Pickpocketing articles

[WillTravel]

Here are a few links I've been gathering about the pickpocketing and scam issue in Europe. Of course lots of people travel for a long time and have no problems at all, but forewarned is forearmed.

www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/business/09flier.html?th (may require free registration)

jones.tc/barna/scams.html

www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/graffiti11.html

tinyurl.com/3dt32 (another NYTimes article)

[Cil]

The Barcelona stuff is fascinating.
I can't remember where I read it, but I once read a blog written by someone living in Prague who was watching pickpockets plying their trade at the train station in action (watching for entertainment, without interfering!)
I once, on the bus, had a dwarf begin rummaging through my empty leather purse (had just bought it in Florence.) I yelled at her and various people on the bus began scolding her, and she slunk off the bus at the next stop.
And I have been aware of and looked out for a suspicious-looking guy on the Metro in Paris as well as in Rome. Have seen lots of Gypsies but they have left us alone.
We use moneybelts or around-the-neck pouches, but I guess we've been pretty vulnerable on the Tube or other underground train, because we do not have locks on our backpacks.