Interested in more great travel stories, information, and resources? Check out my new website: thewildandbeyond.com!

I'm a  retired NYPD police officer. I have about 40 years of law enforcement and investigative experience. I would just like to say that what this guy did was bad in so many ways. First, when traveling, never initiate action based on the suggestion of a stranger. All cities everywhere have scammers. Tourist standout and are easy targets. You have to ask yourself, why is this stranger so anxious to hang out with me? Please do not trust any stranger who approaches you when traveling. Secondly, this guy going out of his way to fuck with these guys was absolutely insane. Again, please don't do anything like this. It's not your city, it's not your country, you don't speak the language, and the cops are at best indifferent. It's a good way to get yourself killed. Yeah, I know a large segment of you are in the "I'm going to travel, live my life, meet people and not live in fear." school. That's good, but as the man in the movie said: Good luck.

Went there in early January 2022. We were getting scammed everywhere - taxis, bars, restaurants, gas stations and by scammed I mean overcharged anywhere between 1 eur and 20 eur. We didn't care because the Turkish lira is so cheap. I think at this point they should rename the city iSCAMbul.

This happened to me the very first day I arrived in Istanbul.  I arriived at my hotel around 1:00 AM and decided to have dinner outside at some restaurant next to my hotel. Not even 20 minutes passes and a car approached me and asked if i wanted to go to a club. It was 2 guys in the car and they seemed really nice. He said we were going to a club and have some drinks. When we get there we are sat with 3 woman. I thought it was there friends, so I didn't make a big deal. We were having drinks and after about 1 hour one of the guys that picked me up asked if i wanted to dance with him. The woman that was talking to me was a Russian woman. The other 2 were Romanian and Bulgarian. When it's time to leave they send me to a small room with 2 big guys blocking the door exit. They said I had to pay up $2000.00 because supposedly I had bought everyone drinks. I explained that I wouldn't mind paying for the drinks, but for $ 2000.00 that was insane. I told them  i was in Italy for 3 weeks and I didn't have much money left, but if they took me to the hotel I had some there. So now it's a cab driver and the 2 big guys. We park in front of the hotel and off I ran inside screaming and the workers at the hotel ran outside and bitched out the scammers. He told them I was not going to pay 1 cent. Oh man, i was grateful they believed, I had money in my hotel room and got away. Lord knows what would have happened to me. I can't believe I fell for this. Be careful and enjoy ur vacation wherever you are.

As bad as scams are, this can all be avoided if you first didn’t agree to go in with them. Remember the ‘stranger danger’ rule no matter how friendly they appear to be.

I was there July 2023.  Scam after scam after scam.  I couldn’t stand it.  Called out most of the scams, but got scammed on a train ticket, taxi (of course) and even candy.  Like literally the whole city is a scam.  Never ever again

i love how you wait for him to finish talking about absolutely nothing and continue explaining to him his scam afterwards 😭🤣

This scam happened to me in taksim, Istanbul . Long story short, 2 huge bouncers presented me with a big bill and scammed me for 600 euros at the bar.

I was pissed for the situation and I retrieved the majority of my money with the help from the cop. I decided that I had enough and started walking back to my hotel after I got my money. For goodness sake, I didn’t know these bastards were following me. When I was entering a dark alley,  I was approached and surrounded by 7 Turkish guys, asking me: “hey my friend, why u went to the club and u don’t pay and went to the police?”

Shit I knew it’s going down and I don’t wanna fight 7 guys at in Turkey, and they could be armed.
I started counting to 3 in my head and at 3, I tooooook off and ran for my life, I ran across 4 traffic lanes to the other side of the street and got onto a taxi. i honestly think I could have beat Bolt at that race.

It was indeed traumatizing.

I really appreciated your courage and your cold-blooded stance. As a tourist, it is not something every tourist can do to act in such control and manage the situation in his favor when he feels the need to protect himself in a country that he does not know at all.

The EXACT same thing happened to me on my first night in Istanbul. I was punched and almost got killed. I jumped into a cab and yelled police (Duh! thinking police would help).  Then the cab driver tried to scam me. What a first night in Istanbul....I will never forget.   So sad. What a way to treat visitors.  Good job man, you took a big risk.

I’ve been to turkey. You can’t walk 5 feet without people trying to scam you. Luckily, my dad is from Iran and he lived in turkey for two years when he escaped after the revolution, so he was well aware of any scammer attempts.

I do not remember a single time that i had no trouble in Turkey! I visted multiple cities more than 5 times and every single time there were scammers and witnessed shitty behaviour. 2022 was the year i completely blocked turkey from my weekend getaways and i am not planning to visit it ever again.

My stomach hurts from laughing. He said my English perfect and the next sentence he said was just some noise coming out from his mouth 🤣🤣

I've been to Taksim and a Nice Turkish Guy asked me to go to the pub for a Drink and I said NOOOO

Even though you were in danger yourself, you still tried to help a person.... Respect from Pakistan.

I AM PERFECT ENGLISH!

9:01 "i... perfect engerish, OALEVOEVAOVEALEVOAOEVLAVEOAVLAEV"

I was to in Istanbul and have same problem I think this is city it’s very Danger to tourists

Guess what 😳no police about?, because the scammers pay them off 👮‍♂️-💸