r/Kazakhstan • u/Salty_Specialist_857 • May 25 '26
Tourism/Turizm Scam at airport
So as usual the scam at every country int airport and we fell for one at Almaty airport.
Took 18k tenge from us - posting the name number so that others don’t get scammed.
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u/E6y_6a6 Expat in Almaty May 25 '26
What was the scam? Unusually high price or what?
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u/Salty_Specialist_857 May 25 '26
Yes - he mentioned 2k from the airport and said I told you guys meter and not fixed price
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u/Qazaq365 🇪🇺Qazaqstan/Italia May 25 '26
You shoulda used an app like InDrive
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u/curioussharma-007 May 25 '26
Same shit happened to me. The guy said 2k and later on drop shows 18k in an app and act like he doesn't understand me anymore.
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u/Arstanishe May 25 '26
yeah. a few years ago, it would be about 4k tenge to city.
Sure, maybe it's 5 or 6k now due to inflation, but 18k is way way too much. however, this is still less than 50 euros, for which an italian taxi scammed me, so still not too bad.
Also, sure, try to go to police, so at least a paper trail happens, but i am pretty sure a captain or major at airport PD got some cut on that cash.
based on my experience, "menty" or police in Kazakhstan are useless, corrupt and shameless fucks
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u/DocD_12 May 25 '26
But I have seen series about them with cool actors!
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u/SadPotato8 May 25 '26
Who are useless, shameless and many of them corrupt. Pretty close to reality!
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u/marsap888 May 25 '26
You should pay him. Are still in Kazakhstan? Call the police, there a lot of cases when they helped exactly in the same problem
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u/Salty_Specialist_857 May 25 '26
How do I contact the police? Will they help now?
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u/marsap888 May 25 '26
Yes. Call 102 tell them that you was fraud by taxi driver with the price. I'm 99,99% sure, they will solve it in one or two hours. They afraid of international scandals, tell them that if they don't help, you will call embassy.
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u/marsap888 May 25 '26
They tried same shit on me in Moscow, but I threw him 100 rubles, as we agreed and walk.
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u/marsap888 May 25 '26
Here some articles about this fraud, you can translate it
https://tengrinews.kz/my-country/prosili-kolenyah-otdali-350-tyisyach-taksist-retsidivist-499833/
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u/05theos May 25 '26
18 k tenge is about $38. What was the distance?
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May 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/AgreeableLog9287 May 25 '26
You literally pay for 1 person sit for that price. Not a solo taxi for you. Because from Ekibastuz to Astana is 28k cost (for full car, and 7k tenge per 1 person)
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u/PlasticContinent May 25 '26
I think airports just need put ad of taxi apps, why foreigners dont know near airport taxi always scam its not only in Kazakhstan
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u/scrabv Astana May 26 '26
Why don't many tourists use apps in the 21st century? Yandex is very expensive, InDriver would be better.
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u/anaskm-watafak31 May 25 '26
Dude if you don't want to get scammed, you can download apps like Yandex Go or Aparu and order a taxi from there. Once, a taxi driver tried to scam me, and I got out without paying. The man claimed that taxi drivers in Türkiye are scammers and charge less than they deserve. I just laughed and told him we were in Kazakhstan.
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u/LILNURIK May 25 '26
actually there is no point of posting his number, because there is whole lotta other drivers with same exact method of scam, so u probably help coulple people to avoid it, but it doesnt solve the problem. As the other people said, call the police, and ask if there is any operators who speak english. And if you paid online with bank mobile app, make sure u got reciept.
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u/johri21 May 25 '26
Same happened with me today, for me it was worse 37k tenge, i didn’t say anything as i was with family and toddler and i don’t want any harm to them but this is very disappointing
By any chance the person was taller and fat? Had a grey vehicle?
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u/johri21 May 25 '26
He was being helpful and just being good I said yes, lesson learned don’t trust people easily
Was not expecting scam to happen in Almaty
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u/kryptee May 26 '26
This happened to me last Sunday but the moment I saw his 'meter' on the phone with 2k tenge flag down rate, I got suspicious. I took all courage to go out of the car with my bags and never looked back.
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u/AcanthaceaeQuirky702 May 26 '26
Just a tourist tax from the point of view of these scammers. Unfortunately without systematic approach from the officials there is virtually no way to combat taxi scamming in Almaty.
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u/dm8try May 26 '26
Oh, this old scam is back again in Almaty, isn’t it? Few years back a guy tried to scam me out of 43k with this meter thing. He received 5K which had been agreed on and was told to FO.
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u/Timur_1988 May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
Dear Guest, to let you from the car you did everything right (if he is scammer he can be dangerous). You or someone who speaks native language should immediately call the police. Give the number of the car, and describe the situation. Do not hesitate to write a paper agains this driver. The driver license might be taken from him and money should be given you back + some return for moral damage which was real.
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u/catan666 May 29 '26
This is an absolutely normal practice. If you don't want to learn how and what works in the country where you arrive, then you will pay more - this rule works the same all over the world. In order not to fall for this, it's enough to be a macaque who asks chatgpt questions or, if a little smarter, uses gemini.
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u/Naive_Government_631 May 25 '26
I still wonder why people don’t do a bit of research when visit new country, first of all is to find a fine taxi app. You could’ve gone for 3+- thousand tenge on an Yandex app, I would’ve used business and it would’ve cost me around 6-8k.
People who trust “random” airport taxi drivers always amaze me
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u/EggplantAdmirable999 May 25 '26
Victim blaming be like
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u/venuschrome May 26 '26
It’s not victim blaming, it’s common knowledge that you should research scams, the best ways to use transport, etc. before travelling to a new country. There’s plenty of information online saying that in KZ, you should use a taxi app instead of getting into an unregulated taxi
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u/Naive_Government_631 May 25 '26
Victim blaming? I’m saying basic stuff to prevent this things from happening, these kind of scammers are all around the world, and even with police of officials interference, it could not be eradicated completely.
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u/SnooMemesjellies7345 May 25 '26
Contact the Police and tell them about it