Some travel scares in the Philippines

[MarJhi 919]

In my trips to the Philippines, my experience is that the number of people trying to scam me was extremely low. And among the very few who did try to get one over on me, which was usually a taxi driver, they were trying to over charge me by 20 pesos at most.  I am NOT going to get in a heated confrontation in someone else's country where I am the outsider over what amounts to 40 cents, you cannot win in those scenarios and it's not worth it. 

 

I only had one guy attempt to scam me out of an amount of any significance from a guy at a mall but you could see him coming a mile away. And he was extremely persistent, it wasn't easy to get rid of him but eventually he gave up.

 

Another encounter was at the Museum of Natural History in Rizal Park. I was alone that day because my fiancé was working, so I went to check it out. This was another thing I read about before going.  There was a guy (the boss) around 30 years old in the park with 4 kids, all boys between the ages of 8-10 years old. While I was waiting for the museum to open, he would send a boy up the steps where I was waiting and have that boy ask for money. When I said no to the first boy, he would just walk away, then he would send the next boy and the next, each becoming more and more aggressive than the one before. Then he sent the last kid who was extremely aggressive, he would not take no for an answer and yelled "you have money,  I know you have money,  give me money". I think the goal was to make a scene so that I would get embarrassed and give some money. Anyway, luckily the museum opened and the security guards came out and chased them away. Rizal park had a lot of homeless people and I worried that if I dug into my pocket to give money to those kids that I would be inundated by other people.

[flicks1998 1,044]

1 hour ago, MarJhi said:

In my trips to the Philippines, my experience is that the number of people trying to scam me was extremely low.

From a tourist perspective, the scams are relatively low level and for relatively small amounts.  Dealing with taxi's I just let them run the meter fast and then paid them the correct fare at destination.  They could scream and holler all they wanted, I just got out and walked away.

 

The real scams can come when you are living and working there.  The company I worked for would not allow me to drive.  They would not allow me to be with any government officials or in govt departments alone.  If I was going to Immigration or Customs, or wherever, I always had to have one of our local workers with me.  It did not matter if it was a more senior or junior person.  It just had to be someone who acted as my witness.  This made a huge difference in not being put into any compromising positions.  This was also the case with Philippine landlords, I was never allowed to be with them alone, although we had company approved real estate brokers and that was OK as they had been thoroughly vetted.  There are massive scams and corruption at these levels when the type of transactions can be large.

[AnnamaeRobert 11]

I have been to Manila three times but I am never bothered by beggars or scammers because I am Mexican and they confuse me for being Filipino and people think I am a local. 

 

It is quite funny when people talk to me in Tagalog and I stare at them with a blank look. They look back at me as if I am dumb. 

[BadAmmoWitch 208]

13 hours ago, MarJhi said:

By the way, is it just a coincidence your profile name has the word "ammo" in it and security found ammunition in your fiancés bag?

Coincidence. "BadAmmoWitch" is an anagram for my name.

[Palawan 130]

On 6/6/2022 at 5:40 PM, MarJhi said:

In my trips to the Philippines, my experience is that the number of people trying to scam me was extremely low. And among the very few who did try to get one over on me, which was usually a taxi driver, they were trying to over charge me by 20 pesos at most.  I am NOT going to get in a heated confrontation in someone else's country where I am the outsider over what amounts to 40 cents, you cannot win in those scenarios and it's not worth it. 

 

I will not allow anyone to scam me or get away with it, but thats me

 

My nephew whom is rather mild manner, doesn't smoke or drink will not let anyone take advantage of him in the Philippines, he threatens them with force.   

 

If you do get in fight over there, make sure you have back up, (someone watchng your back) you will never have one or two guys fight you, they have to have a crowd of them in order to attack.  You must watch for knives as well.

 

 

 

 

[MarJhi 919]

2 hours ago, Palawan said:

I will not allow anyone to scam me or get away with it, but thats me

 

My nephew whom is rather mild manner, doesn't smoke or drink will not let anyone take advantage of him in the Philippines, he threatens them with force.   

 

If you do get in fight over there, make sure you have back up, (someone watchng your back) you will never have one or two guys fight you, they have to have a crowd of them in order to attack.  You must watch for knives as well.

 

 

 

 

Well like I said, if some taxi driver wants to overcharge me by 20 pesos it's not worth the trouble. Keep in mind I would typically tip a taxi driver 100 pesos, but if they overcharge me they are actually losing money because I am not going to tip. The driver who tried to rip me off for 20 pesos pretended he didn't change. My fare was 380 pesos, I gave him 400 and he said he didn't have change. What he didn't know was that I was going to tip him the 20 pesos back plus 100 pesos. I don't offer the tip until AFTER I get my change and see what the service was like. 

 

As for the threatening force, having backup with me at all times and so on, I guess I just was able to stay out of those situations. 

