Two important lessons learned in Rome

[crenee44]

We had a fantastic time in Rome pre and post cruise and I will write up a trip report later. However, I wanted to share two important warnings for others.

 

First, watch out for fake transport drivers, especially if they show up super early and in the wrong vehicle type. We got off the ship earlier than expected and had 45 minutes until the time I had told our drivers to pick us up, which was 10 am . We had a large group and needed two vans. About 9:25 a driver arrived in a sedan, had a sign with our name on it, and knew the address of our hotel. He told us there was a mix up and the vans would be an hour and a half away. Or some of us could go in his car and the rest could take a taxi.

 

Not wanting to get so far off schedule and believing he was the driver we hired, we chose the second option. He walked over to the taxi stand and found a driver for us. We had no reason to suspect he wasn’t sent by the transport company. Besides he had our name and destination. It wasn’t until we got a phone call at the hotel from the transport company wondering why we stood them up that we realized there was a problem.

 

We have no idea who the other driver was or how he got our information. We are just relieved that we made it to the hotel in one piece with all of our belongings and paid the fake driver in cash so no credit card info was exchanged.

 

I don’t know if this is a common scam, but I wanted to let others know what happened so they hopefully avoid a potentially bad situation.

 

Second, be very very careful when crossing the street Rome. Unfortunately, we saw a man who we assume had been hit and killed in the middle of the street. We think it had just happened because there were police officers standing near him, directing traffic but no emergency vehicles were on the scene yet. We think he was a scarf vendor because there was pile of colorful scarves at his feet. It was rather gruesome and heartbreaking. A family out there is in morning because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So please, use caution while walking.

[euro cruiser]

It sounds like the vendor you contracted with may have been the source of the information leak - who else would have had access to your name, the time, date and ship you would be arriving on, and the hotel you were going to? They may have a rogue employee in their office, or their system may have been hacked.

 

As for the death in Rome, how sad and what an awful thing to witness. Of course everyone should be careful crossing streets everywhere in the world. If this person was a street vendor, it's quite possible that they were selling illegally and ran when they saw police coming, darting out into the road without looking. I've seen the vendors grab their stuff and run from authorities in Florence and especially in Barcelona ... they're in a big hurry to get away. We tourists play into that problem when we buy from illegal street vendors.

[wantocruisemore]

We had a fantastic time in Rome pre and post cruise and I will write up a trip report later. However, I wanted to share two important warnings for others.

 

First, watch out for fake transport drivers, especially if they show up super early and in the wrong vehicle type. We got off the ship earlier than expected and had 45 minutes until the time I had told our drivers to pick us up, which was 10 am . We had a large group and needed two vans. About 9:25 a driver arrived in a sedan, had a sign with our name on it, and knew the address of our hotel. He told us there was a mix up and the vans would be an hour and a half away. Or some of us could go in his car and the rest could take a taxi.

 

Not wanting to get so far off schedule and believing he was the driver we hired, we chose the second option. He walked over to the taxi stand and found a driver for us. We had no reason to suspect he wasn’t sent by the transport company. Besides he had our name and destination. It wasn’t until we got a phone call at the hotel from the transport company wondering why we stood them up that we realized there was a problem.

 

We have no idea who the other driver was or how he got our information. We are just relieved that we made it to the hotel in one piece with all of our belongings and paid the fake driver in cash so no credit card info was exchanged.

 

I don’t know if this is a common scam, but I wanted to let others know what happened so they hopefully avoid a potentially bad situation.

 

Second, be very very careful when crossing the street Rome. Unfortunately, we saw a man who we assume had been hit and killed in the middle of the street. We think it had just happened because there were police officers standing near him, directing traffic but no emergency vehicles were on the scene yet. We think he was a scarf vendor because there was pile of colorful scarves at his feet. It was rather gruesome and heartbreaking. A family out there is in morning because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So please, use caution while walking.

 

 

Do you mind sharing which transport you used? We have private transfers scheduled for our trip this summer. Also, our transport company indicated they would use my first and last name. Did the fake one? Also, were the fake driver's charges in line with what you would expect to pay? Did the driver have any identifying uniform or logo on?

 

I guess my question is are you sure the driver was fake or could someone at your transport company have sent someone when the vans were delayed?

[letsgo39]

My first thought on this is that the driver really was from the correct transfer company and that the confusion was just at their office.

[Hlitner]

We think hiring a transfer from Civitavecchia into Rome makes little finanical sense since its quite easy to get to the Civitavecchia train station and a BIRG ticket (round trip train to Rome plus all day use of Rome's buses and metro) only costs about 9 Euros. Having a car/driver in Rome can actually be a liability depending on the traffic.

 

Hank

[KirkNC]

Your comments on the traffic are good points for all of Italy. We found Naples to be even worse than Rome. Luckily we are still quick enough to get out of drivers way.

 

Kirk

[aohkay]

In Tangier, our guide met us on foot by the ship. We then had to walk outside the gates where there were lots of taxi's. Our guide chose a taxi (obviously someone that he liked and trusted) and we all got in. Our guide paid our driver separately. A different scenario that yours for sure, but my point is, perhaps your sedan and taxi were "sub contracted" to different drivers? This could or could not be common practice, but thank you for the warning just the same.

