Other Tourist Scams in Baku

Fake Antique Carpet Certificate Fraud

Carpet merchants in the Old City (Icheri Sheher) and along Neftchilar Avenue sell machine-made or modern carpets as genuine hand-woven Azerbaijani antiques, accompanied by forged certificates of authenticity stamped with official-looking export permits. Tourists pay AZN 500–2000 (€275–1100) believing they are acquiring a collectible item, only to discover on return home that the carpet is a low-cost reproduction worth a fraction of the purchase price. In some cases, the export certificate itself is fraudulent, causing the carpet to be confiscated at customs.