Quick story (knowing that "data" is not the plural of "anecdote"): A few years ago, we went on a group trip to Central/East Europe. In Budapest, right by Saint Steven's church, one of our group noticed that her passport was missing. (We'd just arrived in Budapest that day, and hadn't yet been to the hotel, where we could lock things up.) A few minutes, she was approached by a woman who said she'd found the passport and clearly wanted to paid for giving it back. We were pretty sure that the woman (or a confederate) had stolen it in the first place as part of an ongoing scam.

I have never had my purse snatched and the only time anyone tried to steal from us outside the US was when we were in Barcelona. I read about this one before we went:

Barcelona Pick pocketing - The infamous Bird Poo Scam

We, too, were robbed in Barcelona. While crossing Mallorca Street at Napols, we were splashed with a liquid that looked and smelled like bird poo. A man in his 20's, walking behind us, said he had witnessed a bird flying over. He offered to go to his apartment & get us water. We stood in what we thought to be the lobby of his apartment (he had a key to the building) while he helped us clean. We then took a cab back to our hotel, only to find that we had no money to pay the driver-we had been cleaned of our money and credit cards by that helpful guy. The next day, we went back to the same area and met 4 people who had just been robbed in the similar manner. This time, the robber was on a motorcycle. He, too, offered them water for cleaning, entered a different building with a key and helped them clean. Between the 6 of us, we lost almost €1,000.00, plus credit cards and other ID. As earlier reported, the Barcelona police weren't interested in investigating these crimes. Even though we had excellent details (addresses, descriptions) to report to the police, they couldn't be bothered investigating. These thieves are very accomplished and the scam is designed for robbing couples. Tourists beware-Barcelona is fraught with crime and the police are of no help.

So when someone tried it on us, I took his picture and told him that I knew all about this scam <g>.

Andy, however, did have his passport stolen at Schiphol back in 2000 when we were working over in Holland.