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Decoy Wallet
Talka
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm spending some time backpacking through Europe in a few weeks, and I'm trying to put together a decoy wallet in case of pickpockets / muggings. My real cash and ID is going to be in a moneybelt.
Ideally the fake wallet would have some expired credit cards and an expired photo ID to make it look more real. However, I always dispose of my expired credit cards and photo IDs as soon as they expire.
As far as I can tell, no online retailers sell decoy credit cards (for obvious scam-related reasons, I guess). And I don't see an easy way to get a photo ID of myself that I'd be comfortable having stolen. Any ideas?
Ideally the fake wallet would have some expired credit cards and an expired photo ID to make it look more real. However, I always dispose of my expired credit cards and photo IDs as soon as they expire.
As far as I can tell, no online retailers sell decoy credit cards (for obvious scam-related reasons, I guess). And I don't see an easy way to get a photo ID of myself that I'd be comfortable having stolen. Any ideas?
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You're more likely to get mugged anywhere you look like a tourist.
Also, you don't know where you are, what the "bad parts" of town are, what the local scams are ect.
I found an old student ID (just a picture and a school ID number, perfect). So I'm using that. Still no decoy payment cards though.
Not to be dense, but what is a variety store? Do you mean like a $5 Target gift card or something? That'd work and wouldn't be out of way, I guess.
If this is your primary concern, your best bet would be to rent a box at the airport on arrival and store an emergency stock of cash for that eventuality. A decoy wallet is really not an effective deterrent because there is no saying that they wont ask for more after they take your wallet.
Unless you are planning on going into some extremely seedy places, you should be fine without one so long are you are reasonably aware of your surroundings and don't draw a stupid amount of attention to yourself.
I think he's saying buy a couple of $5 prepaid visas which look like credit cards, although I agree with the rest of this thread that you're way to paranoid about this and I'll second the airport locker idea. Keep some cash there.
Having said that, that's what embassies and banks are for. If something happens and you get robbed, you go to one of those two places to get help and or money to get back home.
Lastly, just get traveller's checks, you can cancel them if they get stolen and get your money back. Or get prepaid credit cards, those can be cancelled like traveller's checks once you register them.
Since Europe is a geographical area that includes 50 countries ranging from dictatorships to countries that are the very model of civilized and safe places I agree on the statement only it really holds very little information. Yes there are places in Europe where one is more likely to get that mugged than in other places in the US, but with such generalization it is hardly information.
OP: I don't know where you are going but most of Europe is really very safe so other than keeping a separate copy of your papers and an extra credit card you should act like at home. The extra set of papers is just as much in case you drop/forget the original set, just as you'd want an extra different credit card in case there is a mix up or something and your normal one is blocked.
If you give slightly more details on where in Europe you're going then we can provide more info/tips.
Yeah, this was mainly in response to Esh's comment about "You're no more likely to get mugged in Europe than in the US" which I was just pointing out is entirely dependent on so many factors that you can't actually say that.
What variety stores sell these $5 prepaid visas?
Just like in America.
Kind of, but not quite.
I know what nice stuff looks like in America. And while I won't claim to be able to make an accurate judgment of any American neighborhood's crime rate just by walking into it, I will say it would be pretty easy for me to recognize a nice place.
I've also been to Italy, Germany, and several other places in Europe. In Italy especially, I would have literally no idea how to tell if the place I was at was a nice part of town. Everything looks so different there that it can become very difficult to gauge.
Also the stakes are higher if you get robbed while abroad.
Wal Mart, Target, CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, any large grocery store, some gas stations, pretty much anywhere sells them.
Eh, I never had any issues sussing out good and bad neighborhoods in Europe. Especially if you ask the locals. Knowledge about where you're going is the best defense, not some dummy wallet.
I don't disagree with you at all! But it's a nontrivial bit of streetwise required to have a god idea of where you should or shouldn't be in foreign cities. My point is that if you're traveling, you should learn about that sort of thing, because assuming you will know when you get here is unreliable.
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So you're saying that me looking down the street seeing nice houses and manicured laws and making a judgment like "this street is probably relatively safe to walk down" is worthless data unless I happen to get mugged?
That isn't comparable. In your example, you already know that manicured lawns mean safety. You're just bringing that knowledge to bear on your specific encounter.
Esh is doing the reverse: using a single encounter to infer that, in the general case, gut intuitions about safety abroad are reliable. It's the same reasoning as if I said you can tell what's dangerous abroad because I thought canals were dangerous and I got mugged near one. It's just one datum. That his gut intuition panned out doesn't mean mine will as well.
I'm not saying Esh is wrong (Europe really is pretty safe), but Tarnok is right to point out that that Esh's intuitions didn't neccesarrily protect him and that he could have just gotten lucky.
I spent six months there, so I wouldn't chalk it up to a "single encounter". Like I said though, ask the locals. They'll be a wealth of information about where to go and where not to.
The CVS across from my office didn't have any kind of prepaid payment card. I'm going to a Target over the weekend for some other stuff, I'll look there too.
My understanding of most muggings is that they're looking for cash, not credit cards or ID, so if you do end up in a situation where you get mugged, take out your decoy and take out the cash very obviously and keep the wallet.
Yeah exactly, it has less to do with Europe being some crime ridden shithole and more to do with that criminals everywhere tend to target people who look like they're tourists.
And if you want card like objects, if a grocery store has a rewards program, get two. You need it to look rectangular and plastic. That's it. They aren't going to look at it in when you are around.