Rolex Stolen off my wrist in Barcelona
Discussion
Not much worse than any city tbh
We got 'robbed' there, but it was us being naive. The problem for us was it's easy to get taxi's everywhere and most of them are in on it (IMO)
Taxi stops to let you off but struggles with the change, next thing you know other people are in the taxi when you are getting out....
We got 'robbed' there, but it was us being naive. The problem for us was it's easy to get taxi's everywhere and most of them are in on it (IMO)
Taxi stops to let you off but struggles with the change, next thing you know other people are in the taxi when you are getting out....
jules_s said:
Not much worse than any city tbh
We got 'robbed' there, but it was us being naive. The problem for us was it's easy to get taxi's everywhere and most of them are in on it (IMO)
Taxi stops to let you off but struggles with the change, next thing you know other people are in the taxi when you are getting out....
I have to disagree as it may otherwise give reassurance to others. It has been one of the most likely places to get robbed, for some years now.We got 'robbed' there, but it was us being naive. The problem for us was it's easy to get taxi's everywhere and most of them are in on it (IMO)
Taxi stops to let you off but struggles with the change, next thing you know other people are in the taxi when you are getting out....
CoolHands said:
yetra said:
Your story might have given me an interesting idea for a weekend city break. I only need to find a cheap but good quality Rolex knock off and book myself into the same hotel.
aye aye lads we've got Rambo heremikeveal said:
All city's have problems.
Barca has large numbers of thieves and pickpockets who concentrate mainly on tourists in and around Las Ramblas. So it does deserve it's reputation for being much worse than other cities.
I found it to a bit "meh" I far prefer Seville Granada or San Sebastian . Much less tourism and the side effect . And feels more real Barca has large numbers of thieves and pickpockets who concentrate mainly on tourists in and around Las Ramblas. So it does deserve it's reputation for being much worse than other cities.
DJMC said:
We were in Valencia a few months ago and three cafés ignored us totally on the same day. Obviously Brits, I wondered if it was the Brexit effect? We sat and waited, nobody came to take an order, we left.
And no, we don't have two heads, union flag tee shirts, BO, etc, etc...
Just their arrogance.And no, we don't have two heads, union flag tee shirts, BO, etc, etc...
mikeveal said:
jules_s said:
Not much worse than any city tbh
All city's have problems.Barca has large numbers of thieves and pickpockets who concentrate mainly on tourists in and around Las Ramblas. So it does deserve it's reputation for being much worse than other cities.
I was also surprised with the lack of visible Police presence, given it is a tourist hotspot and full of the above mentioned undesirables plus it does have a reputation.
Likes Fast Cars said:
DJMC said:
We were in Valencia a few months ago and three cafés ignored us totally on the same day. Obviously Brits, I wondered if it was the Brexit effect? We sat and waited, nobody came to take an order, we left.
And no, we don't have two heads, union flag tee shirts, BO, etc, etc...
Just their arrogance.And no, we don't have two heads, union flag tee shirts, BO, etc, etc...
I went to Barcelona on a stag in 2015 and, given we were reasonably inebriated throughout the majority of it, you would have thought we would have been prime targets. However, we never had an issue with any thefts and spent much of our time in the pickpocketing "hotspots"...
Maybe we didn't have anything worth stealing!?
Maybe we didn't have anything worth stealing!?
HarryW said:
swerni said:
brianashley said:
swerni said:
Nope, not quite seeing the comparison.
Care to elaborate?
people think its a cool place .then the reality kicks in . Care to elaborate?
You?
MrBarry123 said:
I went to Barcelona on a stag in 2015 and, given we were reasonably inebriated throughout the majority of it, you would have thought we would have been prime targets. However, we never had an issue with any thefts and spent much of our time in the pickpocketing "hotspots"...
Maybe we didn't have anything worth stealing!?
Whilst it might seem like you're easy targets, it's not always worth getting caught stealing from a large group of drunk men...Maybe we didn't have anything worth stealing!?
DJMC said:
We were in Valencia a few months ago and three cafés ignored us totally on the same day. Obviously Brits, I wondered if it was the Brexit effect? We sat and waited, nobody came to take an order, we left.
And no, we don't have two heads, union flag tee shirts, BO, etc, etc...
Not just you, they were much the same when I went to Valencia about 5 years ago.And no, we don't have two heads, union flag tee shirts, BO, etc, etc...
Nothing wrong with Brixton. Apart from it's over-gentrified. It's very different from how it was 15 years ago when I lived there, but even then, if you stayed out of the 'wrong' estates the chances of getting mugged weren't that high. Places like Coldharbour lane looked really moody but actually once you'd walked home from work along it a few times it started to feel very homely. Barcelona on the other hands has such a problem with crime they have to make massive banners in the street to warn/intimidate people...
yetra said:
7795 said:
No wallet, no watch and no phone to be taken out (the sim card will be in a sim server calling 20EUR/min numbers in minutes - the phone gets sold for nothing, it's the live sim they want)
If you enable PIN on your sim they can do eff all once the phone is switched off (presumably they remove it from the phone before making the calls).The ideal target is a pi**ed up tourist/stag do member who is robbed of the phone and leaves it until next day to report it either because they're pi**ed, can't be bothered or forget. In most cases the sim will find it's way into a sim server (along with 100's of other stolen sims) dialing and re-dialing a premium rate number at XX rate per min until the sim is blocked. The premium rate number can be any rate, i've seen EUR50/min before.
