With all the tour agencies bubbling around, it's easy to find oneself a victim of a scam. Here's the thing, shady people like to take advantage of tourist. It might not be your fault if you fall for one but it's always better to familiarise yourself with the type of scams flying around to avoid it and know what to do in such situations.

1. Advance travel fee

Fraudsters pose under the cover of a travel groups or agents who can make travelling easier for you. These scammers might seem to make travelling cheaper by asking for installmental payments or advance payments. Use only trusted tour agencies.

2. Study abroad

For people looking to study abroad, one easy way to fall for a scam is through fake agents who inflate prices without making any efforts. Worst case, fraudsters pose as agents to offer quick visa processing and cheap school fees. Learn about all the official documents and fees issued by the embassy and the school directly and use trusted agents who are used to the system. No agent can make visa processing faster than the normal time it takes.

3. Visa Lottery

Visa lotteries are not as common anymore, yet people hold their breaths in hopes for an opportunity to enter one. The US Visa lottery used to be quite popular for Nigerians until it was stopped but it remains one of the most popular scam schemes on Nigerians. It's better not to engage any of such offers.

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4. International Conference

One way of scamming travellers is giving false hopes of visa approval through cheap conference invitations. The scammers invite you for a conference with the incentive that visa applications from people going for conferences are hardly rejected. They tell you to pay a fee for travel arrangements and then they disappear. When considering attending an international conference, make sure it has been tried and tested, and use trusted agents.

5. Currency exchange

People travelling out of the country are advised to visit a bank or a trusted agent as scammers could pose as fake foreign exchange buyers and give travellers counterfeit currency or inflated exchange rates.

6. Flight tickets

People who want to ball on a budget are always seeking cheaper ways to travel, hence, cheaper flight tickets. It's easy to fall for cheap ticket scams online. There are trusted tricks to getting cheap airline tickets, or alternatively, trusted websites which give great deals.

7. Travel Insurance

This is more common with frequent travellers. Travel insurance is important but that doesn't mean one should give money to just anyone in the name of getting insurance.

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