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canyonwalkerItaly Travelog #3
At FCO Airport - Saturday, 24 May 2025, 1:50pm
I've joked for many years that certain countries in Europe *cough* Greece and Italy *cough* treat scamming tourists as a national pastime. I'm an experienced enough traveler that I'm savvy to many potential scams. But the problem with being in a scam-heavy place is that you've got to be on your guard constantly. I made the mistake of not triple-checking my transaction at an ATM and got ripped off.
Yes, the ATM charged me a fee for giving me my own money. It was €4.95. I knew it was going to be like that. What got me was what the ATM slipped in near the end of the transaction. It showed me the amount of my withdrawal in Euro, the amount debited from my account in USD, and asked me to confirm. Foolishly— or, rather, not on my guard every fucking second because everyone is trying to rip you off when you so much as blink— I accepted the conversion without whipping out my calculator to check the math. The fuckers gave me .75EUR to the dollar. The normal bank exchange rate today is 0.88. So on top of the €4.95 flat fee I also paid a 15% vig.
I've been in this country for 10 minutes and already I've been scammed.
Fuck Italy.
At FCO Airport - Saturday, 24 May 2025, 1:50pm
I've joked for many years that certain countries in Europe *cough* Greece and Italy *cough* treat scamming tourists as a national pastime. I'm an experienced enough traveler that I'm savvy to many potential scams. But the problem with being in a scam-heavy place is that you've got to be on your guard constantly. I made the mistake of not triple-checking my transaction at an ATM and got ripped off.
Yes, the ATM charged me a fee for giving me my own money. It was €4.95. I knew it was going to be like that. What got me was what the ATM slipped in near the end of the transaction. It showed me the amount of my withdrawal in Euro, the amount debited from my account in USD, and asked me to confirm. Foolishly— or, rather, not on my guard every fucking second because everyone is trying to rip you off when you so much as blink— I accepted the conversion without whipping out my calculator to check the math. The fuckers gave me .75EUR to the dollar. The normal bank exchange rate today is 0.88. So on top of the €4.95 flat fee I also paid a 15% vig.
I've been in this country for 10 minutes and already I've been scammed.
Fuck Italy.
