If you travel to Europe this summer, beware of this:

[DFW]

72. Sounds a little like Quito

Although Medellín sounds worse. I actually found the people in Ecuador to be wonderfully friendly, but my Spanish is pretty much on a level of native fluency (I lived and went to school in Spain for a while), so I'm sure that helped.

Except for parts of the Balkans, the rules for some of the hairier parts of Latin America are probably a lot more laden with caution than what they are here in Europe.

My OP was more a warning for people coming here who do not know Europe well, don't know the customs or the rules, speak only English, and have never heard of the scam I described. I sure have never heard of it being used in North America anywhere.

To the one poster who wrote the "oh you poor little rich kid, having to watch out for thieves and scammers" post--I wonder how many times you have had it happen to you on another continent, as some others on this thread have. I'm sure you think it's fun to nail a Greenpeace poster to your wall, or watch MTV from Mommy's living room, or whatever it is that gets you your jollies, and to never get out into the real world, but for those of us who live there, we do have to contend with stuff like this, and forewarned is forearmed. If anyone has had some lowlife trick tried on them and wants to pass the warning on, I'm always grateful for it.