Living here in Bogota, I pride myself for blending in with the locals like a chameleon. I’m not blonde, I’m not tall, and I dress just like everyone else. As a matter fact, no one can tell I’m not from here until I open my mouth to speak. And truth is, I love it. Plus, if I avoid words with the letter ‘r’ I even sound pretty authentic.
Blending in avoids making me a target in the city full of petty theft. Not to mention, it helps me get good deals instead of tourist prices.
Nonetheless, this didn’t exempt me from being a victim of what I later found out was a common scam in Bogota.
Shoe Shining: The Popular Colombian Scam
You will see shoe shiner’s on the streets all over the city. For me, this concept was new. Although it seems old-fashioned, I found it nonetheless, amusing.
One day I was running errands and knew I would be going to Andino, a popular mall in the city. I wore my dirty leather ankle boots on purpose with the intention of having them shined.
As I come out of a store, I see a man shining his shoes and decide to give it a go myself. As the shoe shiner is finishing up polishing his client’s shoe, I ask him the price and he tells me, “tres mil” or about $1USD. So I say OK sure, why not. I confirm the price as I see that the client hands over a $5,000 COP peso bill and the shoe shiner hands back $2,000 COP.
Confirmed. It was $3,000.
I’m up next. I put my foot on his little stool and he gets down and starts polishing boot #1. While he’s down there, he mumbles to my shoe but I don’t answer as I don’t understand a word he was saying.
All of a sudden I see my boyfriend, a local bogotano, who just so happens to be wearing leather shoes as well and thinks it’s a pretty good idea to join me and get his shoes shined as well. I tell him it costs only $3,000 COP and another colleague of the shoe shiner rushes over and starts working on his shoes.
I finish first but as I’m about to handover my shoe shiner at $10,000 COP bill, he tells me the final cost is $26,000 COP, about $8.50 USD!
I freaked out and tell him he told me it was $3,000 COP. But he replies telling me I misheard and that is was $13,000 COP per shoe! Of course, he was obviously taking me for a fool and playing on the fact that I was a foreigner, saying that I didn’t understand.
I’ve only been speaking Spanish for the past 10 years…but OK.
You would think that I threw a fit. But there’s something funny that happens inside you when you know you are being scammed in the moment. Every person reacts differently. For me it was fear. I knew I was being scammed, yet I was unable to stand up for myself. I froze. I looked at my boyfriend in hope that he would save me but I had no such luck. He didn’t know what to say as he wasn’t there when the shoe shiner told me the price.
I was scared that if I didn’t pay him he would pull a knife on me or who knows what else. He didn’t have anything to lose after all. So foolishly, I paid him the $8.50 USD. Ouch. That really hurt.
But even worse, my local Colombian boyfriend also fell into the popular Colombian scam. He felt obliged and he paid his shoe shiner $20,000 COP. We both walked away red hot and furious. I don’t know why we didn’t approach the police on the street corner or make a scene as we were out in a very commercial area. I guess fear just took over.
A few months later, I was decided that I wouldn’t let the shoe shining experience be the last of it. Once again, I went to another popular area where shoe shiners set up shop and approached one of the men asking for the price beforehand.
I couldn’t believe what was happening. The guy was unable to give me a total price for both boots and quoted me for half the boot, the full boots, both boots.
He was playing stupid so I simply walked away. Angry. But at least I hadn’t gotten ripped off. I’d just clean my dirty boots at home myself.
And yet again a year later my boyfriend also gave it another go. Same price: $3,000 COP. But once again, the shoe shiner upped the amount. Unluckily, he only had a $50,000 COP bill on him (about $17 USD). The shoe shiner snapped the bill right out of his wallet and gave him back $30,000 pesos.
My boyfriend didn’t put up a fight as he was alone with two men. And out of anger, he starts taking pictures of the guys with his phone, telling them he would denounce them. Not very smart. One of the guys almost stole his phone.
After sharing our unlucky shoe shining stories with friends and colleagues, we found out this was a very popular scam in Bogota. We weren’t the only ones.
