Each year, millions of people flock to Paris to see the Eiffel tower, sip on coffee its quaint streets and eat delicious food.
But recently visitors are being warned to be extra vigilant as ever more street scams are popping up in the French capital.
Now, an Italian tourist in Monmarte, Paris, has warned of a terrifying new scam that he fell victim to in ‘broad daylight’ and left him visibly shaken.
Fabrizio Moroni, who goes by @fabriziovmoroni on TikTok, moved to Paris to study French in September this year – he’s also a content creator who documents his travels.
The student made a video recounting 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 in the comments revealing that they’ve been in a similar situation.
An Italian tourist in Monmarte, Paris, has warned of a terrifying scam that he fell victim to in ‘broad daylight’ and left him visibly shaken
Red faced and teary eyed, he told viewers ‘It happened to me too, I mean it happens to everyone once in your lifetime in Paris but yeah, I was a victim to a bracelet scam in Monmarte.
‘Sorry for my eyes and voice but I’m kind of shocked, the whole thing was very scary’.
He explained ‘I was in Monmarte with my friend and we were just walking down the stairs and having a good time and then as we got to the bottom of the stairs, I wasn’t even looking around I was just talking to her.
‘I see this man coming up to me and he was very kind of intimidating cause he was a very big tall man.
‘He came to me and he said ‘take it, take it’. I was like ‘no thank you, no thank you,’ until he grabs my arm aggressively.
‘Like, it hurt me. He literally said ‘it’s a friendship symbol, it’s offensive if you don’t take it’ and the more I would kind of resist to it, then more men, other scammers, would start walking towards me.’
As Fabrizio began to realise he was being circled, other men who were with the scammer began to chime in.
He said ‘The other man was like ‘respect him, respect him’, stay still. I was like ‘I am respecting him, I just don’t want it – please let me go’.
Fabrizio Moroni, who goes by @fabriziovmoroni on TikTok , made a video recounting the scary experience and how he escaped
‘By the time I said this there were literally six or seven men surrounding me and I was in the middle of them.
‘My arm was of course still blocked, I had my wallet in my pocket and my phone in my other pocket.
‘I was like, it literally takes them one second now to rob me of everything and just leave and there was nobody around, no police’.
The Italian added ‘This was certainly not the first time that they did this.
‘At some point I had this 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.
‘I ran for my life, I literally ran without even looking back. So please, please 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 area for tourists.
He warned ‘Make sure that you walk down the outer stairs, the one on the sides, not the central one that gets to the very bottom of it and stay safe.
The terrifying incident took place on the steps of the Sacre Coeur Church in Montmartre (pictured) – a popular area for tourists
‘If you ever see anyone approaching 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 occured to me this would happen, but I do usually take the other stairs.
‘I usually go around and take the outer stairs but this time I didn’t think about it. I was with my friend and the whole thing happened in a matter of seconds. I didn’t have the 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 has left him feeling more unsafe.
The student explained ‘I knew that they would stop you and try to sell you a bracelet in a friendly way, but I didn’t expect them to be as aggressive.
‘I remember once, it was about to happen to me to in Milano but I said no a few times and they left, but in this case, the more I said no, the more the guys would surround me.
‘The guy that kept saying ‘respect him’ started putting it in a way that I was the problem, that I was being disrespectful, that I was not being kind to them, whereas I was literally being assaulted by seven men’.
When Fabrizio mouthed ‘help’ to his friends, the fraudsters allegedly got even angrier.
He believes there’s ‘nothing he could have done’ and for a second he even thought : ‘Is this it?’
The student said ‘My friend tried to step in but they got in the way, so she really couldn’t do anything, and a guy also tried to to grab her her wrist.
He explained ‘At some point I had this 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’
‘In this moment I found this strength to kind of push them away and then we started to run’.
As well as making sure you take the other set of stairs, walk around or opt for a cable car instead, a more general rule is to ‘never take anything from anyone’.
He explained that even though in his case, it was literally tied to him, in less extreme incidents, people ‘want to be kind and they accept because they trust the person that it will be for free’.
Adding ‘But then, the moment they accept the bracelet, they will start asking you for money in a very forceful way.
‘There are many scams going on and until last week, I didn’t feel like they actually were there, because I never was victim to any of those.
‘Ever since that I’m more like, okay, yeah, I actually have to be more careful.’
Despite still being shaken up by the incident, Fabrizio says that it’s a very common scam around Europe and he doesn’t believe Paris itself is a dangerous place – he just wants to warn that tourists get ‘targeted’ more than French people.
Remaining positive, he advised ‘this shouldn’t scare people away from visiting Paris.
‘It should just let them know that as much as any other major city, people have to be a little more careful, especially when visiting the most touristic areas in the city like this one or the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre’.
Commenters quickly chimed in to share their own similar experiences and help warn others.
One user revealed ‘Same thing in Montmartre and they also showed a knife’.
Remaining positive, he advised ‘this shouldn’t scare people away from visiting Paris. It should just let them know that as much as any other major city, people have to be a little more careful’
Another wrote ‘it happenned to me in the exact same situation, walking down these stars. Less agressive but disturbing.
‘I took it off in public toilets and washed my hands. I didn’t wanted to take this energy home’.
Fabrizio replied ‘I only kept it to make this video but I threw it 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 scream’.
However, the TikToker said ‘Unfortunately there was nothing I could have done to avoid it, except for not taking those damn stairs’.
Another questioned ‘Yikes. I’m going there next weekend. Was it late?,’ to which he revealed ‘2pm broad daylight’.
Meanwhile, others penned ‘Also happened to me in London and Athens!! Be careful and try to appear confident’ and ‘this happened to me too!! but one of my friends came up and pushed the guys off me, thank goodness for that’.
One viewer advised ‘Happened to me in 2011, happened to my partner in 2017. Keep your hands in your pockets, be COLD and ignore people.’
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