# How to be safe while traveling

Traveling to a new place requires [general street smarts](safety-streetsmart.md), combined with some extra aspects.

Add safeguards to your possessions.

- Keep your phone and camera out of sight until you’re ready to use it.
- Keep an extra cellphone and wallet with you that you can give in the event of being mugged.
- Secure your wallet to your pants with a chain.

If you’re leaving your country, learn ahead of time what foreign internet service providers and customs agents can access on your phones and personal devices.

- Assess ahead of time what devices and data you *must* bring, and how you plan to connect to the internet and access your important information (e.g., [private VPN](computers-cysec-network.md), [authentication flash drive](computers-cysec-authentication.md))
Evaluate your personal threat model and make an informed risk decision about what devices and data to bring with you, and how you plan to connect to the internet and authenticate to your accounts while traveling (private VPN? Yubikey?)

Throughout your trip, try to stay low-profile.

- There are severe legal and social connotations for specific roles, so describe a more vague role to security, immigration, and customs enforcement.
  - If you're there to party or enjoy recreational drugs, you're there for vacation.
  - If you work in cybersecurity, you're in IT.
  - If you're a [missionary or pastor](mgmt-church.md), you're in marketing.

Always stay attentive to your surroundings.

- Never let your guard entirely down.
- Tourist areas all over the world often have pickpocket / scam activity and crazy traffic.
- It’s very easy in a strange city to get distracted by the sights or your map.

Poorer countries are particularly notorious for crimes against tourists.

- The people there can easily take advantage of tourists who don't know the local customs or social standards.
- You may think you're fine because *they're* doing something immoral, but they know [how the local law works](legal-safety.md) more than you.

## Watch service workers carefully

Service workers like drivers, waiters, and shopkeepers might drop your change and pick up similar-looking but less valuable coins.

A cashier can appear to talk to you while also on the phone while trying to take a photo of your credit card with their phone to reproduce later.

A cashier might count painfully slowly for you to impatiently take significantly less change than you're due.

Housekeepers may steal from you, so keep all valuables with you when you leave each day.

Pay attention to how much you're paying:

- Often, many vendors in poorer countries will place the price at about 75 *times* a legitimate market price for the item.
  - They know they can exploit your feelings of guilt, but even while they look poor, they're still doing *very* well for themselves.
  - If you still feel guilt, direct your money to a legitimate charity or church in the area.
- Some people offer cheap overnight bus trips, but will rummage through your bags and anything valuable while you sleep.
- Some taxi drivers take intentionally longer routes or go the wrong way to exploit a tourist's ignorance of the area to increase the fare, so get out if you see it.
- Taxi drivers sometimes use altered meters that run a higher rate than normal.

Your driver might convince you that your hotel is closed down:

- He might redirect you to another highly overpriced hotel in an awful location.
- He might guide you somewhere else where a jeweler will offer you very cheap gems, but the gems will be worthless.

## Watch for peculiar or unusually kind behavior

As a tourist, you are likely more conspicuous than you realize.

- Don’t wear clothing that identifies your point of origin or that you are a tourist (e.g., language, flags, distinct regional clothing styles).
- However, expect you're still conspicuous. People with [criminal minds](legal-crimes.md) become trained to spot tourists, even when they're trying to blend in.

If you want a stranger to take your picture, give it to someone you know you can outrun.

Unsolicited kindness could be a scam:

- Some people will give you something, and may even try cramming it into your hand, but do *not* take it unless you know the price.
- Rented and for-hire cars are often conspicuous in undeveloped countries, and some people will puncture a tire, flag you down to help you out, then steal from you while you're distracted.
- Taxi drivers might offer free drugs to you, then later fake policemen will threaten to throw you in prison unless you pay a "fine".
- A taxi driver might offer to help you with your bags but will then look like he's in a rush and will drive off with one of your inconspicuous smaller bags before you can notice.
- Generally, your safest bet is to have someone trustworthy as a paid guide.

