Aussie tourist shares urgent scam warning after filming 'easy-to-miss' detail at Bali cash exchange booth
Footage was posted to TikTok on Tuesday showing a man at a currency exchange booth trying to exchange $100AUD to Indonesian Rupiah.
The tourist counted the bills to make sure he was given the right amount before putting them down and telling the Balinese worker to leave them alone.
The worker then picked up the bills and began recounting them in front of the tourist before appearing to slide some back behind the counter.
The Aussie tourist was onto him immediately.
'You just dropped it behind the counter bro, it's enough,' he said before walking away.
The Aussie urged other tourists to be vigilant.
'This is not the first time it's happened. I kept saying leave the bills there after I'd counted them, but he kept handling the cash,' he said.
The video was viewed two million times with other Aussies saying they had seen it before.
'They have been doing this exact scam for 25 years,' one person wrote.
'Oldest scam in Bali, go to a reputable money changer, not a backyard hack,' another said.
But many Aussies couldn't find anything wrong with the video, saying they didn't see the worker drop the money behind the counter.
'I genuinely didn't see anything happen,' one wrote.
'I've watched it many times on slow and even zoomed in but can't see a thing,' another said.
What happened was the staffer counted the money in front of the tourist and swiped as many notes as they could onto a hidden desk below, before handing back the cash.
They attempted to trick the customer by continually counting or touching the cash to confuse and distract the tourist in order to short-change them.
'The video does not capture (it) well, but he slipped it down then was about to count again in front of him before he got called out,' one person wrote.
'When he picks up the bills you can clearly see a couple bills are by his pinky finger, when he brought it close to him, he slides them down behind the counter,' another said.
Tourists have been told to count their money out again before leaving a money exchange store.
Last year, a woman confronted a kiosk worker after realising she'd been short-changed one million Indonesian Rupieh ($93AUD) in Sanur, south-east Bali.
'Sorry, you give me one mil' less, not enough. You give me four not five', she said.
Local news source the Bali Sun said tourists needed to search for up-to-date licenses from kiosks or conduct their money exchanges at official places like banks.
Travel Money Group said Aussies should purchase a travel card before they left for Bali.
'Particularly in Bali, where cash is king, the safest option is to use a trusted foreign exchange provider before you leave Australia,' Travel Money Group general manager Scott Mccullough said.
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