Shopping scams in Philippines

Expensive necklace scam in the Philippines

Sometimes no matter how much we try, the reason we lose many of our belongings when we travel is cos we are not aware of some travel scams out there. This one is a personal experience. I was in the marketplace right there in the Philippines many years back.

So I came across these beautiful necklaces. I loved them so much. The woman was going to sell it for very expensive price; about $80 when converted to USD. I tried negotiating with her and after a while she agreed to sell for $45. I was going to leave when she asked that I add $10 more. It was very annoying. I told her I wouldn’t do such that she should rather refund my money. Though she disagreed at first, but after wasting so much of my time, she refunded my money. That seemed easy right? Well it was a different story when I got to my hotel room. I realised she had stole about $15 from me. It was really funny.

Be careful of:
Locals that may want to extort you.
When going to public places, be sure to go with someone familiar with the environment
Marketplaces are full of scammers, do not completely trust strangers, no matter how old they appear.

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Fake Buko/Coconut Pies in Manila

There are fake Buko Pies (Coconut Pie) being sold in Manila. If you ever ride a public transportation in the Philippines, particularly buses it’s very common that they would ask you to buy one. There are also vendors in the streets or shops where you can find a Buko Pie. You would know that this is a fake one because when you see the ingredients, majority of the inside are just starch/flour and there are just few strips of coconut inside. A real coconut/buko pie is made of real coconut ingredients inside and consists of majority of it as you bite them. To avoid this instead of buying in the streets, buy in stores through malls and certified souvenir stores.

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