7 Tourist Scams in Santiago

You're walking near the metro when something wet hits your backpack or jacket.

A 'helpful' stranger points it out and offers napkins. While you're distracted cleaning up, their partner lifts your phone, wallet, or bag. The substance is usually mustard, ketchup, or bird dropping substitute. This is Santiago's most common tourist theft technique.

You park your rental car near a tourist site.

When you return, you have a flat tire. A helpful local appears offering to change it. While you're both crouched by the tire, someone reaches through the open door and grabs your bags from the back seat. In some cases, the thieves punctured the tire themselves while you were sightseeing.

You flag a taxi outside a restaurant in Bellavista after midnight.

The driver starts the meter, but you notice the initial fare shows 5,000 pesos instead of the standard 300-peso flag drop. By the time you reach your hotel ten minutes later, the meter reads 15,000 pesos for a ride that should cost 3,000. Some drivers add extra zeros hoping tourists unfamiliar with Chilean pesos will not notice the inflated starting fare. Others take deliberately longer routes through dark residential streets.

You are in a Bellavista bar when two friendly locals invite you for drinks at a place they know nearby.

The bar is dimly lit with no posted prices. After two rounds you ask for the bill and it comes to 200,000 pesos. When you protest, a bouncer blocks the exit. In the worst cases, drinks are spiked with sedatives and victims wake up with wallets, phones, and watches gone. The Bellavista strip along Pío Nono is the highest-risk area for these schemes targeting solo travelers and tourists drinking alone.

You withdraw cash from an ATM in the Costanera Center mall.

The screen asks if you want to be charged in your home currency or Chilean pesos. You select your home currency thinking it is simpler. The ATM applies a markup of eight to twelve percent on the exchange rate, costing you an extra 10,000 to 15,000 pesos on a 150,000-peso withdrawal. Some ATMs also charge a withdrawal fee on top of the inflated conversion. Euronet and standalone ATMs in tourist areas are the worst offenders.

You are riding the Metro during rush hour when someone bumps into you from behind while another ...

You are riding the Metro during rush hour when someone bumps into you from behind while another person presses close from the side. You think nothing of it until you reach your stop and discover your phone is gone from your pocket. Organized pickpocket teams operate in crowded Metro cars, bus terminals, and shopping mall escalators. They work in groups of two or three, with one creating a bump or distraction while the other extracts valuables from pockets and bags.

You finish riding the funicular up Cerro San Cristóbal and step out to find a line of taxis waiting at the exit.

You get into one and notice the meter is running unusually fast. When you question the driver, he shrugs and says it is the 'mountain rate.' A Reddit user on r/Santiago documented this exact scam in January 2025: the taxi meter at the funicular exit was rigged to run at an accelerated rate, turning a 4,000-peso ride into a 19,000-peso fare. The scam works because tourists exiting the funicular are in an unfamiliar area with limited transport options, making them captive customers for the waiting taxis.