Helpful guide scam in Morocco

Demanded payment of 100DH for helping us find the street

Three years ago, I visited Casablanca, Morocco, with two of my best friends. Casablanca is a beautiful city with a rich cultural heritage. We arrived at the city late on a Sunday afternoon, and we headed for the hotel. After settling in at the hotel, we decide to do a short exploration of the city and to find some street food, which we could blog about on our YouTube channel.

After approximately half a mile from the restaurant, two well-dressed men (locals) approached us and in a friendly manner started a conversation with us. We told them we there visiting Casablanca for our food tour, and to our delight, they offered to show us the best places to find street food in the city. Delighted, we followed the young men, and to our surprise, we arrived at a street where there were numerous street food vendors.

After thanking the young men, we turned hurriedly turned towards the vendors but Alas! To our shock, the friendly young men turned towards us and started asking money for helping us find the street. Moreover, they demanded for payment of 100DH (approximately 10 Euros), and they became verbally violent when we offered them the 20DH we had on our possession. Luckily after a while, the indecent men left us, but at that moment we learned that we had been scammed.

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Train meeting

Talking with AMAZINGLY friendly people on the train from Casablanca to Fes. Then big tall Omah gets in. Wow. He works for the government tourist office and arranges Adam the young half Moroccan half New Zealand Maori volunteer who helps widows to guide us through the Médina for any donation. A very intimidating rug deal is pushed but we leave after a donation to the widows co op. We later pay Mouhommad 50% deposit for an overpriced tour that does not eventuate. They got peanuts but were chasing ten thousand dollars in rug sales ( that would not have been delivered ). THEY ACTUALLY ASKED FOR MY CREDIT CARD BEFORE EVEN A DEAL TRANSPIRED ( which never did ). Don’t even go into a rug shop or heaven forbid a stinking tannery. At least the PRODUCT in the rug shop didn’t stink! EVERYTHING ELSE DID!

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Encountered this in 2013, and the tout acted really well

I was a student then, and a naive traveller. I came over with two other friends to Tangier as a day trip from Tarifa, Spain.

Was walking through a market when suddenly, a very friendly Moroccan man approached me and asked me where I came from. After I told him my country, he exclaimed he has been there before and shared some things about it and that made me feel good – because it always feels good to encounter something familiar in an unfamiliar place, doesn’t it?

Once rapport has been built, he invited me to his place, I grew suspicious and thankfully didn’t have much time to spend at the market, and so rejected his advances. Even if I had time, I probably would not have followed him even though his act seemed very genuine and sincere.

After doing some research, I wondered what would have happened if I followed him, would I have ended up at a shop, or worse, fall for the home gambling scam?

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Dragged to their stores

Cabs. Friendly person who knows thr direction and bring you to their store. The airbnb we booked. Guy in the train who went inside our car and chat with us and asked us what “hotel” are we going to..thankfully i read about that..i read that they have people waiting for you at the station with your name and hotel’s name. That particularly one was scary. I said we are staying with friends. He left the car without even ending the conversation which actually proved that what I read is really happening there. People are just very nice, at first I really appreciated it but after getting dragged to their stores and getting cornered to buy, i had my hand up the whole time and immediately saying “NO” when approached.

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Now a lot more vigilant

I’d like to think I’m not a stupid man, however my 1st 4 days in Morocco (Agadir) forces me to reassess this.

Not only did I fall for the “Nice Guy Supermarket closed” scam, I actually followed the nice guy to another supermarket which was not a supermarket at all but a fairly rough looking built up area that we were ‘suddenly’ in, with several men around I thought I was going to have to fight my way out but it didnt come to that.

Also, we bought vegetable oil in the souk for 60DH, I also caught a light fingered kid behind us as a “tour guide” tried to show us what was on offer, and shouted at them, the moved off.

Morocco looks fantastic, great weather, lovely beach, mostly good food so far, just be really vigilant…

Im now a lot more vigilant for the remainder of my break here.

be careful.

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Lures women to this hostel with a nice guy routine

Watch out for the hostel hafid surfing spot! Beware of this man who lures women and mostly women to this hostel with a niceguy routine

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Any way i can find out whether this local guy is OK

We are just about to go to Marrakesh for a week and my friend wants to hire a local guy to take us to Essaouria. I have a contact who i have used before who is very dependable and professional. I want to use his services.

Having read the site’s comments, there is no way that i would go with the local guy without a recommendation. Is there any way i can find out whether this local guy is OK. i have his name, he is on facebook and instagram, but anyone can do that, it doesn’t prove anything. KB

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Very helpful for us

In the next months we will travel all around Morocco. So this post ist very helpful for us, thanks a lot! ?

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Very negative look at Morocco

Wow! That’s a very negative look at Morocco. I have been there 10 times over the past 3 years and never had any problems.

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