Have you experienced tourist scams and rip-offs?

No scamming but just ordinary beggars in Berlin. Those East-European manipulators, you know what I mean? They come annoying you 100 times with their hired children and prams until you get so crazy that you dump a dime. Really they should be arrested and brought back to their country despite of any bad financial situation or something.

In a poor country there might be expensive prices for the tourists and cheap prices for the local people. I read that in the Maldives plenty of the local people live on a dollar a day. The hotels on resort islands cost $70 to $150 a night budget and upwards to many hundreds of dollar each night. I visited the Maldives on a last minute flight. I went there because my booked flight to Mexico was canceled due to a hurricane. I think the boat trip fare to the island in a rip off. It is $150 one way. Accommodation was really expensive and that was the budget end of the market. On my travels I am sure in many different countries I have been ripped off by taxi drivers. For example I went over the border from Israel into Jordan and it was an expensive taxi ride into town. They told me in was a public holiday and there weren't any buses. I don't think that was true. When I was traveling in Poland I had it written down 'a second class train ticket to ...' but I was always provided with a first class ticket. Yes, reading the guide book is important. I didn't read about the danger of malaria in the part of Indonesia that I visited. I passed through a region and then read about the danger. I am pleased to say I didn't catch malaria.