Unsolicited kindness could also be theft:

- If you seem confused at a cash machine, a man will help you out but will memorize your PIN for when he picks your pocket later.
- Someone will drop a ring in front of you and ask if it's yours, then will inspect it when you say no and say it's real gold, then will charge more than it's worth to sell it.
- A pickpocket will warn you about people stealing cell phones and wallets, then watch where you instinctively grab for an accomplice to pick your pockets later.

Watch for pickpockets in packed areas like trains, concerts, and train stations.

Mind what people do at your lodging:

- Two men dressed as hotel staff will knock on your door for a routine room inspection, then one will distract you with conversation while the other will steal your valuables.
- Someone will slide a delivery food service menu underneath a hotel door with no intention to serve food, then will collect your credit card information from the order you've placed.

Watch for "free" things:

- Someone will forcefully start to make a bracelet on your wrist and then demand payment for it.
- Someone charming will offer a rose to your girlfriend at an unreasonable price and make you feel guilty for not buying it.
- Someone will drop their shoe brush for you to pick up for them, then thank you and shine your shoes in appreciation, then demand payment for it.
- An old woman will offer a sprig of rosemary and say it symbolizes friendship and will try to read your palm, then demand payment and curse you if you don't pay.
- A friendly musician will offer you a free CD, then will demand payment and intimidate you with his friends.
- If you're lying on the beach, someone might offer a free massage and give a free sample even if you decline, then demand payment.
- An attractive woman will approach a single man and ask if he wants to go to a bar or nightclub, then he'll get the bill at the end of the night.
- When you're at a table, a man might offer free peanuts and dump a pile of them on the table, then will demand payment as soon as you touch one.
- Attractive girls will want to practice their English with you and will return the favor by taking you to their favorite restaurants, then leave before the bill for an extortionate amount.
- If you're taking photos, someone may offer to take a picture of you and your companions, then either demand money for the service or run off with your camera.

Many beggars are con artists:

- Attractive girls will want to practice their English with someone, then their story will turn into a guilt-ridden sob story followed by a request for help.
- A small child will ask for a tourist to help write a postcard to family back home and make them feel sorry for him.
A large group of Gypsy children may surround and harass tourists until they give money.

If something feels out-of-place, it's usually for a reason:

- An identity thief might call your hotel phone (usually in the middle of the night) claiming to be the front desk, then say there's an issue with your payment and ask to verify your credit card information.
- When someone sees a wallet on the ground, their instinct is to reach for their wallet to see if it's safe, and someone will be watching to pick their pocket later.
- While waiting in a ticket line, someone dressed in official-looking clothes may offer a higher-priced ticket to bypass the line, but the tickets won't work.
- Some beggars ask for change to learn where you keep your money, then will pickpocket you later.
- Someone will hand you a broken camera and ask you to take a picture of them, then drop it as you hand it back when it doesn't work, and will then demand payment or pick your pocket in the confusion.

Someone distracting you could be stealing your things:

- Some street performers using a side-street cup game or magic trick to draw your attention, with audience members often accomplices to the theft.
- Someone might subtly spill ketchup or bird poop on you, bring it to your attention, then offer to clean it off.
- Someone might throw a baby or a doll wrapped like a baby at you for an accomplice to rifle through your bag.
- Official-looking fake policemen will approach you and tell you about counterfeit money circulating and ask for your wallet, then look through it and steal some of your money.
- Someone will try to sell you a map and unfold it in front of you to block your view while someone else picks your pocket.
- Children pretending to be deaf will ask you to sign a charity petition and will pick your pockets under the clipboard while you're writing.
- Gypsy children will try to sell you newspapers and open them up to distract you while they pick your pockets.

A man claiming to be a doctor might offer papers for sale that he'll claim will give a fraudulent [insurance](money-insurance.md) payout, but insurance companies are aware of this and won't pay a claim.