Finance site claims Spain is ‘scam capital of Europe’

SPAIN is the capital of Europe for tourist scams, according to a survey of 2,000 holidaymakers. More than 20 per cent of British tourists who responded said they had been victims of scams such as taxi rip-offs, pickpockets or tourist taxes, with France coming in a close second with 14.8 per cent reporting tourist scams and Italy third with 10.2 per cent.
The financial website, money.co.uk asked 2,000 Brits if they had been a victim of a scam while on holiday in Europe during the last year. Most of the scams involved either taxis overcharging (37 per cent), pickpocketing, street crime or general “tourist taxes” applied to travellers surreptitiously.
While Spain was number one for tourist scams, the UK had 5.4 per cent of scam victims, coming in eighth position in the top ten while both Armenia and Cyprus only had 4.4 per cent of tourist scams. A 2014 survey on the worst cities for tourist scams put Barcelona in first position with Paris and Rome ranked second and third respectively.