It happened in the blink of an eye \u2014 and I never even saw him touch my phone.<\/p>\n
I was sitting at an outdoor restaurant in Athens on a hot afternoon. My husband had just gotten up to go to the bathroom, so I was alone at the table. A man approached with a tourist map in hand, gesturing and mumbling something about\u2026 what? Possibly a tour? Who knows. He was persistent and aggressive, and he kept pointing to the map, trying to get my attention. I knew I didn\u2019t want any part of it \u2014 whatever it was, I could tell it was shady \u2014 and kept trying to wave him away.<\/p>\n
But I knew something was off. He was wearing long sleeves on a sweltering day, and that struck me as odd \u2014 but not alarming enough to make a scene. When he finally wandered off, I felt a wave of relief that my bag with my passport was still tucked under my arms safely in my lap.<\/p>\n
But then it hit me: My iPhone had been sitting right on the table, and now it was gone.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d used the map as a distraction and cover, likely sweeping my phone underneath while I was focused on keeping my valuables close. By the time I realized what had happened, he had disappeared into the crowd.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve traveled extensively, and I like to think I\u2019m pretty cautious and naturally skeptical, but this scam worked because it played on a simple moment of distraction. And according to local authorities, it\u2019s incredibly common, especially during peak travel seasons in tourist-heavy cities.<\/p>\n
Since then, I\u2019ve completely changed how I carry my phone while traveling. I now rely on a wearable phone lanyard that keeps my device physically attached to me at all times. And I affix AirTags to just about everything when I travel \u2014 from my passport to my luggage, and even my kids.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re traveling this spring or summer, especially in busy European cities, take my advice: Keep your phone off the table, wear your bag crossbody-style, and if someone seems unusually eager to show you a map\u2026 trust your gut and guard your gear.<\/p>\n
How to protect your stuff from travel scams this summer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It happened in the blink of an eye \u2014 and I never even saw him touch my phone.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4],"class_list":{"0":"post-41332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-europe","8":"tag-europe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}