Here are 6 Scams That Happen in Morocco and Ways to Avoid Them

Morocco is a popular destination that attracts culture lovers, couples, families, foodies and like every country on the face of the earth that has untrustworthy people, Morocco also has its share of it.

Here are 6 common scams that could happen when you travel to Morocco and ways to avoid them.

The fake nice guy scamIn Morocco, it is perfectly normal for young men with no work or studies to wait in the souks and prey on lost tourists. They offer to help you reach your destination and once you’re there, they demand a payment of 20 to 50 DH even though the average minimum wage in Morocco is 100DH for 8 hours work.
To avoid it, only ask the people inside the shops and for traffic/police officers for help. They are honest hard-working people who have no need to be pushy and harass tourists.
The obnoxious henna womenJemna El-Fna is the main square of Marrakech, which is where you will find offensive overweight ladies who will try to use their henna ink syringe on your hand without you noticing it and then ‘kindly’ offer to correct their mistake by giving you a full henna hand tattoo. Results and quality will probably be a low-quality one.
To avoid it: Be wary of any set of covered women that try to corner you. And even when it’s too late, just offer to pay in coins if you liked the tattoo or simply walk away if you didn’t.
The hidden price restaurant menu
This scam is in two different versions: The most common one is for waiters to lie to you about complimentary juice and bread been included in the meal only for you to be charged at the end for it. The second involves two different menus, each one with different prices.

When you first arrive you are given a menu with normal prices and once it’s time to pay,it is a different one with newly inflated prices and you have no other choice than to pay up

To avoid it: Don’t pay for the extra. Even the police already know about this particular scam. Just pay what you think your meal was worth and walk away.
The abusive taxi driversIn Marrakech, the law states that you should turn on the taximeter and yet, most taxi drivers will do their best to negotiate a price with you and will refuse to turn on the meter.
To avoid it: What is recommend is you could pay them with foreign coins and scam them by lying about their value. Tit for Tat.
The Guilt Tripping SalesmenAll tours (both official and unofficial) will assuredly stop at either a carpet factory or a tannery where the owners will delight you with hospitality and give you free mint tea while giving you a demonstration of how the carpets/leather items are made.
Eventually, they will use hard-sell tactics, including fake tales about how impoverished their families are, in order to make you buy their items which are extremely overpriced and the quality is sometimes even sub-par.

To avoid it: Politely decline the mint tea and explain that it is extremely unreasonable to carry a carpet in your backpack.
The Horse/Camel RidersSome of those horse/camel riders can also scam you by stranding you in a faraway place and demanding double the payment in order to return you to the main city or over-inflating prices for the same service that the locals charge lower.
To avoid it: You can just refuse to ride a horse/camel and if you somehow find yourself in such a situation, your best option is to hold payment until the very end and threaten the rider with calling the authorities if he tries to strand you in the middle of nowhere.