Tabiji.ai Travel Safety Series · Book 6

Don’t lose R$ 10,000 to a “my friend, best caipirinha in Rio” stranger in Lapa.

72 documented tourist scams across 12 Brazilian cities — drawn from DEATUR tourist-police records, PROCON consumer-protection advisories, IBAMA wildlife-tourism decrees, CEMIT shark-attack monitoring data, and real r/Brazil traveler reports. You’ll learn the exact scripts scammers use in Rio, São Paulo, Salvador, and Manaus, the red flags that give them away, and the Brazilian Portuguese phrases that shut them down.

📖 ~312 pages paperback / ~230 Kindle 📱 Kindle eBook + paperback 🌍 11 cities & regions ⚠️ 72 scams
Buy on Amazon → $4.99 on Kindle
Brazil: Tourist Scams book cover — Brazil — Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain at sunset

Inside this book

A preview of what’s documented — scripts, red flags, and the moves that shut each scam down.

66 scams 11 cities & regions DEATUR & PROCON records Updated annually
Excerpt · Rio

The Galeão Airport “Special Taxi” Mafia

You step into Galeão (GIG) arrivals after a long flight, and a man in a fluorescent vest flashes a laminated “Táxi Especial” sign: “my friend, your hotel? R$ 250.” He walks you to an unmarked sedan at the kerb; the fare that would have been R$ 90–R$ 140 on Uber turns into R$ 250–R$ 400 at the hotel door — and the meter was “broken.” r/Rio has filmed the exact choreography in dozens of 2025 and 2026 threads; the real Uber “Aplicativos” pickup zone is a signposted walkway fifty meters past the kiosks…

Red flag: Any “Taxi Especial” kiosk offering flat rates R$ 250+ to Ipanema inside the terminal. Book Uber on airport Wi-Fi AFTER luggage.
Full scam, the plate-verification script & the exact Brazilian exit phrase in the book.
Excerpt · Ho Chi Minh City

The Lapa R$ 10,000 Caipirinha-Bar Honeypot

A friendly local in Lapa or Copacabana invites a solo traveler to “Rio’s best caipirinha bar” down a side alley; two drinks are served without a visible menu; the tab arrives at R$ 10,000 with two bouncers positioned between the customer and the door. r/Brazil and r/Rio have covered the Av. Mem de Sá and Rua do Lavradio extortion circuit since 2022 — the pattern is the same as Patpong’s, scaled to Rio, and 190 on speakerphone ends it in about ninety seconds…

Red flag: Any bar you enter because a solicitor picked it, not you.
Full pattern, the menu-demand script & the phrase that collapses it — inside.
Excerpt · Salvador

The “Exclusive Fabric” Tailor Markup

Pelourinho in Salvador runs one of the Western Hemisphere’s most rehearsed forced-tip scripts. A woman in a traditional Bahiana white dress ties a colorful fita do Senhor do Bonfim ribbon around a tourist’s wrist “for three wishes — a gift from Bahia,” then demands R$ 50–R$ 200 once it is knotted. The real fita, sold at the official Igreja do Senhor do Bonfim gift shop, costs R$ 2. The defense is a firm não obrigado BEFORE the first knot touches your skin — Brazilian politeness conventions do not obligate you to listen to a sales pitch…

Red flag: A tailor quoting a price more than twice the street average without letting you see the fabric bolt and weight.
Full pattern, the three-shop-price-check rule & the credit-card chargeback script — inside.

A look inside

Every scam in the book gets a four-panel comic. A sneak peek of two of the 72:

Galeão Airport Taxi Mafia — comic illustration
Rio de Janeiro · Galeão Airport Taxi Mafia
Pelourinho Ribbon-Tying Forced Tip — comic illustration
Salvador · Pelourinho Ribbon-Tying Forced Tip

12 cities covered

From Rio “Special Taxi” airport scripts to Lapa caipirinha-bar extortion, Pelourinho Bonfim-ribbon forced tips, and Manaus Amazon-lodge PIX fraud — full coverage of where travelers actually get caught out.

🌴 Rio
⛵ Ha Long Bay
🏛️ Paraty
🏙️ São Paulo
💦 Foz do Iguaçu
⛪ Salvador
🦈 Recife
🏖️ Fortaleza
🛵 Ho Chi Minh City
💦 Foz do Iguaçu
🥥 Phu Quoc

Why tabiji.ai writes these books

Volumes 1–12 (Japan, Italy, France, Thailand, Greece, Vietnam, Spain, Indonesia, Turkey, Mexico, Germany, and Canada) set the series structure. Brazil sits at a dense crossroads of global scam archetypes — the airport “Special Taxi” mafia, the off-platform aluguel-de-temporada PIX fraud, the rental-damage deposit cycle, the dual-menu tourist restaurant, the forced-tip ribbon. Learn the Brazil pattern and you’ll spot the same moves in Lima, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires.

