Conor Woodman’s Scam City exposes one seriously seedy underbelly, writes Dylan White.
The National Geographic Channel’s latest hit series, Scam City, sees international bestselling author, seasoned traveller and economist Conor Woodman explore the darker side of some of the world’s most famous landmarks, offering a city-by-city guide to getting ripped off by the many con artists that ply their trade at the expense of vulnerable tourists. Along with his undercover crew and hidden cameras, Woodman reveals the gritty underworld that attracts hundreds of millions of innocent tourists every year, ultimately making their holidays hell.The world’s greatest cities are home to rogues and rip-off merchants who fuel their everyday needs by conducting scams that are every tourist’s own worse nightmare. The guide books tell vacationers exactly what to see but carelessly neglect to mention the chapter the thieves don’t want written. Woodman’s investigation into the tourist trail highlights the charisma and dexterity of these criminals. By befriending the scammers, Woodman familiarises us with the tricks of the trade that allow these street dwellers to seek out easy victims and exploit them.Viewers are left astonished by how oblivious people are too these shady hoodlums, with the gullibility of foreign punters making them soft targets for the waiting scammers. Through the use of multiple camera angles, the undercover team pose with what look like tourist cameras, while actually staking out these notorious mobsters: “James Bond eat your heart out”.Woodman plunges himself into dangerous and unknown territory by allowing himself get scammed, robbed and conned in the hope that we the spectators won’t. Having travelled the globe writing about all kinds of trade, he has the expert skills and knowledge required to highlight the true magnitude of crime across many of the world’s most visited cities.The Scam City team expose the ruthless ploys used to steal your hard-earned holiday cash, all the while making for great television. In the city of Rome, Woodman discovers that tourism is part of a huge underground economy run by shadowy figures lurking in the background, all fighting tooth and claw over tourists’ money. With millions of euros up for grabs, it is not just Italians that operate scams on a daily basis. Things are clearly a little darker than they seem in the Eternal City.Woodman’s task in Barcelona sees him in drag on a pickpocket mission with a transsexual prostitute. The Catalan capital is home to a skilled set of conmen and thieves operating on the world famous La Rambla. The sheer volume of people walking up and down the street makes it a great hunting ground for pickpockets. Everyone here appears to be either a tourist or someone trying to make money from tourists. Despite the staggering number of robberies and Spain’s relaxed laws on petty crime, locals say whatever you’re looking for you can find it in their city, warts and all. Scam City fuses together an ominous picture of tourism, along with a feeling that everyday common sense can curb the most potential scams. The show indicates that there are smart and not very smart ways for the adventure seeker to travel. We can learn a great deal from seeing things through the eyes of the hustlers and swindlers who prey on tourists for a living.On the surface, everything seems so insignificant with guides scrapping with each other to sell tours, taxis charging overpriced fairs and tourists paying colossal amounts for souvenir photos. However, as much as we can appreciate the skill behind the art, we find the other side of this unscrupulous behaviour hard to deal with. Scam City leaves viewers feeling strangely conflicted, satisfied by the entertainment value of watching innocent bystanders get scammed, and yet somehow we feel guilty by it all.Conor Woodman is clearly a man on a mission. Scam City is Woodman’s extraordinary guide to the world’s hotspots, and how easily tourists can be fleeced and victimised by the multi-layered hustlers that linger around street corners. Woodman entertains and informs, in the process of warning that in the eyes of criminals, every tourist is a victim waiting to happen. Scam City is definitely a trip not to be missed.
