Tourist warns of terrifying new street scam using friendship bracelet

Every year millions of people flock to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, enjoy a cup of coffee in the picturesque streets and eat delicious food.

But lately, visitors have been warned to be extra vigilant as more and more street scams pop up in the French capital.

Now an Italian tourist in Monmarte, Paris, has warned about a terrifying new scam he fell victim to in ‘broad daylight’ leaving him visibly shaken.

Fabrizio Moroni, passing by @fabriziovmoroni on TikTokmoved to Paris in September this year to study French – he is also a content creator documenting his travels.

The student made a video narrating his scary experience and how he escaped. The clip has been seen by more than 640,000 people in just a few days, with many others revealing in the comments that they have been in a similar situation.

With a red face and tears in his eyes, he told viewers: ‘It happened to me too, I mean it happens to everyone once in a lifetime in Paris, but yes, I was the victim of a bracelet scam in Monmarte.

“Sorry for my eyes and voice, but I’m quite shocked, it was all very scary.”

He explained: ‘I was in Monmarte with my girlfriend and we were just walking down the stairs and having a good time, and when we got to the bottom of the stairs I didn’t even look around, I just talked to her.

“I see this man coming towards me and he was quite intimidating because he was a very big, tall man.

“He came to me and said, ‘Take it, take it.’ I was thinking ‘no thank you, no thank you’ until he aggressively grabbed my arm.

‘Like, it hurt me. He literally said ‘it’s a symbol of friendship, it’s offensive if you don’t accept it’ and the more I resisted it, the more men, other scammers, would come walking up to me.”

As Fabrizio began to realize he was being surrounded, other men who were with the con man began to intervene.

He said: ‘The other man said ‘respect him, respect him’, stay quiet. I was like, ‘I respect him, I just don’t want it – please let me go.’

“By the time I said this, there were literally six or seven guys standing around me, and I was right in the middle of them.

‘My arm was obviously still blocked, I had my wallet in my pocket and my phone in the other pocket.

“I was like, it literally takes them a second now to rob me of everything and just leave and there was no one around, no police.”

The Italian added: ‘This was certainly not the first time they did this.

‘At one point I had the strength, I don’t even know what to say, the courage to say let me go and I managed to push two of them aside and run away.

‘I was running for my life, I was literally running without even looking back. So be careful if you ever go to Monmarte.”

The terrifying incident took place on the steps of the Sacre Coeur Church in Montmartre, a popular tourist area.

He warned: ‘Make sure you go down the outer stairs, the ones at the sides, and not the middle ones at the very bottom, and stay safe.

“If you ever see someone coming towards you with a bracelet, just run away.”

Fabrizio told MailOnline: ‘It was very shocking, I go to this place every other weekend and it never occurred to me that this would happen, but I usually take the other stairs.

‘Usually I walk around it and take the outside stairs, but this time I didn’t think about it. I was with my friend and it all happened in a matter of seconds. I didn’t have time to process what was going on.’

It’s the first time someone has tried to scam him since he moved to the French capital, and the experience makes him feel even more unsafe.

The student explained, “I knew they would stop you and try to sell you a bracelet in a friendly way, but I didn’t expect them to be so aggressive.

“I remember it was going to happen to me once in Milan, but I said no a few times and they left, but in this case, the more I said no, the more the guys surrounded me.

“The guy who kept saying ‘respect him’ started saying it in a way that I was the problem, that I was disrespectful, that I wasn’t nice to them, when I was literally being attacked by seven men.”

When Fabrizio told his friends ‘help’, the fraudsters became even angrier.

He believes there was “nothing he could have done” and briefly thought, “Is this it?”

The student said: ‘My friend tried to intervene but they were in the way so she couldn’t really do anything, and a man also tried to grab her wrist.

“At that moment I found the strength to push them away a little and then we started running.”

Besides making sure you take the other stairs, walk around or opt for a cable car, a more general rule is ‘never take anything from anyone’.

He explained that even though in his case it was literally connected to him, in less extreme incidents people “want that” be nice and they will accept it because they trust the person that it will be free.”

“But then, once they accept the bracelet, they will start asking you for money in a very forceful way.

‘There are a lot of scams going on and until last week I didn’t feel like they were actually happening because I’ve never been a victim of them.

“Since then I’ve been more like, OK, yeah, I should actually be more careful.”

Despite still being shocked by the incident, Fabrizio says it is a common scam across Europe and he does not believe Paris itself is a dangerous place. He just wants to warn that tourists are being ‘targeted’ more than French people.

He remained positive and advised: ‘This should not deter people from visiting Paris.

“It should let them know that, like in any other big city, people need to be a little more careful, especially when visiting the most touristy areas of the city, like this one, the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre.”

Commenters quickly jumped in to share their own similar experiences and help warn others.

One user revealed ‘Same in Montmartre and they showed a knife too’.

Another wrote: ‘It happened to me in exactly the same situation, walking past these stars. Less aggressive but disturbing.

‘I took it off in public toilets and washed my hands. I didn’t want to take this energy home with me.’

Fabrizio replied, “I only kept it to make this video, but I threw it away right after.”

Someone else added: ‘It happened to me too and I’m French but it helped because I know what to do. It’s just because I know how to threaten them in French and to get them out of my face you can also shout’.

However, the TikToker said: ‘Unfortunately there’s nothing I could have done to avoid it other than not taking those damn stairs.’

Another asked: ‘Yes. I’m going there next weekend. Was it late?’, to which he revealed ‘2pm in broad daylight’.

Meanwhile, others wrote: ‘It happened to me in London and Athens too!! Be careful and try to appear confident’ and ‘this happened to me too!! but one of my friends came up and pushed the boys off me, thank God for that’.

One viewer advised: ‘It happened to me in 2011, it happened to my partner in 2017. Keep your hands in your pockets, be COLD and ignore people.’