[Palawan 130]

On 7/29/2022 at 12:53 PM, MarJhi said:

Well like I said, if some taxi driver wants to overcharge me by 20 pesos it's not worth the trouble. Keep in mind I would typically tip a taxi driver 100 pesos, but if they overcharge me they are actually losing money because I am not going to tip. The driver who tried to rip me off for 20 pesos pretended he didn't change. My fare was 380 pesos, I gave him 400 and he said he didn't have change. What he didn't know was that I was going to tip him the 20 pesos back plus 100 pesos. I don't offer the tip until AFTER I get my change and see what the service was like. 

 

As for the threatening force, having backup with me at all times and so on, I guess I just was able to stay out of those situations. 

I am the same way with tips, I try to be generous but if the said person whether it be a taxi, buying food, trying to put extra things on the bill then I don''t tolerate it. In my mind if you let a person in the Philippines scam you, then they think its ok to scam the next tourist.  Like I always tell them, if you came to USA I would never try to scam you, why do you think it's ok to scam a tourist in your country.  

[Palawan 130]

On 7/29/2022 at 12:53 PM, MarJhi said:

As for the threatening force, having backup with me at all times and so on, I guess I just was able to stay out of those situations. 

We were at a gas station waiting on gas, another car pulls up and tries to cut in front of us, clearly blantant.  Thankfully it was me and my relative and the other guy had him and his buddy, well we got into a confrontation, he was driving some type of truck and he quickly ran to the back to get a jack to fight with,  That is the kind of stuff you have to deal with in the Philippines.  As I said if you do get into confrontation it seems they will only want to fight if they can outnumber you, or if they can get some type of weapon.  

 

 

[MarJhi 919]

4 hours ago, Palawan said:

I am the same way with tips, I try to be generous but if the said person whether it be a taxi, buying food, trying to put extra things on the bill then I don''t tolerate it. In my mind if you let a person in the Philippines scam you, then they think its ok to scam the next tourist.  Like I always tell them, if you came to USA I would never try to scam you, why do you think it's ok to scam a tourist in your country.  

Well unfortunately its a problem here in the US also. Go to any major city, tourist destination or anything like that and you will run into scammers. 

[Cyberfx1024 7,978]

On 6/6/2022 at 9:53 PM, AnnamaeRobert said:

I have been to Manila three times but I am never bothered by beggars or scammers because I am Mexican and they confuse me for being Filipino and people think I am a local. 

 

It is quite funny when people talk to me in Tagalog and I stare at them with a blank look. They look back at me as if I am dumb. 

My wife gets the exact same response from Hispanic people here in NC. She and our kids look Hispanic. So they always confuse her for being a Latina. She gets stopped almost every week by people speaking Spanish to her. 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2022 by Cyberfx1024

[Cyberfx1024 7,978]

On 7/29/2022 at 11:29 AM, Palawan said:

I will not allow anyone to scam me or get away with it, but thats me

 

My nephew whom is rather mild manner, doesn't smoke or drink will not let anyone take advantage of him in the Philippines, he threatens them with force.   

 

If you do get in fight over there, make sure you have back up, (someone watchng your back) you will never have one or two guys fight you, they have to have a crowd of them in order to attack.  You must watch for knives as well.

 

 

 

 

Fighting with knives is a very common way of settling disputes in the Philippines unfortunately. Just like using a firearm is here in the USA

[Palawan 130]

On 7/30/2022 at 11:05 AM, MarJhi said:

Well unfortunately its a problem here in the US also. Go to any major city, tourist destination or anything like that and you will run into scammers. 

We don't have that in my city, but I don't live in Chicago or New York

[Palawan 130]

My wife/sister took taxi from Davao Airport to Digos, About 1 hour trip.  They are not from the area so they don't know it, the taxi driver after the ride wanted an extra 200 peso from them, claimed it was something to do with parking in security area. Thankfully they didn't pay.

 

 

[Palawan 130]

I was in Phillippines to visit my relative, haven't seen him since PI Locked down.  He building a rather large house.

 

He has had to hire security gaurd to watch the workers, they were stealing gas and material off the job site.  He had a crew of about 15 working at the time I was there, I would say they are 70% finished.

 

Pay rates for skilled labor is $10 per day, and unskilled workers is $7 per day, they work 6 days per week and he provides lunch.   Will take about one year to get the house finished.  After watching his scenario go down, no way I would ever build anything in the Philippines, he has to be on the job night and day to make sure they don't do substandard (Philippines Style) work.

 

I see all these guys on the YouTube buidling house for $60K  to $100K US Dollars, I suspect these are built Philippines style and not very sturdy.  He will spend $400K USD on a house build

[Cyberfx1024 7,978]

On 7/31/2022 at 9:47 AM, Palawan said:

After watching his scenario go down, no way I would ever build anything in the Philippines, he has to be on the job night and day to make sure they don't do substandard (Philippines Style) work.

If you go over to the expat forum in the Philippines sub this is a very common problem people have with trying to build a house in the Philippines. You have to be there or have someone there that knows that's going on 100% of the time. If you do not then it will be a substandard build