Not really a problem in Taiwan, but they are out there, and might be from China.
Yeah this comes up every couple of months. Be careful when queuing at the gate to the MRT and in night markets.
As I posted before pickpockets are not always nationals from a country, in Europe there has been a wave of South American pickpocket rings.
Well, the Chinese had gangs of beggars/ scammer making millions in Taiwan, coming and going every few months, counting on the generosity and charity of Taiwanese.
Picking on Japanese is like picking on children. Any tourists at all. Japanese stand out because of language and clothing, you can spot them a mile off and plan ahead.
Koreans and Hong Kongese travel in larger groups. SEA are fierce and more aware of their surroundings.
However, this gives Taiwan a growing bad reputation. For example, in Singapore I was told that they thought Taiwan was unsafe and had many thieves. That was from someone originally from the ol country. LOL.
And yes, we did have a couple of attempts by South American gangs to pick pocket here. They were caught easily - while citizens are not that paranoid, the cops are very much, thank you, and have a lot of technology at their disposal. I think the teams are still behind bars somewhere in Taoyuan…
Nevertheless, I am trying to become a but more careful with my bag and such. You never know. Though I never carry more than 200 USD equivalent on me. Heck, 100 USD would be pushing it.
Knew about being wary at night markets but I didn’t know pickpockets target victims here, too. I guess because foolish people tend to have their bags open to get to their easycard?
They began an investigation, started to review surveillance camera footage, and identified Dong as the suspect.
After several days of tracing his movements, they arrested Dong at the Zhongshan MRT station
I’d love to know how they analyzed so much video footage with so many people. Looks interesting.
In fairness it’s easy to become careless here. In other countries I’m much more careful about random thieves than I usually am in Taiwan - I just don’t think of pickpocketing as a problem here. Apparently I should change that approach.
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Yes and everybody looks in the same direction, waiting for their turn. Easy to slip behind you.
Taiwanese people are far too trusting. I’m definitely not as hypervigilant here as I would be elsewhere, but I’m still always on my toes.
I think the stupidest thing is when people just set their bags on the seat beside them and turn away to eat or talk to their friends or whatever. Put it in your lap or something! You should at least have one of the straps looped around your arm. Every time I see that I’m tempted to just take it myself.
Watch out for the innocent looking old ladies at the morning markets…
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One grandma has been pickpocketing for 40 years.
Once I met a young man in his early 20s who told me he’s been doing it for years after we got to talking. He says they usually do it to dumb looking people that look completely unaware of their environment. Either tourist who are paying attention to the new surroundings or just have that helpless look. also people who aren’t physically fit because if things go wrong they can just take off.
The only person I ever met who got pick pocketed is a Shanghainese mistress of a rich guy. Got her watch snatched in Barcelona. I heard in Europe they like to target Chinese tourist because they think they have money and are usually kinda clueless of things.
More like they target everyone. Asians are just the easiest to steal because everyone brings cash with them and people don’t speak the language (French or Italian or Spanish).
Well that person is an idiot. In Singapore no one thinks so.
They think every place is dangerous and dirty compared to Singapore
I think they are just really out of touch. There are pickpockets, homicide, rape, and trash in Singapore as well. They just like to think they don’t have it.
My wife is Asian and she never carries cash when we’re abroad. She can also speak French.
Good for her.
She’s the exception to your rules.
Ok?
Me?