Scam City: New York City - Huge and Dangerous Counterfeit Scams | Free Documentary

Conor Woodman immerses himself in the Big Apple and finds out that Zero Tolerance hasn’t swept tourist scams from the streets. He’s taken for a ride by unlicensed pedicab tours in Central Park, discovers where pickpockets ply their trade now they’ve been shifted from Time Square, and falls into a huge and dangerous counterfeit perfume scam. Generally, as a rule of thumb, where there are tourists, there will be scammers. Enjoy!

To any potential NY tourists: I've lived in NY for most of my life. So please, if you come here, 1) never take your eyes off your wallet; 2) don't trust strangers who come up to you and are overly friendly; and 3) DON'T BUY STUFF ON THE STREET. If it sounds too good to be true, trust and believe it's a lie/scam.

As a New Yorker, I've never understood why tourists do these pics with characters on times Square. Ive almost never even stopped walking through that area.

I live in NY and these scammers are a JOKE

I live here. I raised my son here. I go out and enjoy bike riding here. Love the culture and the wonderful people. Stay away from Times Square Go to the museum,ms and shows off broadway, dance, and go to the parks. Who the hell wants to get a picture in nyc w a Disney character????

No one must be a rocket scientist to know you can't buy Chanel for 10-15 dollars,

I love these scam videos! I would love to see a documentary chronicling scams associated with major sporting events. For example the Super Bowl,World Cup,Final Four and possibly a big global event such as the Olympics but possibly Mardi Gras where people act like idiots and the scammers prey on this. Please keep up the amazing work and effort you guys put into the production of your documentaries!

Great documentary! Thank you for your research.

Excellent video about scamsters allover the world. Thank u friend . I will always think of u when I am holidaying abroad.

Your documentaries are my favorites. I am just amazed how you get people to tell you the secrets of their scams! 👏

When the driver starts talking about Central Park, I had flashbacks to the show Seinfeld when Kramer was showing Central Park when he had a horse drawn carriage.

Remember Cabbage Patch dolls? Back in the 80s I was a tour bus driver and often took trips to NYC. ( I lived in western Mass in the Berkshires at the time). I went often enough so that I knew where to go and hang out while the passengers were off shopping , hitting the Hard Rock Cafe or whatever other stuff they were doing there. I usually had a 6 hour wait minimum until I had to pick them up at a designated spot. So I'd sit there on the bus, smoking, watching the VCR or reading and watching the people go by. This particular Christmas trip to the big city those Cabbage Patch dolls were sold out EVERYWHERE and my daughter wanted one SOOOO bad. Here comes this dude pushing a shopping cart FULL of them down the sidewalk. I step off the bus and ask him...'Hey man, what you charging for the Cabbage Patch dolls?' '$50 apiece' he says. Now these things were going for $75 in the stores then, WHEN you could find them. I told him...'I'll give you $25 each if you sell me two.' He agreed. I figured they had to be stolen as they were authentic, right down to the right packaging and the birth certificates and all. To this day, my daughter says that was her best Christmas ever, and she's in her 40s now. It was for me too. It was worth the hassle just to see the look on her face when she opened those on Christmas morning. Sorry for the novel, but I felt it was a story that had to be told...heh heh.

“You gotta have a con in the land of milk and honey” - Grandmaster Flash - The Messgae

In the middle of the 70's I lived in New York City in Greenwich Village in a "walk up" and played music in the streets with my girlfriend and also worked for a violin maker on West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue across the street from Carnegie Hall. We were just kids from North Carolina and the city was almost overwhelming but it was the most exciting place I've ever lived. We made friends easily and over the course of the five years we were there we were befriended by some east European gypsies and they were very good to us. I think they viewed us as kindred peoples because we made the bulk of our money on the streets and played music, something that they had respect for. We played American "Old Time" fiddle music, as well as traditional Irish dance music, but over time they taught us how to play many Romanian tunes, as they were genuine Romney Gypsies, many of which, particularly the older ones in the group were from the "Old Country". After a time when we had gotten to know them well they would invite us over to eat. They were very fond of red wine and we'd bring a couple of bottles with us for our hosts and as we'd sit and talk while food was cooking, which was always delicious we'd talk about the events of the day and as they filtered in we'd hear the most incredible stories of how they parted people from their money. It's not that we condoned what they were doing but it was incredibly interesting to know real Gypsies and understand how it was that they were able to get by in a place that was so expensive to live in. They were very creative and resourceful and lived very well. After several years of knowing them we decided to move to Austin, another music town and I have to say, those people truly regarded us as family. They never did us any harm or asked us to participate in any of their " business deals", as they often called them. I think they were afraid that we might get into trouble and they didn't want that, so in effect they watched over us that way. Now over fifty years later I think back to that time about them and have to smile because in a manner of speaking they were sort of like mischievous children who gave me some insights into New York and a small group of it's people that I'd never gotten any other way.

I remember seeing Scam City many many years ago.. Interesting to see it back again.

We are from NY. We don’t live there anymore. But, once I took a photo of my wife with one street character. Four other jumped in. I went to pay the first one and all the others demanded money. But I’m not a tourist. I said in strong terms that I didn’t want them. They took off looking for other people.

I love these documentaries! Just be careful! 🙏💕

Love this channel, a brave man

I lived in Manhattan for 46 years. It's Disneyland now with no character. It used to be tremendously dangerous. It had a lot of style and personality. It's just a shell though now, of what it once was.

Imagine if the flash went off when he took the picture of the card 😂