Turkey is not a dangerous country, but it has a well-practised set of tourist scams, most of them in Istanbul and most of them involving taxis, bar bills or someone being unexpectedly friendly. None of them is hard to beat once you know the script. This guide lists the ones that still catch UK and Irish visitors in 2027 and the one habit that stops each.
Istanbul funnels millions of tourists through a very small historic core, which supports a few hundred full-time hustlers who can spot a new arrival from fifty metres. The UK FCDO’s Turkey safety advice and Ireland’s DFA both name the same handful of problems: pickpocketing in tourist areas, extortionate bar and nightclub bills, drink spiking, unofficial taxis, counterfeit banknotes and counterfeit alcohol. Outside Istanbul’s tourist core, and on the coast, the problem shrinks to taxi overcharging and the odd padded bill. Read this once, then relax.
The most common complaint by a mile. Variants: the driver ‘forgets’ the meter and names a price at the end; takes the scenic route from the airport; claims the meter is broken and quotes three times the real fare; or palms your ₺200 note and shows you a ₺20. At the airport, touts in arrivals offer ‘taxi, taxi’ and lead you to an unlicensed car, which the FCDO describes as highly risky.
The fix. Use the BiTaksi app or Uber, which in Istanbul books licensed yellow taxis; both show the route, an estimated fare and the driver’s details, and you can pay in-app. At Istanbul Airport, ignore anyone who approaches you and use the official rank outside arrivals, or the Havaist bus or metro (see Istanbul Airport to the city centre). In any taxi, check the meter is running (from 20 July 2026 it opens at ₺71.94 and runs at ₺47.92 per km, with a ₺230 minimum), follow the route on Google Maps, and say the amount aloud as you hand over a note. Turquoise and black taxis are legitimate but dearer than yellow.
You are a man or a pair of men around Taksim, Sultanahmet or Istiklal in the evening. A well-dressed man strikes up a conversation and suggests a bar he knows. Inside, women join your table, unordered drinks arrive, and the bill is £500–3,000. Large men appear when you query it, and you are walked to an ATM. The FCDO and Irish DFA both list this specifically; a variation spikes your drink so you cannot argue.
The fix. Never go to a bar chosen by a stranger who approached you. Choose your own venues, check prices before sitting down, and keep your drink in sight. If a bill like this arrives, do not go to an ATM with anyone; call 112 and offer to pay only for what you ordered at menu price. Report it afterwards to the Tourist Police in Sultanahmet.
A shoe-shiner walking ahead of you on Galata Bridge or near the Spice Bazaar drops his brush. You pick it up and hand it back. He is overwhelmed with gratitude and insists on cleaning your shoes for free; it is not free, and the price demanded afterwards is ₺500–1,000. It works because Brits are polite.
The fix. Do not pick up the brush, or if you have, say ‘hayır, teşekkürler’ (no, thanks) and keep walking. If your shoes end up polished anyway, ₺50–100 is more than fair and then walk away.
Near the Blue Mosque or the Grand Bazaar, a charming man offers directions, a chat about football, and then ‘my cousin has a shop, come for tea, no obligation’. An hour later you own a £900 carpet. Nothing illegal happened; you were very well sold to. The same pattern works for leather and jewellery.
The fix. You are allowed to say no to tea. If you want a carpet, choose the shop yourself, decide your price in advance, and read our Grand Bazaar guide on haggling. Never let anyone ‘help’ with a card payment or walk you to an ATM.
In Kumkapı, under Galata Bridge, in parts of Bodrum and in Antalya’s Kaleiçi, a waiter brings a tray of fish and lets you choose ‘fresh today’. No price is mentioned. The bill arrives priced per kilo at an eye-watering figure, plus salads and ‘complimentary’ starters you did not order, plus service and cover charges. Mezes that appear unasked are not free.
The fix. Ask the price per portion and the weight before any fish is cooked, and wave away anything you did not order. Check the bill line by line, ask for the fiş (receipt), and query anything you do not recognise. Legitimate service charges exist (see our tipping guide), but they should be printed on the menu.
Search ‘Turkey visa’ and the top results are commercial sites that charge £50–90 to fill in a form. For UK and Irish passport holders the form does not even exist: both are visa-exempt for 90 days in any 180-day period. The scam sites do not tell you that; they take your money, your passport details and sometimes your card for ‘processing’ and send you a worthless PDF. Nationalities who do need an e-visa should use only evisa.gov.tr, the government’s site.
The fix. If you hold a UK or Irish passport, do not pay anyone for a Turkish visa. Check our entry requirements page and the gov.uk or DFA advice; both state 90 days visa-free and a passport valid for at least 150 days from arrival.
