Ripping off Tourists in NYC - "We're Just a Venue"

Looking for amusement on a vacation? You could be disgusted instead. BUT...you're a rich tourist, right? It's YOUR fault for not knowing everything about the place you've never been.

That Muslim charging $30 for a hot dog and a pretzel? YOU didn't have to buy it, ha ha. Your fault if you don't know a vendor down the block has it for $4.

Being charged $5 for a map to Central Park? YOU should know that authorized park kiosks charge $2 for a big detailed map and also give away FREE ones that are almost as good?

How about being charged $200 to ride to Staten Island Ferry as much as you want all day...only to discover that there's actually NO admission charge at all??

Here's the tail end of an article on rip-offs done NOT by sneaky weasels in trench coats, but by brazen bastards in uniforms! Yes, these black crooks proudly wear SJQ uniforms and look like legit tour guides, as they scam, scam and scam. Sausage and scam. $30 hot dog and prezel and scam. Scam and scam.

When I first saw the story on TV, I though the black thug pictured above was some slick middle-aged white guy. No. A black guy IN UNIFORM.

What do you expect in a world where ticket scalping...once secret and illegal...is now fully endorsed and goes on via the Internet on eBay and StubHub and everywhere else??

Who is protecting tourists? New York City officials? Obviously not. They don't protect their own citizens either. "Psychics" can set up a storefront and swindle some immigrant of every cent. The city is tacitly endorsing a conjob. There's no "test" for who is a psychic. No license. Just set up your business, and read Tarot cards and declare "You've got tainted money in your wallet, give it all to me," and ho ho hee hee.

Guys walking around the street demanding money? Only "aggressive panhandling" is against the law, and who is going to determine that? A bored cop who won't show up and if he did, wouldn't see the wily panhandling even asking for a penny?

Shrug shrug. "Let the buyer beware." That's why all along Fifth Avenue there are rip-off electronics and antiques shops that sell fakes, or charge for extras included in the box: "Yes, $599 for an Apple computer, but $99 for the cable, $399 for the screen...and no, not sold separately, all in one box. You pay with credit card and then watch us steal your identity."

Do you need to know WHAT sort of people own these stores? Don't answer "whites."

Tourists are the most vulnerable people since they're not going to hang around waiting to testify. They can be robbed, raped and swindled, and their souvenir to bring home is...that they got home without being in a body bag.