 

In Europe the pedestrian does not have the right away. :(

[Imagineer]

...traffic in Rome is most definitely crazy and makes for quite an experience. We saw numerous accidents involving Vespas or motor scooters while on a private tour, our driver said they refer to Vespa drivers by an Italian slang term that means 'organ donor'...

...so definitely be careful and watch out on Italian streets...

 

cheers,

 

the Imagineer

[phillygirl63]

When we used a private tour company (a very reputable one), our driver met us just outside the ship. There were many many other drivers waiting for their fares. He told us that certain driver's were not licensed by the City of Rome and that those drivers were not permitted to enter the area where he met us. If the OP booked with a reputable company, I don't believe this scam artist could have gotten away with it. I wonder if the driver was in that designated area or outside where all the taxis wait.

 

As for the scammer getting your personal information, just think of what is written on the roll calls. Many people talk about what tour company they are going to use, what hotel they are going to stay at, and give their first names. Maybe the private companies can come up with a secret code word known only by them and you that would confirm that they are who they are supposed to be.

 

I am sorry this happened to the OP, and maybe we can all learn something from it for the future.

[crenee44]

We are thinking it was either the rogue employee/hacker theory or miscommunication within the company. We would lean toward a miscommunication as the simplest explanation is usually correct and it would have been a pretty elaborate scam for relatively little pay off, but we got both a phone call and an email saying it wasn’t their driver. Although I guess those could have been sent before the mix up was discovered.

 

To answer a few of the questions…

-He was in the designated area where the private drivers wait so he had to have the proper paperwork to get down there.

-He had a handwritten sign with our last name on it, just like all of the other drivers waiting for clients.

-If it had been just DH and I we probably would have taken the train, but we were a group of 10 mostly inexperienced travelers, one with mobility issues and we all had way too much luggage. We felt in our case transfers made sense.

-I prefer not to name the company because I don’t want to tarnish the reputation of someone who may have also been a victim in this case, especially since they were the ones who really lost time and money. However, they were recommend by more than a couple posters on here and had great reviews on Tripadvisor and other sites. The service provided on the way to the ship was excellent.

-I tried to be careful of the info posted online, although I don’t have time to go through all of my posts to see if I mentioned the hotel or something. It is very possible I did. It is unfortunately very true that a determined person can piece together a lot of information online if they want to for whatever reason. I do know that when I was requesting quotes for the transfers I didn’t list the name of the hotel, only the general area, and I know I didn’t put a time, so I don’t think that was how they got the info. Besides, they all would have known the size of the group and sent more than a sedan.

 

In the end, while it was all very odd, no one was physically harmed so it wasn’t a huge deal. It hardly ruined our trip.

[aohkay]

We are thinking it was either the rogue employee/hacker theory or miscommunication within the company. We would lean toward a miscommunication as the simplest explanation is usually correct and it would have been a pretty elaborate scam for relatively little pay off, but we got both a phone call and an email saying it wasn’t their driver. Although I guess those could have been sent before the mix up was discovered.

 

To answer a few of the questions…

-He was in the designated area where the private drivers wait so he had to have the proper paperwork to get down there.

-He had a handwritten sign with our last name on it, just like all of the other drivers waiting for clients.

-If it had been just DH and I we probably would have taken the train, but we were a group of 10 mostly inexperienced travelers, one with mobility issues and we all had way too much luggage. We felt in our case transfers made sense.

-I prefer not to name the company because I don’t want to tarnish the reputation of someone who may have also been a victim in this case, especially since they were the ones who really lost time and money. However, they were recommend by more than a couple posters on here and had great reviews on Tripadvisor and other sites. The service provided on the way to the ship was excellent.

-I tried to be careful of the info posted online, although I don’t have time to go through all of my posts to see if I mentioned the hotel or something. It is very possible I did. It is unfortunately very true that a determined person can piece together a lot of information online if they want to for whatever reason. I do know that when I was requesting quotes for the transfers I didn’t list the name of the hotel, only the general area, and I know I didn’t put a time, so I don’t think that was how they got the info. Besides, they all would have known the size of the group and sent more than a sedan.

 

In the end, while it was all very odd, no one was physically harmed so it wasn’t a huge deal. It hardly ruined our trip.

 

I admire your attitude. :)

[Jems797]

Okay, here are a couple of tips, learned the hard way, again involving taxi drivers. 1. Always get out of the taxi before paying. We took a taxi from Termini to our hotel, my husband got out of the car, the driver turned to me for the fare. 2. Be sure you have smaller Euro bills--I only had a 50 E at this time and the fare was 27...I handed him the 50, expecting change and he pulled a quick one and acted like I had not handed him anything! My husband, thinking I did not have the money then leaned in and handed him the 27 Euros!! I felt really stupid as I think I am usually a pretty savvy traveler, I think if I was outside of the car he would not have been able to pull that off and I would have continued to argue with him but cars were honking behind us and he just drove off after practically throwing our luggage at us.

 

This was just one rip off out of many European taxi rides, but you do have to pay attention.