Cappadocia balloon flights sell out in high season, and a cottage industry of copycat websites with professional photos takes deposits for flights that do not exist or resells at a huge markup. The same happens for Pamukkale day trips and Bosphorus dinner cruises. Payment is usually by bank transfer or a dodgy card page.
The fix. Book through your hotel, a licensed agency with a TÜRSAB number, or a major platform with buyer protection and card payment. Never bank-transfer a deposit to an individual. Our guide to verifying a Turkish travel business shows how to check a TÜRSAB licence in two minutes.
Turkish ATMs ask whether you want to convert to pounds at the ATM’s rate. Say yes and you lose 5–10% through ‘dynamic currency conversion’. Card terminals in shops do the same (‘pay in GBP?’). Separately, in busy Istanbul spots someone may offer to help you with a machine ‘that does not work for foreigners’; they are reading your PIN.
The fix. Always choose to be charged in Turkish lira, decline conversion, and use ATMs attached to bank branches during the day. Cover your PIN, refuse help, and use a fee-free travel card so the bank’s rate applies. The FCDO and DFA both advise against using ATMs alone after dark. Details in our money guide.
The FCDO reports a rise in counterfeit US$50 and US$100 notes in Turkey, to the point that banks and exchange offices may refuse them. For lira, the common trick is the note swap: you pay with ₺200, the seller or driver says you gave ₺20. In exchange offices, some quote a brilliant rate on the board and apply a commission at the counter.
The fix. Do not bring US dollars. Learn the lira notes (₺200 is purple, ₺100 is blue, ₺50 is orange, ₺20 is green, ₺10 is red, ₺5 is brown; purple and blue are the ones that get confused), say the value aloud when paying, and at exchange offices ask for the final amount you will receive before handing anything over.
Outside Topkapı or the Blue Mosque, a man in a lanyard tells you it is closed for prayer or a holiday, but he can take you to another mosque or a shop meanwhile. Or a ‘licensed guide’ attaches himself for twenty minutes and then demands ₺1,500. Hagia Sophia does pause tourist entry at prayer times, which makes the lie plausible.
The fix. Check hours yourself on muze.gov.tr or our Hagia Sophia and Topkapı Palace pages, buy tickets at the official office or online, and only accept a guide you booked. Licensed guides carry a Ministry of Culture ID card.
Not a scam exactly, but the opening price quoted to a tourist is often two to four times what the seller will accept, and ‘genuine’ pashmina, saffron and Iznik ceramics frequently are not. Turkish delight sold by weight includes the box.
The fix. Know a few anchor prices in pounds (our Istanbul souvenirs guide has them), haggle with good humour, and buy spices from shops with printed prices. If you hate haggling, the fixed-price Arasta Bazaar behind the Blue Mosque is calmer.
Mostly a resort problem: Marmaris Bar Street, Bodrum’s Barlar Sokağı, Kuşadası and parts of Antalya. Free shots and two-for-one deals using unbranded spirits pad the bill and, more seriously, are how counterfeit methanol alcohol reaches tourists. The FCDO notes deaths from bootleg spirits and that methanol cannot be tasted or smelled.
The fix. Drink beer, wine or spirits poured from sealed, branded bottles you can see, decline free shots, and watch each other’s drinks. Vision problems, confusion or severe stomach pain after drinking need a hospital immediately.
Airport phone counters sell tourist SIM packs at up to double the city price and push ‘activation fees’; sort your data before you fly, as our SIM and eSIM guide explains. Separately, a WhatsApp or call claiming to be your hotel or transfer company, saying your card failed and you must pay again via a link, is fraud. Never pay via a link; ring the hotel on the number from its own website.
Taxi overcharging: no meter, a long route or a note switch. Booking through BiTaksi or Uber and watching the meter removes almost all of it.
Uber works in Istanbul and some other cities, booking licensed yellow taxis at the metered fare rather than private cars. BiTaksi does the same and locals use it more. Neither covers every resort; ask your hotel for a trusted driver.
No. Both are visa-exempt for 90 days in 180. Any site charging you for a Turkey ‘visa’ or ‘ETA’ is taking your money for nothing.
Yes, cards are used everywhere. Choose lira when the terminal asks, cover your PIN, and use a card with no foreign transaction fee. Contactless is normal for small amounts.
Much less. On the coast expect taxi overcharging, padded fish bills and bar-street free shots; in Cappadocia, fake balloon booking sites.
Is Turkey safe? FCDO advice · Money, cards and ATMs · Grand Bazaar guide · Tipping in Turkey
Prices and rules checked on 8 November 2026 against official sources and change often; always confirm before you travel. Sources: gov.uk FCDO Turkey: safety and security, gov.uk FCDO Turkey: entry requirements, Irish DFA travel advice for Türkiye, Habertürk: Istanbul taxi tariff July 2026, evisa.gov.tr.