Then there is a profit share between overseas telco and ultimately the criminal and usually a myriad and complex network of companies.The overseas telco is not breaking any laws, it is just terminating premium rate traffic for a customer.
The owner of the sim will be charged for the calls by their service provider. In turn, the service provider will be charged for their networks calls that have been terminated over their roaming parties network as per the interconnect agreement in place.
Why can't the UK mobile operators just put a credit limit on the roaming bills/bills in general??? Call them up and ask them and they will tell you this, "we cannot restrict the service".
The reality is they make more from roaming charges than they lose from theft and sim fraud (think credit card companies). They have however been "forced" to limit the charges they pass on to the customers if they are "deemed" to have taken correct steps to report the phone stolen in a "reasonable" amount of time. The telcos WILL have to still pay the roaming partner in full though.
Phones are a big ticket item to organised crime overseas as they want your sims!!!! They can, and are, unlocked if they know what they are doing. They do, it's their business....
I've been in the telecoms industry for 20 year; the legit side...
7795 said:
Correct, it is removed from the phone as the phone is the just a package for the real prize. Incorrect and contrary to popular belief, locking a sim card with a pin does NOT protect it with the "real" organised criminals. Sure it gives a level of protection to the opportunist thief who, unless they know the value of a roaming enable sim, will more than likely throw it away.
The ideal target is a pi**ed up tourist/stag do member who is robbed of the phone and leaves it until next day to report it either because they're pi**ed, can't be bothered or forget. In most cases the sim will find it's way into a sim server (along with 100's of other stolen sims) dialing and re-dialing a premium rate number at XX rate per min until the sim is blocked. The premium rate number can be any rate, i've seen EUR50/min before.
Then there is a profit share between overseas telco and ultimately the criminal and usually a myriad and complex network of companies.The overseas telco is not breaking any laws, it is just terminating premium rate traffic for a customer.
The owner of the sim will be charged for the calls by their service provider. In turn, the service provider will be charged for their networks calls that have been terminated over their roaming parties network as per the interconnect agreement in place.
Why can't the UK mobile operators just put a credit limit on the roaming bills/bills in general??? Call them up and ask them and they will tell you this, "we cannot restrict the service".
The reality is they make more from roaming charges than they lose from theft and sim fraud (think credit card companies). They have however been "forced" to limit the charges they pass on to the customers if they are "deemed" to have taken correct steps to report the phone stolen in a "reasonable" amount of time. The telcos WILL have to still pay the roaming partner in full though.
Phones are a big ticket item to organised crime overseas as they want your sims!!!! They can, and are, unlocked if they know what they are doing. They do, it's their business....
I've been in the telecoms industry for 20 year; the legit side...
I'm sure you're right but as far as I know locking the SIM card is about all you can do to protect it?The ideal target is a pi**ed up tourist/stag do member who is robbed of the phone and leaves it until next day to report it either because they're pi**ed, can't be bothered or forget. In most cases the sim will find it's way into a sim server (along with 100's of other stolen sims) dialing and re-dialing a premium rate number at XX rate per min until the sim is blocked. The premium rate number can be any rate, i've seen EUR50/min before.
Then there is a profit share between overseas telco and ultimately the criminal and usually a myriad and complex network of companies.The overseas telco is not breaking any laws, it is just terminating premium rate traffic for a customer.
The owner of the sim will be charged for the calls by their service provider. In turn, the service provider will be charged for their networks calls that have been terminated over their roaming parties network as per the interconnect agreement in place.
Why can't the UK mobile operators just put a credit limit on the roaming bills/bills in general??? Call them up and ask them and they will tell you this, "we cannot restrict the service".
The reality is they make more from roaming charges than they lose from theft and sim fraud (think credit card companies). They have however been "forced" to limit the charges they pass on to the customers if they are "deemed" to have taken correct steps to report the phone stolen in a "reasonable" amount of time. The telcos WILL have to still pay the roaming partner in full though.
Phones are a big ticket item to organised crime overseas as they want your sims!!!! They can, and are, unlocked if they know what they are doing. They do, it's their business....
I've been in the telecoms industry for 20 year; the legit side...
Mrs BC had her IPhone stolen in the US. There were no calls as the SIM was locked.
bad company said:
7795 said:
Correct, it is removed from the phone as the phone is the just a package for the real prize. Incorrect and contrary to popular belief, locking a sim card with a pin does NOT protect it with the "real" organised criminals. Sure it gives a level of protection to the opportunist thief who, unless they know the value of a roaming enable sim, will more than likely throw it away.
