00:00In the heart of Europe lies Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic and one of Europe's biggest tourist attractions.
00:07But behind the picturesque scenes, some tourists fall into traps and scams they did not even know existed.
00:14From taxis charging triple the real fare to bars billing hundreds of euros for a few drinks.
00:21But Czech journalist and YouTuber Janek Rubes along with his colleague Honza Mikulka have made it their mission to expose scammers.
00:28Through their YouTube channel, the duo have been helping tourists for the last decade to be aware of scams in one of Europe's most visited cities.
00:40I run a YouTube channel called Honest Guide which is in English and we try to provide tourists with information regarding our city, the city of Prague here in Czech Republic.
00:51And that information being not only what's good to see but also what's good to avoid as in scams and tourist traps or venues that will not be a pleasant memory for their trip.
01:05Janek and his colleague have exposed dozens of scams in Prague and beyond.
01:09One of the most common traps in Prague is overpriced taxi rides.
01:14In a recent video, Janek stopped a taxi driver in the city who charged tourists over 60 euros instead of 30 for a short ride.
01:22He flagged the scam in real time and with help from the police, he got the tourists' money back.
01:27It's this kind of action that has earned Janek and Honza the trust of travelers around the world.
01:36So there's very few crooked taxi drivers but they do make up the image for the entire group of taxi drivers in Prague which is a pity.
01:44But as the one is behind me or a few around the main train station and very few around the airport, they still overcharge.
01:53They still do what is written in many guidebooks from the 90s that if you come to Prague, you better beware of crooked taxi drivers.
02:01And 2025, they're still around and they illegally use the spaces.
02:05Almost all the trips end up with an overcharge and they will not take a Czech customer because Czech customer will not pay what a foreigner would.
02:16Honest Guide doesn't just bust taxi scams.
02:19They have exposed scammers at ATMs, money exchange outlets and cafes where tourists have been ripped off without realising it.
02:27Now, thanks to their work, many scammers and tricksters have been exposed and their businesses have been shut down.
02:33Others have been fined and the city authorities have been forced to respond.
02:39And this was a case of sellers, vendors selling tickets on Old Town Square.
02:44It's not legal to sell tickets on the square.
02:46So they claimed or they pretended to be a charity and they said, we're giving money from the ticket to a charity.
02:52If you want to change something, you have to start pointing fingers to people and sort of tell them, I don't like doing that.
02:58I hate to show up on camera and say, that guy is responsible and he should change the law.
03:03And in this case, I think I did it. That's why they changed the law.
03:07Janek receives dozens of emails every day, from people thanking him for saving them from scammers,
03:13helping them avoid shady businesses and even alerting him to new scams.
03:18Thanks to their videos, many tourists now arrive in Prague prepared and cautious.
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