Tabiji.ai Travel Safety Series · Book 6

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

65 documented tourist scams across 10 Portuguese destinations — drawn from PSP Turismo tourist-police records, ASAE consumer-protection filings, and real r/portugal 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 European Portuguese phrases that shut them down.

📖 ~312 pages paperback / ~230 Kindle 📱 Kindle eBook + paperback 🌍 11 cities & regions ⚠️ 65 scams
Buy on Amazon → $4.99 on Kindle
Portugal: Tourist Scams book cover — Portugal — Lisbon Tram 28 climbing toward São Jorge Castle, azulejo tile accents

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 PSP Turismo & ASAE 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? € 250.” He walks you to an unmarked sedan at the kerb; the fare that would have been € 90–€ 140 on Uber turns into € 250–€ 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 € 250+ to Ipanema inside the terminal. Book Uber on airport Wi-Fi AFTER luggage.
Full scam, the plate-verification script & the exact Portuguese exit phrase in the book.
Excerpt · Ho Chi Minh City

The Lapa € 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 € 10,000 with two bouncers positioned between the customer and the door. r/portugal 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 € 50–€ 200 once it is knotted. The real fita, sold at the official Igreja do Senhor do Bonfim gift shop, costs € 2. The defense is a firm não obrigado BEFORE the first knot touches your skin — Portuguese 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 65:

Tram 28 Pickpocket Teams — comic illustration
Lisbon · Tram 28 Pickpocket Teams
Port Cellar Commission Upsell — comic illustration
Porto · Port Cellar Commission Upsell

10 destinations 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. Portugal 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 Portugal pattern and you’ll spot the same moves in Lima, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires.

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Portuguese-press sourced, not Reddit-only

Every scam is documented against Portuguese news coverage, PSP Turismo tourist-police records, ASAE consumer-protection filings (dial 151), and firsthand traveler accounts on r/portugal, 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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Portuguese phrases, not vague warnings

A full appendix of Portuguese 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 Portuguese 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 Portuguese airport. Pelourinho Bonfim-ribbon touts change locations seasonally. Manaus Amazon-lodge Instagram accounts recycle every Carnaval. 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 10 Portuguese destinations — drawn from PSP Turismo, ASAE, and real r/portugal traveler reports. You’ll learn the exact scripts scammers use, the red flags that give them away, and the European Portuguese phrases that shut them down on the spot. INSIDE 65 scams with exact Portuguese scripts and dong amounts Six universal red-flag patterns covering every scam in Portugal A four-panel José de Guimarães folk-pop comic for every scam entry Coverage of Rio, São Paulo, Salvador, Manaus, Brasília & 7 more Portuguese phrases you will encounter at the scene, with pronunciation PLUS A European 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

Portugal is Volume 14 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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Portugal

Volume 14 · 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

65 scams, 10 Portuguese destinations, the exact scripts and European Portuguese phrases you need. $4.99 — read it on the flight over.

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