Florence Painting Scam 🇮🇹

■ ITALY, FLORENCE: Florence, being a city of incredible architecture and monuments, is rife with a sinister scam perpetrated on mainly unsuspecting Asian tourists (whom for reasons of being non-confrontational often fall for it) by foreign scammers. Here's how it works:

1. Tourist walks around in awe looking UP at the buildings
2. Scammer puts cheap print outs of famous paintings on the road
3. Tourist un-intentionally steps on them
4. Tourist is then shaken down and surrounded by goons extorting him for money

As I witnessed this scam for the 4th time in just a few days without anyone stepping in to help the victim, I decided to intervene on behalf of the poor Japanese / Chinese man being shaken down for cash he'd rather spend at legitimate businesses. Here's what ensued un-edited.