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Brazilian-press sourced, not Reddit-only

Every scam is documented against Brazilian news coverage, DEATUR tourist-police records, PROCON consumer-protection advisories (dial 151), IBAMA wildlife-tourism decrees, CEMIT shark-attack monitoring data, and firsthand traveler accounts on r/Brazil, r/Rio, r/RiodeJaneiro, r/saopaulo, r/Fortaleza, r/brasilia, r/MinasGerais, r/Manaus, and r/florianopolis. Named operators and dated incidents where we have them.

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Brazilian phrases, not vague warnings

A full appendix of Brazilian exit phrases — “không, cảm ơn” (no, thank you), “tôi sẽ gọi cảnh sát” (I’m calling the police), “cho tôi xem thực đơn tiếng Việt” (give me the Brazilian menu, please) — with pronunciation guides and when to use them. Plus the 6 universal scam patterns that let you spot variations we haven’t documented yet.

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Updated annually

Scams evolve. “Special Taxi” operators rotate signs at every Brazilian airport. Pelourinho Bonfim-ribbon touts change locations seasonally. Manaus Amazon-lodge Instagram accounts recycle every Carnaval. CEMIT shark-attack data lands every season on the Pernambuco coast. We re-research and update each book every year. Buy once, re-download future editions from your Amazon library.

TABIJI · TRAVEL SAFETY What the guidebooks won’t tell you. Rio runs one of the most rehearsed “Special Taxi” scripts in the world. Recife has a documented shark-attack beach — read before you swim. Ha Long Bay and Phu Quoc cruise tickets cost half at the real booth. This book documents 66 specific scams across 12 Brazilian cities — drawn from DEATUR, PROCON, IBAMA, CEMIT, and real r/Brazil traveler reports. You’ll learn the exact scripts scammers use, the red flags that give them away, and the Brazilian Portuguese phrases that shut them down on the spot. INSIDE 72 scams with exact Brazilian scripts and dong amounts Six universal red-flag patterns covering every scam in Brazil A four-panel Aldemir Martins folk-modernist comic for every scam entry Coverage of Rio, São Paulo, Salvador, Manaus, Brasília & 7 more Brazilian phrases you will encounter at the scene, with pronunciation PLUS A Brazilian Portuguese exit-phrase card you can screenshot to your phone A post-scam recovery playbook (first 15 min, first hour, first day) Emergency contacts: 190 / 192 / 151 + every major hospital KINDLE EDITION · 2026

“What the guidebooks won’t tell you.”

Part of the Travel Safety Series

Brazil is Volume 13 of 15 flagship titles. Japan (Volume 1), Italy (Volume 2), France (Volume 3), Thailand (Volume 4), and Greece (Volume 5) are live. Each country gets the same treatment — real traveler stories, local-press sourced, annual updates.

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Japan →

Volume 1 · Live
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Italy →

Volume 2 · Live
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France →

Volume 3 · Live
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Thailand →

Volume 4 · Live
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Greece →

Volume 5 · Live
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Brazil

Volume 13 · Featured

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Mexico

Coming 2026

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Spain

Coming 2026

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See the full series →

All upcoming titles

Frequently asked

Quick answers about the book, pricing, and updates.

What format is this book?

Kindle eBook and 6×9″ trade paperback — the Kindle reads on any phone, tablet, or computer with the free Kindle app, and the paperback is available through Amazon’s KDP print-on-demand network.

How long is it?

312 pages in paperback, ~260 pages on Kindle — written to be read in a single flight over and referenced on your phone in-country.

How much does it cost?

$4.99 USD on Amazon Kindle. Price varies slightly by Amazon region.

Will the book be updated?

Yes — we re-research and update each book annually as scams evolve. Buy once, re-download future editions from your Amazon library at no extra cost.

Can I get a refund?

Yes. Amazon’s standard Kindle refund policy applies — you have 7 days from purchase to return for a full refund, no questions asked.

Available now on Amazon Kindle

72 scams, 12 Brazilian cities, the exact scripts and Brazilian Portuguese phrases you need. $4.99 — read it on the flight over.

Buy on Amazon →
Rio scams São Paulo scams Salvador scams All Brazil cities All destinations