Caribbean Cruise Line Presents Tourist Scams To Watch For: Fake Police Officer

Online, January 7, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Caribbean Cruise Line Scam Watch Reviews great vacation destinations, ways to save money on vacation, travel tips and tricks, travel scams to avoid and more. Caribbean Cruise Line is committed to bringing you information to assist in planning your vacation this year. As part of Caribbean Cruise Lines ongoing commitment to the industry, Caribbean Cruise Line destinations offers all kinds of travel advice. So without further ado, Caribbean Cruise Line Scam Watch brings you this new article.

At Caribbean Cruise Line, we are glad to offer you this article to assist you with your travel plans this year and we hope you have a great vacation. There are a lot of great tourist destinations out there, many of which are great and many have a lot of potential scams to look out for so we hope that you avoid any travel scams that are out there and at Caribbean Cruise Line we are doing our part to educate tourists about potential scams. The fake police officer is a common scam to look out for, particularly when traveling abroad.

We are all taught to trust the police. However, it is very easy for scam artists to pose as police officers and to use their authority to trick you out of your money. Here is one way they do it.

Most of these scams take place in popular tourist destinations such as those that Caribbean Cruise Line offer. If you are a tourist, you are not always familiar with the many law enforcement uniforms used in a particular country or city. This means it is very easy for anyone to put on something that looks official to fool you. In this scam, a person in uniform approaches you claiming to be a police officer. Her or she will tell you that there is a problem in the area with counterfeit money and will ask to check your purse or your wallet for any potential issues. They will do this all under the pretense of protecting you.

The fake police officer will then go through your purse or your wallet and will give it back to you announcing with the good news that everything is okay. However, a few minutes (or even a day later) you will notice that many of your bills are missing.

There are some other variations of this scam to look out for such as fake authorites at train stations, airports, roadblocks or official looking buildings. Sometimes they will even run off with your purse or your wallet as soon as you hand it over to them.

So how do you avoid becoming a victim of this crime? Caribbean Cruise Line recommends that to avoid this scam, you don't voluntarily hand your wallet or passport over to anyone, ever. Know what the local law enforcement uniforms look like and always ask for identification numbers and names if in doubt about someone's identity.