A Turkish Scam

The Rogue Shoe Shine Guy

I do my homework.  When planning a trip

I read travel books, listen to radio podcasts

and watch travel videos,  I need to get the

most "bang for the buck" from every travel

dollar.  And I am a bit annoyed that this

topic was never mentioned because keeping

travelers safe from scams should be part of

a travel guide.  So, in the American Homestead

Travel Guide To The World, I will let you know

about the good and the bad of places.

This is a bad.

We were walking along a street in Istanbul and

passed a mobile shoe shine guy.  As he passed

us, one of his brushes fell at Mr. Wonderful's

foot and of course, he picked it up and yelled

to the guy and gave it back.  The guy said, "Oh!

Thank you, you are such a gentlemen!"  and

then gestured that he would give him a shoe

shine in gratitude.  I took this photo and with

that another guy shows up saying he is his brother

and wants to know where we are from.  I say,

"America."  He says, "Oh America!  We love

America!" and motions that I should put my

shoe up on his wooden bench,  I told him I didn't

want someone to touch my feet but he insisted.

He then went into a speech about how poor he

is and his kids need money.  About this time Mr.

Wonderful's shoe shine was done and guy #1 is

wanting 20 lira for the shine.  Now to put this into

perspective, we had just had lunch from a stand

at the Egyptian Market, we had a delicious kofte

sandwich with a drink for 6 lira.  So, 20 lira was

an astounding price to ask.  Wonderful said no way

and gave him some money and we left and we were

so angry to have been in this situation.

That night at dinner with Sumi & Avnish, Mr. W

was telling this story and Avnish said it had

happened to them twice that day.  Oh my gosh!

Until that moment I knew we had been scammed

by these 2 individuals but I didn't know this was

a common scam of Istanbul.  And that is when I

became angry with the writers and producers of

all the travel guides and shows I had read and

listened to.  This is important information that

travelers need to know!

I don't want you to think that every shoe shine

guy in Istanbul is a scam artist.  Not true at all,

there are many legitimate guys with these big

brass set-ups.  They charge 5 lira and give you

a very good shoe shine.

I must admit I had a little revenge fantasy

rolling around in my head.  If we came upon

this scam again, I was going to pick up the

brush and walk away with it,  when the guy

came after it I would say, "This?  You want

this brush?  It is 20 lira!  Yes, my friend,

where you from?"

Perhaps luckily, it didn't happen again...