What scams should I watch out for in London?

London's street scams are fewer than in many European capitals, but a handful recur. The most common is the friendship bracelet trick on the South Bank and around tourist sites: someone ties a bracelet on your wrist before you can refuse, then demands payment. Walk past without stopping and don't engage. Three-card monte setups appear near Oxford Street and Southwark; the game is rigged without exception, and the surrounding crowd is often complicit. Fake "charity collectors" with clipboards approach tourists in Covent Garden and Leicester Square, pressuring donations or using distraction while an accomplice picks pockets. On the Tube, watch your phone at platform edges and on escalators, particularly at Piccadilly Circus, King's Cross, and Oxford Circus stations, where snatch thefts spike. Unlicensed minicabs outside clubs in Soho and Shoreditch overcharge and occasionally worse; use black cabs or the Uber and Bolt apps instead. ATM skimming is rare but present; use machines inside banks rather than street-facing ones.

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