Macau crime · Crime in Macau
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Crime in Macau
Crime in Macau
You should beware of pickpockets, especially in crowded areas like tourist attractions and the border stations. Keep your valuables somewhere safe. Pickpockets usually come in a group and use one person to distract people while the others work.
Be wary of harassment from street prostitutes and hawkers handing out leaflets/flyers. Among the more insistent flyer flingers are Falun Gong, a religious/political organisation. If you do take one of their flyers (which is sometimes the easiest way to get rid of them) and you are going to mainland China, be sure dispose of it before crossing the border. The organisation is illegal in China and being caught "smuggling" some of their propaganda would be a major hassle.
Recently a scam involving mainland Chinese visitors asking for money has become widespread, mainly in downtown Macau. These people, who are usually properly dressed, claim to have lost their wallet and not to have eaten the whole day, asking for $20-30 to buy some food. The police have issued warnings in the local media not to give money to these people.
In the mid-90s, Macau had some vicious gang wars among the triads, mobsters with automatic weapons. Macau police had the situation partly under control by the time the Chinese took over in 1999. The current government seems to have it entirely under control; there has been no sign of open mob conflict in this century. The triads usually don't bother ordinary people, so the advice is not to mess with them (such as by borrowing money from loan sharks and then failing to repay it), and they won't mess with you!
After arriving in Macau at the ferry terminal, beware of touts offering cheap rides into town. If you accept their offers, expect to be taken first to shops, which offer the touts commission. If you stand your ground and refuse to enter these promoted shops, you could be turfed out somewhere in the territory, and not where you would like to be. Stay safe, and take time to find out suitable public transport routes, or take a proper taxi.
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Macau Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.