From the website of a Bucharest hostel:
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!!!
REMEMBER: 1 EURO=~4.3 LEI/RON/NEW LEI (THEY ARE ALL THE SAME THING)
There is a guy who scams travelers in Bucharest, please watch out for him and help us catch him!!! He is blond, tall, well dressed and speaks very good English, he says his name is Albert and he is Israeli.
He will sometimes tell you that Bucharest is dangerous and you should go with him, he will take you to a safer place/or the bus stop to Brasov cause that is safer. He also sometimes tells you that in our hostel has been a murder one night before and that you shouldn’t come here.
His usual story is that everything in Bucharest is closed for 3 days and you have to hurry up if you want to buy things or tickets . He then wants to take you to the “tourist park” and the taxi (it is probably a taxi hired by him) will charge you 300 lei (~90 euros) for a 5 minute taxi ride and take you back for the same price.
We need your help with this. Please try and get the NAME of the company or/and PLATE NUMBER of the taxi or a PICTURE of the guy!
Bucharest Life will be awarding prizes to anyone who helps in the apprehension of this man. We are assuming he hangs out at the station?
We will also be awarding a dunce’s cap to anyone foolish enough to be caught out by him. I mean, there’s naive, and there’s naive…
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m 25% Israeli too
I quite like the cut of his jib