Italian roadside scam

I have been overcharged at Petrol stations

The only time I've been short changed was at a filling station in Italy.   I handed in a 100Euro note.   They said I'd given them only 50.   Surprise, surprise none of them could understand English..

Thanks to both of you for flagging these scams.

Two years back when staying at Camping Rialto north side of Venice, my brother visited the local Lidl in his car for supplies. On returning to the car and loading up he found his front drivers side tyre flat. He'd only come 200m from the campsite. It was hot they had opened the car windows whilst loading it. After his wife helped him unload stuff from the boot and change the wheel she found her bag had been taken from the front seat. Another British car in the car park had also been done. At the tyre house my brother was told the tyre had been knifed. Obviously a scam. Fortunately my wife and I had walked to the supermarket rather than take the car. Would suggest have local police numbers handy when travelling in Italy. To rub salt in.. the tyre house did not have a matching tyre and could only fit a cheapo as we were leaving the next day. On his return home Red Pennant  would not pay for a matching tyre!

What you call a good catholic country

I have to report that exactly the same happened to my wife and I today. Unfortunately we weren't aware of the scam at the time. We were about 30 mins into a 3-4 hour drive, just outside Pisa, heading north towards Genoa. We over took a lorry and a car which was just in front, as I passed there was initially a smell of burning followed by an enormous bang, then the car I'd overtaken pulled out, flashing his lights and bibbing his horn. Quite disconcerting when your on a very busy motorway, with lorries everywhere and my first thought was either I'd had a blow out or a bike had fallen off my rear rack. I quickly pulled over and the car pulled in behind. The guy jumped out and claimed I'd moved over his lane and clipped his wing mirror. He said he could call the police, but that would take 1-2 hours or we can just agree an amount for the damage. He pointed to my van, which had a long black mark on it, but seemed to easily wipe off. All very odd, but it was about the right height and he showed me his mirror hanging off. I challenged him regarding the fact I was pretty certain I hadn't moved across, but he walked up and down the road markings to show how the van had moved.  He initially asked for €400, showing me a picture of a similar mirror on eBay, I said there's no way I'm paying that, but in the end we offered a lot less and he went in his way. Reflecting on all this as we continued our journey, I realised it was a scam. I'd like to think I'm not easily fooled, but they are well drilled, know that you'll be concerned about a loud bang and pull over, get animated in Italian, play on your decency and the fact your in a foreign country. Annoying, but I'm wiser now I guess. Anyway, please, please be alert to this if travelling in this area.

Someone's posted a story along the same lines.

https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-together/your-stories/ruebanya/wing-mirror-scam-in-italy/?er=P857347#P857347

Might be an idea for the club to post a warning about such scams in the magazine and overseas page. There are various scams knocking about. In Spain it involves offering to help to fix a flat tyre which they have messed with whilst you were paying for petrol or just stopping you to warn about something at the rear of the caravan before someone attempts to steal anything of value from the car. I've heard about similar ones to the wing mirror in Spain as well.