The ideal target is a pi**ed up tourist/stag do member who is robbed of the phone and leaves it until next day to report it either because they're pi**ed, can't be bothered or forget. In most cases the sim will find it's way into a sim server (along with 100's of other stolen sims) dialing and re-dialing a premium rate number at XX rate per min until the sim is blocked. The premium rate number can be any rate, i've seen EUR50/min before.
Then there is a profit share between overseas telco and ultimately the criminal and usually a myriad and complex network of companies.The overseas telco is not breaking any laws, it is just terminating premium rate traffic for a customer.
The owner of the sim will be charged for the calls by their service provider. In turn, the service provider will be charged for their networks calls that have been terminated over their roaming parties network as per the interconnect agreement in place.
Why can't the UK mobile operators just put a credit limit on the roaming bills/bills in general??? Call them up and ask them and they will tell you this, "we cannot restrict the service".
The reality is they make more from roaming charges than they lose from theft and sim fraud (think credit card companies). They have however been "forced" to limit the charges they pass on to the customers if they are "deemed" to have taken correct steps to report the phone stolen in a "reasonable" amount of time. The telcos WILL have to still pay the roaming partner in full though.
Phones are a big ticket item to organised crime overseas as they want your sims!!!! They can, and are, unlocked if they know what they are doing. They do, it's their business....
I've been in the telecoms industry for 20 year; the legit side...
I'm sure you're right but as far as I know locking the SIM card is about all you can do to protect it?The ideal target is a pi**ed up tourist/stag do member who is robbed of the phone and leaves it until next day to report it either because they're pi**ed, can't be bothered or forget. In most cases the sim will find it's way into a sim server (along with 100's of other stolen sims) dialing and re-dialing a premium rate number at XX rate per min until the sim is blocked. The premium rate number can be any rate, i've seen EUR50/min before.
Then there is a profit share between overseas telco and ultimately the criminal and usually a myriad and complex network of companies.The overseas telco is not breaking any laws, it is just terminating premium rate traffic for a customer.
The owner of the sim will be charged for the calls by their service provider. In turn, the service provider will be charged for their networks calls that have been terminated over their roaming parties network as per the interconnect agreement in place.
Why can't the UK mobile operators just put a credit limit on the roaming bills/bills in general??? Call them up and ask them and they will tell you this, "we cannot restrict the service".
The reality is they make more from roaming charges than they lose from theft and sim fraud (think credit card companies). They have however been "forced" to limit the charges they pass on to the customers if they are "deemed" to have taken correct steps to report the phone stolen in a "reasonable" amount of time. The telcos WILL have to still pay the roaming partner in full though.
Phones are a big ticket item to organised crime overseas as they want your sims!!!! They can, and are, unlocked if they know what they are doing. They do, it's their business....
I've been in the telecoms industry for 20 year; the legit side...
Mrs BC had her IPhone stolen in the US. There were no calls as the SIM was locked.
It is about mitigating losses in too many cases and that involves calling your service provider ASAP and blocking the sim; horse bolted comes to mind.
An organisation i work with is developing a system where the sim is not in the phone and so if the phone is nicked there is no sim card to put in a server and rack up the premium rate minutes. It is an industry wide issue and costs $bn's year. The industry takes the view that every phone stolen is stolen to get access to the sim (of course this is not the case but it is the stance they have taken).
AndrewCrown said:
Chaps
I thought I would post a general warning on here about Barcelona and the skilful theft of my Rolex Submariner last week.
My colleague and I were walking from the Casino to Hotel Arts. At that time of night there were the usual collection of peddlers, hookers and beggars hanging around. On the bridge just by Bestial there were three street performers jumping about, back flipping and whooping.
Without warning a small one landed on me, steadying his fall on my wrist. The watch was gone and so was he, my colleague didn’t even notice.
I doubled back and waited for them to resume position. I challenged them but they split up and ran off down the beach. Unfortunately no Police around. I probably shouldn’t have done that… let’s say I was a little cross.
I think of myself as street aware, but this level of artful dodger’ness was quite impressive… how did they undo the double locking clasp? I did not feel a thing.
So if you are out and about in that area, be super aware.
I am looking for a replacement, so if any pistonheads want to sell their 16610, PM me.
Map below
I thought I would post a general warning on here about Barcelona and the skilful theft of my Rolex Submariner last week.
My colleague and I were walking from the Casino to Hotel Arts. At that time of night there were the usual collection of peddlers, hookers and beggars hanging around. On the bridge just by Bestial there were three street performers jumping about, back flipping and whooping.
Without warning a small one landed on me, steadying his fall on my wrist. The watch was gone and so was he, my colleague didn’t even notice.
I doubled back and waited for them to resume position. I challenged them but they split up and ran off down the beach. Unfortunately no Police around. I probably shouldn’t have done that… let’s say I was a little cross.
I think of myself as street aware, but this level of artful dodger’ness was quite impressive… how did they undo the double locking clasp? I did not feel a thing.
So if you are out and about in that area, be super aware.
I am looking for a replacement, so if any pistonheads want to sell their 16610, PM me.
Map below
Edited by AndrewCrown on Monday 10th October 18:36
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