Brits warned of Christmas market ‘worst for scams’ – from pickpockets to pricing

Christmas markets have been opening all over the UK and Europe with celebrants enjoying mulled wine, delicious overpriced meals and gift-buying.

Some markets even have theme park rides and grottos – but, sadly, many also suffer with scams.

Tourists looking to travel to various Christmas markets should be aware of the various thefts and scams they could fall victim to while at the popular events. These include common crimes like pickpocketing and theft to reported scams that take your money.

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Some Christmas markets see a high volume of visitors, such as Budapest’s popular market which draws in over 800,000 people a year, and London’s Winter Wonderland, which sees more than 2.5million annually. Such large crowds can be a draw for scam-artists and thieves.

But, according to research by Radical Storage the Christmas Market that suffers with the most scams is Prague’s winter festivities. The study looked at over 1.2 million online tourist reviews, across 50 of the biggest and most popular Christmas markets around the world, looking for mentions of different scams.

The research looked at tourist scams and petty crimes including bag dipping, mobile phone theft, or pickpocketing, as well as street scams such as overcharging for bracelets or roses at Christmas Markets. Unfortunately, Prague, in the Czech Republic, came out on top for the highest scam rate – and the UK didn’t even feature in the top five.

Prague Christmas market draws in around 300,000 visitors each year – not least because it was found to be Europe’s cheapest market for booze. A beer costs just 75czk (£2.68) on average and a mulled wine is priced at 90czk (£3.22). That’s a fantastic price comparable with costs associated with cheap pub chain Wetherspoons here in the UK.

However, along with the great value comes a large proportion of scams. The Christmas market in Staromestske Namesti was found to have 582 reviews mentioning any type of scam. 472 of these mentioned pickpocketing – where personal items are sneakily removed from your bag or pockets.

The most common Christmas market scams:

• Pickpockets and bag snatchers making use of busy crowds.
• People asking for directions and using a map to cover their theft of sunglasses, cameras, phones, jewellery, etc.
• Being overcharged assuming you won’t check your change, or misled on price with ‘by weight’ sales tricks.
• People offering ‘free’ roses, leaves, or bracelets and then demanding payment.
• Fake friends offering to take festive photos only to then charge you for the privilege afterward.

Top 10 Christmas markets for tourist scams and theft:

1. Prague
2. Venice
3. Barcelona
4. Madrid
5. Rome
6. Stockholm
7. Cologne
8. London
9. Athens
10. Budapest

The best ways to avoid being scammed while enjoying a Christmas market include being aware of your surroundings, saying no to pushy salesmen or street sellers, researching your destination and making sure your possessions are close by and secured. You can use bum bags or money belts rather than bags and pockets to keep your cash and documents safe.

Giacomo Piva, travel industry analyst and co-founder at Radical Storage, said: "The findings of our research may be daunting, but it is important to remember that millions of tourists visit Christmas markets each year with no problem at all. It is just a small percentage of visitors that are impacted by tourist scams. However, there are a few steps that you can take to stay safe while traveling and ensure your trip isn’t impacted by criminals looking to take advantage. "

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