It’s happened to tourists and locals alike. So if you’re visiting Bogota and feel enticed to try to get in on the shoe shining experience, take my advice and save yourself the trouble.
It’s not all that anyways.
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19 comments
Googled this today, I ran into exactly the same situation today in 2021. Same area, across from Andino Mall at the Juan Valdez. Positive he said tres mil and I knew that was about the going rate. Cleaned both my shoes (tennis shoes) and I handed him 3,000 pesos, he said no trece mil (13,000). I said no. He kept insisting and pushed the money back across the table to me. I just ignored him, he went away, came back and again refused the 3000 pesos. I continued to say no. He went away again, then came back and tried to get 5000 pesos, I said no and he finally snatched the 3000 pesos, swore at me and left.
I wasn’t really concerned for my safety and absolutely was not giving him 13,000 pesos for a 5 minute shoe cleaning.
He told me that his soap was special soap and that was why it was 13,000 pesos. Yeah, sure it was buddy, go away.
I’m so glad to hear you stood your ground! (Unlike me)
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Very well written, thanks for the tips! Indeed, Colombia has come a long way since the time of the roaring drug trade, and is today one of the most enjoyable countries in South America. However, there are tourist-targeting scammers and petty crime to be wary of.
Do be wary of the gold / emerald shop price scam, fake towel charge, airport unofficial taxi robbery, carjacking, drug set-up, fraudulent money changers, unsolicited tours, hostel attacks and many more!
Still happening with the added twist around Centro Andino is that they tell you they have a shoe cleaner they want to show you on one foot – when I kept insisting that he tell me what he wants for doing both, he finally said 22,000 – I told him that it was much cheaper at the Plaza de Lourdes and no thanks – walked home with one shoe looking better than the other but fixed up a match with a rag and some polish when I got home. I’m sure I would have got the 22,000 each line if I’d lingered.
Glad you didn’t bite the bait!
I’m sorry this happened to you. I’ve had my shoes shined a number of times in NE Bogota (mostly around Avenida de Chile) and never had any problems whatsoever. And I speak with a Castillian (Spain) accent, so it’s not like they think I’m Colombian.
That’s a good area to get shoes shined
[…] Knock on wood. As I write this, I have been lucky to not have been a victim of theft or petty crime yet. Except for that one time I got totally ripped off with by a street shoe shiner. […]
I went today and one was trying to insist on 110,000 when he was finished (yes, you read that correctly. He even wrote it on his hand to make sure I understood.) And I only had a 50,000 bill on me. Which he took. And I’m still pi$$ed.
I had someone today try to get 110,000 (yes, you read that right! He wrote it on his hand) from me today. AND I only had a 50k in my pocket so he took all of that. I need to get over it but I’m so pi**ed.
OMG! I’m sorry to hear that. Where did this happen?
Your story certainly makes me want to go and live alongside of you, and get into hairy altercations that border on street crime and involve the local police, for shoe shining. It sounds exciting, and I don’t speak spanish nearly at all. What a thrill, walking through the streets and barrios all the while knowing that there are con artists standing around waiting to bilk you, if you’re carefree enough. It gives me goosebumps, and I anticipate the Day I can/could even visit such a fascinating place.
This is crazy! But it’s good that you actually realized that you were being scammed. I was also scammed during one of my travels abroad. I was literally hypnotized into giving a guy my phone and all the bills in my pocket! Good thing I only had about $100 on me then!
Wow! That is really scary. The most important is that you are OK 🙂
I’m from Bogota and I had never heard about this scam before!
No one told me about it until I started telling everyone about it. It’s not uncommon!
I’m sorry you and boyfriend have been victims of this scam. Once or twice a year I use the the services of the shoe shiners in front of Lourdes and have never had problems, so perhaps it depends what area of the city you have your shoes shined? That said, I only go with exactly 3.000 in my pocket. Never do I pull pesos out of my wallet in front of them.
Hi Brad.Thanks for your message. I went around the Andino area. Typical place for getting ripped off! And yes, having the exact amount of cash to pay for the service also helps 🙂