Last March (2024) I went to Italy for ten days for my high school’s senior trip. My experience there was amazing as the country is both beautiful and very interestingly historic. A few days into the trip, I was walking by myself in dense Rome when a man holding a bunch of bracelets walked up to me and asked where I from. I told him I was from America, and he very positively was speaking with me and shook my hand. He then put an African-styled bracelet on me (by the way, he seemed to be African) and told me “You are African now.” I then laughed, said thanks and walked away, and not even 5 seconds later he walked back towards me and said that he needed money for his family. At that moment I realized that I was a part of his scamming sales scheme. When I realized that I also realized that I took for granted the notion that he was being real with me. Since up till that moment my experience in Italy was very good, I just assumed he was being real with me, but I was wrong. I did not give him any money; I just took the bracelets off, gave them back to him, and we walked away from each other. This experience taught me to be more skeptical of ‘seemingly really nice people,’ as often when things are ‘too good to be true’ they are not true.
2 thoughts on “Scammer in Italy”
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Hi Aidan! I have heard of scammers on the streets doing things like this before but fortunately I’ve never had this happen to me. That’s great that you were able to get out of the situation without giving the guy money. I wonder how many other people he scammed that day.
Hi aidan! This is a very interesting story! Italy sounds very cool! I agree with your comment about things being too good to be true that they are most likely not true. This is a good perspective of what you don’t want to do as a salesman being that trust is one of the most important parts of sales.