While at L%26#39;Etoile I wanted to renew my travel card known as Paris Visit for just one day. The charming lady behind the cash desk gave me a ticket for E8.50. I assumed that this was a day ticket. Actually it turned out to be a ticket for a single trip (normally E1.60) that had been taken out of a book of 10 tickets (un carnet) and was worth only E1.20. OK so this is not such a big deal but it did leave a sour taste in my mouth.
Also beware of the %26quot;gold%26quot; ring scam when a confidence trickster taps you on the shoulder and asks you if you have dropped your %26quot;gold%26quot; ring. Since you say no, he will then sell it to you for about E50 as he has no time to go to a jewler. Don%26#39;t fall for it as the ring is gold coloured rubbish.
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While we were at the Place de la Concorde my husband was approached by a young boy of about 12 years old who was holding a rather large gold ring. We both were aware of the gold ring scam and my husband told the kid to get lost. He went on to his next victim. Thanks to TA posters we were aware of this scam. I%26#39;m sure there were some in the large crowd not so lucky.
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we were at the eiffel tower on friday and were caught in the gold ring scam, but to the trickers suprise we gave him the ring back and told him it was his lucky day!! he almost shoved the ring in my pocket so i took it and walked off laughing, much to his anger....anybody want to buy a curtain ring...going cheap...
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Hard to believe, but this ring scam works because people are greedy.
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We were in Paris for over a week in May and ran across the ring scam almost every day. These people are really prevalent on the paths along the Seine. They usually work in pairs - their partner sitting or standing nearby. We just laughed in their face - and when we saw them stopping other tourists we would go up to them and clue them in on the scam.
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Here is a picture of the ring scam during my trip to Paris
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31620476@N08/2998123628/
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This ring scam must work because when we were in Paris in May 2009 we saw it five times in a two hour spam. The first time it looked like a lady found a ring in front of us but said nothing and kept walking. About five minutes later, as we walked along the Seine, a young woman of Middle Eastern appearance, %26quot;found%26quot; a ring just in front of us. She was rather insistent on us taking the ring and finally walked away at our refusal. A while later it was a young couple that %26quot;found%26quot; a ring each just ahead of us near some other tourists who refused to take it. Later a Middle Eastern man attempted to give us another ring. The rings are like a rather large gold wedding band.
We were curious to know what it was all about so I checked tripadvisor.
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Don%26#39;t be sour on a whole city over 2 euro....it%26#39;s never fun to be scammed, but there are far worse you could have been a victim of....
Sean
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%26gt; ... so i thought it was my lucky day... %26lt;
And that%26#39;s why it works.
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it is stupid but no more of a %26#39;scam%26#39; than those ubiquitous rose sellers in restaurants which I find equally annoying
why would you give someone money for a ring they %26#39;found%26#39; -- if not because you are hoping to beat them out of something valuable? so who is trying to scam whom and who is greediest here?
a friend of mine paid one Euro and sold her ring for about 15 (she makes jewelry and thus has an outlet for sales) -- the one I was handed -- and handed back -- I took it out of curiosity to see what happened next, was clearly a piece of junk -- that anyone thinks it is a %26#39;deal%26#39; is beyond me
I do feel some pity for marginal immigrants without means of support -- but I save my donations for buskers who do things that make the world a better place e.g. saxophonists in the metro
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