6 Tourist Scams in Buenos Aires

You're walking down Florida Street in the microcentro and the 'cambio, cambio' calls from touts fill the air. The blue dollar rate is double the official rate and everyone says it's the thing to do in Buenos Aires. A friendly guy in a Messi jersey takes you to a nearby office to exchange your $100 bills. He counts out a thick stack of pesos and you pocket them. Later at a restaurant in Palermo, the waiter examines your bills and quietly tells you half of them are counterfeit — the old style bills with different serial numbers that expired years ago. A Reddit user on r/Patagonia who ran the cambio route wrote: 'I realized they were trying to scam me only because my instinct to count saved me — they tried to switch the bills at the last second.'

You grab a street cab near the San Telmo market on a Sunday — the taxi looks totally legitimate with a meter, official stickers, and a uniformed driver. You watch the meter tick normally for the whole ride. The final reading says 1,200 pesos for a 10-minute ride to your hotel in Microcentro. You pay, only realizing later that the meter was rigged to run 3–4x faster than legal rate. A self-described 'repeat tourist' on r/BuenosAires titled their post 'I fell for the classic San Telmo taxi scam' and wrote: 'Don't enter a waiting cab at a tourist spot — if something seems weird just ask to get out and cut your losses.'

You're walking along the pedestrian boulevard near Puerto Madero when you feel something hit your shoulder. A well-dressed man immediately appears with tissues to help you clean what appears to be bird droppings from your jacket — very considerate. While he's dabbing at your shoulder, his partner has unzipped your daypack. You don't notice until you reach your hotel and your wallet is gone. This is the 'mustard scam' — the substance sprayed on you is usually mustard from a small bottle. r/solotravel has dozens of reports from South American cities: 'The first time I saw this scam was 30 years ago — it's an oldie but it still works.'

You pay for dinner in Palermo with a genuine $100 USD bill to get change in pesos. The waiter returns with pesos and a 'change' of $80 USD back — except he's slipped in a counterfeit $20 bill among the real ones. It's printed slightly off and the paper feels wrong, but you don't notice in the dim restaurant lighting. This also happens with peso bills: you receive genuine-looking old 100-peso notes mixed with your change that are actually no longer legal tender. r/travel Argentina threads warn extensively about this practice at restaurants, taxis, and even airport exchange desks.

A well-dressed woman approaches you outside a restaurant in Recoleta with a laminated card explaining (in English) that she's a stranded tourist who just had her bag stolen and needs 500 pesos for the bus back to her hotel. She looks completely genuine — clean clothes, good Spanish, a hotel key card visible. You give her the money. Twenty meters later you see her approach the next group of tourists with the same card. r/argentina discusses these organized sympathy scams as a growth industry: 'It's pretty common to try and sell you socks, handkerchiefs, dishcloths — if you respond kindly they escalate.'

You walk out of Ezeiza arrivals and a man in a polo shirt with a 'Transfer' sign approaches offering a ride to Buenos Aires for $60. The official remis stands inside the airport charge a fixed $25–35 for the same route. The man outside with the sign works for an unlicensed operator who pockets the difference. Some tourists end up in unmarked cars with drivers who claim the highway is closed and 'must take the scenic route' — arriving 90 minutes late and $80 poorer. r/BuenosAires consistently warns: 'Use Uber or the official Manuel Tienda León buses — never accept offers from touts in arrivals.'