A warning when driving on the continent...

[Wicker Man]

I know this is a well known scam, but its probably worth drawing it to people's attention again. It could so easily happen to any of us.

My brother is in Spain at the moment, with his wife in a hired car. Driving near Barcelona, and he get's a blowout. Stops the car, goes round to the back to check it and another car pulls up behind. Driver gets out to help him. At the same time, his accomplice opens the rear door and makes off with a bag containing passports, money, cards, phones etc. Its difficult to put a block on cards and phones when you don't have the details (or a phone)! The "helpers" were probably responsible for the blowout in the first place. There's lots of well reported variations on this scam.

Moral: ALWAYS lock the car if you need to get out, or if you're pulled over and approached - and always make sure you leave credit/debit card details, phone details, passport number etc with somebody trustworthy before you leave, so you just need to make a single call from the Police Station to get everything stopped.

[Alison01326]

That's an awful tale . I hope your brother is not too shaken up and can enjoy the rest of his trip.

Good advice though. We go one step further and leave a photocopy of all our documents with someone trustworthy so that if they need to fax them to us (ie via a hotel or police station). We also have credit card details, passport numbers, etc registered with a credit card insurance company so one call to them and everything gets stopped. I lost a credit card when I was on holiday in Florida once and they arranged for a temporary replacement to be couriered to me and I had it in two days.

[umbongocat]

Moral: ALWAYS lock the car if you need to get out, or if you're pulled over and approached - and always make sure you leave credit/debit card details, phone details, passport number etc with somebody trustworthy before you leave, so you just need to make a single call from the Police Station to get everything stopped.

eeeek! sounds awful, hope it didn't ruin their trip too much. I drive to France a lot as I have family there and never thought about things like that happening. Will remember next time to leave copies of everything with someone ... thanks for the good advice!

[gasace]

I copy passports and other documents then email them to myself. Always available as long as you remember the password.

Gasace