Our Story
How We Research
and Verify
Travel Scam Warnings.
The moment something feels off. You're supposed to be enjoying yourself — but instead, your stomach drops, and you realize you've been had.
Research-backed scam intelligence for travelers who want to see it coming.
540+
Destinations covered
Daily
Editorial review cycle
The Experience
Sound familiar? It's not just you. It happens to everyone.
The taxi driver never turned on the meter. The restaurant menu had no prices — and the bill at the end was creative. A local who seemed genuinely kind spent twenty minutes walking you somewhere, then turned around with his hand out.
If you've traveled internationally, you've probably been there. Maybe you caught it in time. Maybe you paid and walked away quietly, embarrassed, telling yourself it was just part of the experience.
It's not just part of the experience. And it doesn't have to keep happening.
The Problem
We Got Tired
of Digging.
Before every trip, we'd go through the same ritual: open a dozen browser tabs, sort through years-old forum posts, scroll through Reddit threads, hope someone had asked the same question. “Taxi scams Lisbon.” “Is the bracelet trick still happening in Barcelona?” “What to watch out for in Marrakech.”
The information was always somewhere — buried in a comment from three years ago, or in a Facebook travel group you had to request access to, or in a blog post that may have been written by someone who visited once and guessed. It was exhausting. And for a lot of people, it was discouraging enough to just skip the research entirely and hope for the best.
We knew there had to be a better way. Then we realized — we had the tools to build it.
Old way
- 12 browser tabs
- Forum posts from 3 years ago
- Gated Facebook groups
- Blog posts of unknown accuracy
- Give up, hope for the best
What We Built
Research-Backed
Intelligence for
Real Travelers.
Before You Go runs on a structured research and editorial process — not a single search query or one-time snapshot.
We built a structured review process that continuously surfaces information from the places travelers actually share their experiences: forums, community boards, news outlets, travel reviews, and government advisories. Each source type is handled separately so the right patterns get surfaced from the right places.
The raw data gets structured, categorized, scored by frequency, and cross-referenced before it's ever published. Scams that appear once in a single thread don't make the cut. Patterns that show up across multiple independent sources — and hold up over time — do.
The result is a living, destination-by-destination database of real scam intelligence — organized, current, and actually trustworthy.
Our Process
How We Collect
& Verify Data
Our methodology for sourcing, reviewing, and publishing scam warnings.
Multi-Source Intelligence Gathering
Our editorial team monitors government travel advisories (US State Department, UK FCDO, Australian DFAT, and others), major travel forums (TripAdvisor, Reddit r/travel, Lonely Planet), verified news outlets, and traveler reports. Each source category is reviewed on a dedicated cycle so that recurring scam patterns are surfaced from the right places.
Categorization & Frequency Scoring
Every scam is tagged by type (taxi, street, restaurant, accommodation, etc.), severity (low / medium / high), and assigned a frequency score based on how many independent sources report the same pattern. Scams reported across multiple sources and time periods score higher and appear first.
Editorial Review Before Publishing
All entries are cross-referenced against existing data, duplicates removed, and anything inconsistent with the known pattern for that destination flagged for review. Entries with insufficient corroboration are held in pending review and not published — only verified, actionable warnings go live.
Community Confirmation
Travelers who have experienced a scam firsthand can confirm it using the "This happened to me" button on any warning card. Confirmation counts are tracked and displayed publicly. High confirmation counts from independent users increase a scam's credibility score. Users can also submit new scams for review via the report form.
Daily Updates
All five source feeds are reviewed on a 24-hour cycle. Every destination page is re-evaluated daily for new reports or changes in scam activity. Warnings that have not been corroborated by any new source within 12 months are flagged for re-review and may be downgraded or removed.
What Makes This Different
Not a Blog.
Not a Forum.
A Resource.
Every destination page on Before You Go shows you the specific scams reported in that city — what they look like, how they start, who typically gets targeted, and exactly what to do if one unfolds in front of you.
No affiliate links telling you what hotel to book. No sponsored recommendations. No "top 10 tips" padding. Just the information you actually need, stripped down and organized so you can read it in five minutes before you get on a plane.
We also let travelers contribute their own reports — because the best intelligence still comes from people who were just there.
No sponsored content
No affiliate hotel links, paid placements, or sponsored recommendations
No affiliate links
Our recommendations are never financially motivated
No fluff
Just the information you can use immediately
Editorial Standards
Our Editorial
Policy
Who Writes This
Before You Go is led by editor in chief Cody Campbell, who oversees destination research, scam pattern verification, and editorial review. Every entry is cross-referenced against multiple independent sources — government advisories, established travel communities, and verified news coverage — before publishing. Reader-submitted scam reports are reviewed before they appear on the site.
Our Sources
Every scam entry is compiled from at least two independent sources. We draw from:
- US State Department, UK FCDO, Australian DFAT advisories
- TripAdvisor, Reddit r/travel, Lonely Planet forums
- Verified international and local news coverage
- Traveler-submitted incident reports (reviewed before publishing)
Corrections Policy
We correct errors promptly. If a scam warning is outdated, inaccurate, or no longer active, we update or remove it. Warnings that have not been corroborated by any new source within 12 months are flagged for re-review. To report an error or outdated entry, use the report form on any destination page.
What We Don't Do
No sponsored content. No destination, hotel, or tour operator can pay to be featured or have warnings removed.
No affiliate links. We do not earn commission from travel bookings or third-party recommendations.
No unverified reports. User-submitted scam reports are held in review and not published until cross-referenced against existing sources.
Full Reference
Read the technical methodology
The detailed source catalogue, severity rubric, frequency-score scale, retirement criteria, and editorial review queue — the document our editorial team works against day-to-day.
Who We Are
We're
Travelers
Too.
We built Before You Go because we genuinely wished it had existed before our own trips. We've stood at the wrong taxi rank. We've ordered from the menu without prices. We've had the bracelet tied onto our wrist before we knew what was happening.
We're not a faceless company. We're people who love to travel and got fed up with feeling like marks the moment we landed somewhere new. This site is our way of giving travelers — especially first-timers heading somewhere unfamiliar — a fair shot.
Know before you go.
Travel more. Worry less.
Last updated: May 5, 2026