at him by its mother.

Shocked, he reached out his hands, caught the child and held it close. At that moment, a man came up from behind, cut his rucksack straps and carried his pack away.

In his confusion, the tourist clung to the baby until its mother started screaming she'd call the police unless he handed back her precious son.

Yes, just another ingenious way of parting the innocent traveller from his luggage.

Of course, you have to admire the minds that think up such innovative ruses to get rich quick at the expense of the foreign tourist. But that doesn't mean you have to fall for them.

With a few warnings, a little thought, and a fair dollop of luck, you can go a long way to making sure you're not that sorry tourist tragically caught out, glumly preparing to cut short their trip and fly back early, vowing never to leave the safety of home again.

Thieves these days are clever, devising techniques all the time of benefiting at your expense.

Again in Peru, I met a couple who'd had shampoo poured on their shoulders in a crowded bus. When they took off their jumpers to wipe the shampoo off, their bags disappeared from by their feet.

"And look at us," said a middle-aged Dutch woman I met on the border between Peru and Ecuador, who'd been travelling in Peru for a month with her husband and two children. "We've had everything of ours stolen at least twice over.

"We've been robbed by small children slithering under tables to get to our bags in restaurants, we've had bags cut with razors from our shoulders, I've had my earrings wrenched from my ears - twice - and we've all had rings pulled off our fingers."

I grimaced. She laughed. "We even put our money in our little girl's daypack, but she put it down somewhere and forgot to pick it up again, so we lost that too.

"We've just learned to treat it like a game."

If you're that unlucky, it's just as well you can see the funny side. But how much better would it be not to be caught out in the first place?

For a start, if you're carrying a handbag, make sure you do so with the strap across your body. Opportunistic thieves passing by will think twice before trying to wrench it from you, particularly in places like Italy where youngsters on motorscooters yanking off tourists' bags as they ride past is becoming increasingly common.

At a restaurant, keep your bag on your lap or, if you do put it down on the floor, always sling the strap over one knee.

Similarly, if you decide to wear a moneybelt for your cash, travellers' cheques and passports, then wear it under your clothes. Yes, it can be a bit uncomfortable, particularly if the weather is hot, but the point of a belt is that you keep it on.

I slipped mine off once for a few minutes in a cafe in Tanzania and put it beside me on the bench. It disappeared within a few seconds, leaving me without a cent to my name - not even the $US20 it was going to cost to have my passport replaced by the embassy, which I needed before I could have any replacement traveller's cheques issued, or more money wired over.

Another tip: embassies won't lend you money.

Similarly, when you're carrying suitcases or a backpack, be cautious about anyone approaching you to chat, or hovering nearby. And, don't panic if something unexpected happens.

I was on a bus in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro when two men boarded and walked straight towards me.

"Why have you got my bag?" shouted one in Portuguese. "You picked up the wrong one! Give it back to me now."

I was confused. Maybe I had picked up the wrong bag. Maybe I had got it wrong. Maybe I should just hand it over.

Some instinct deep inside took over, where reason and caution failed me. I curled myself into a ball around my bag, as the second man started trying to tug it from my grip.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion: both men screaming at me, trying to pull the bag away, all the while insisting I had it wrong. When it seemed I was just never going to let go, however, suddenly they let go and ran to the front of the bus and jumped off.

It was only then that the other passengers seemed ready to come to my aid.

And there lies another great lesson: in a crisis, you're often the only person you can rely on. So don't doubt yourself, and defend whatever you believe is rightfully yours.

That's not always so easy. I was on a train when a dreadful commotion broke out in the first-class carriage. Two men dressed as rail guards had apparently entered the compartment and told everyone they had to move to another one as the train was dividing further down the track.

They then offered to carry the suitcases of the older passengers - and carried them all the way to a waiting getaway car.

Lesson number two: always carry your own luggage. If you can't, make sure you keep your eye on it at all times.

It's so easy to be distracted. I watched a woman bartering over taxi fares in South America. She settled on one cab and then realised that her suitcases had disappeared from by her feet.

Another common ruse in southern Europe is being approached by a family of gypsies who crowd around asking for money.

Often, they'll have pieces of cardboard with them that they ram at you. Under the cover of the card, they're picking your pocket, undoing a money belt if it's worn over clothes, or searching in your bag for valuables.

If you feel you're being surrounded, shout, "Go away!" or "Police!" and push everyone away from you.

No one likes being rude but, sometimes, you have to be.

In India, a regular trick is for a person to slip dog's mess on the pavement in front of you, let you step into it, and then steal from you as you take off your shoe to examine it.

Even more subtlety is used in parts of Africa, where people often offer to change money for you on the blackmarket in countries with weak currencies.

Tricks include giving you an envelope full of cut up pieces of newspaper instead of banknotes in exchange for your cash, relying on you not to check it first. Or they shout "police" as soon as you've handed your money over, and run. You, confused, also run - without any money.

Your money-changer might alternatively take you somewhere to change money, disappear to change it, for instance in a doctor's surgery, and then leave you waiting patiently outside before realisation hits that he's vanished out the back way.

Of course, there are also the tales of strangers offering tourists drugged food and stealing everything from them while they're asleep, or of sleeping gas being pumped into rail carriages with the same outcome. But you'd have to be extremely unlucky to be caught out in that way.

Usually, vigilance and alertness should save you from most problems. After all, knowing what might happen is half the battle.

* Sue Williams is the author of a new book of travel writing, Getting There: Journeys of An Accidental Adventurer (New Holland, $24.95).