Hi Sue, hope you enjoyed your stay in benidorm, what fab weather!

We returned home tues afternoon, and unfortunately they are still there!, We noticed the same bloke twice during our stay, along lavante beach front. He was there monday, and we stopped for a nosey (Keeping our distances, and holding onto our bag's tightly!), I think he must have an english "Prop" with him now,(we heard her accent), and we saw the same girl (and her mother)on both occasions with him, she was handing over 50E at a time, you always notice one prop a few meter's away on the lookout for the police!

As for the beggars, we came accross a few, just further up from John n Josephs, and yes they always had a small puppy with them. (Never saw any children),we use to see them get up, and move onto another patch further up the road and plonk themselves down, hoping for better business!!!

Think you must have missed them sue, as they don't stay in one place for long, they soon get moved on. As we were walking away, my daft son shouted "Police", we had to leg it up that front, I expected a lynch mob running after us! . BBB

There are various nationalities working on these teams now. As BBB suggests, some of this year's intake of new recruits are in fact English, as it is hoped that they will be able to suck the British Holidaymakers into the trap. An English woman was amongst those recently arrested but it is such a lucrative trade that the fines imposed aren't really a sufficient deterrant to stop them from returning to 'work' as soon as they leave court.

There may be slightly fewer of them around at this time of year, but that is mainly because they can afford not to work all year round, as well as the fact that there may be fewer tourists to fall into their trap now than during peak summer.

David

we returned from benidorm last saturday we didnt see potato men first week but saw them loads time during our second week we saw them near don pancho near market and down sea front they have a few watching out for police we saw them in middle of the road and leaning on cars you know that they are watching out for police we saw the beggers every day but this time we didnt see any with children only dogs they were also in the square at night

My seven year old grand-daughter, Emily, sussed out the pea-men when we were there in June - she saw them putting the peas into their ears!! Luckily she didn't say anything at the time!
Wendy

According to my Spanish friend who has lived all her life either in Benidorm or just outside......

When these tricksters are brought before the courts, then all they can be charged with is illegal street trading, which isn't regarded as a very "serious crime" and therefore it seems that only monetary fines can be imposed upon them.
However, to take the matter further, then the person who has been ripped off also has to go to court to proceed with a more serious offence, but then they are also fined for partaking in illegal street gambling....hence there are not many tourists prepared to pursue the matter.....so, the tricksters simply pay the fine and return to the streets where they can recuperate the money paid to the courts....in a matter of hours.

You also have to remember that the pea/potato trick (timo de los trileros) is not classed as a trick in some cultures it started out as a game when people only had shells and pebbles to entertain themselves with so, until the monetary element was introduced, then it was/is simply entertainment/a game, just like snakes and ladders"¦no one stops you playing such games as snakes & ladders, ludo, tiddly winks on the street if you so wish.

I personally, have never understood why people pay so much attention to them......all you have to do is walk around/passed them and give them a wide berth.....it is your choice to engage with them, they don't come hassling you like the time share touts in some resorts"¦ where a simple walk to the beach becomes a nightmare of a task "running the gauntlet."

Beggars? Sorry I have no time for them, a good days hard work would do them good, and if they are illegal immigrants (which a high percentage of them are) then I'd put them back on the next boat to wherever they have come from.
Anyone who is disabled/old has absolutely no reason to go begging on the streets.... On the whole, Spain looks after its old folks better than the UK and the Spanish being a very family orientated race, wouldn't sit back and see their grandmother begging on the streets of Benidorm, or anywhere else for that matter.
Have you seen many Nursing homes in Spain"¦run and owned by the Spanish.? cos I haven't"¦only homes set up by ex-pats and full of ex-pats.
The Spanish State Health System is now classed as 9th in the world...the NHS being the 19th.

SanJi x

only homes set up by ex-pats and full of ex-pats.

hey sanji, where do I find these? I need a job haha

I'm not sure the pea men care whether anyone is taken in by them or not. It doesn't matter to them whether the player is a genuine mug or a plant. The main object is to get a crowd jostling around to try and get a closer look. The reason they skulk into corners is to make it harder for the crowd to see what's going on, encouraging them to close in more. The closer the crowd try to get the easier it is for their accomplices to pick their pockets.

When we were in Beni mid September we did not see any potato men at all, but we did see lots of beggars, particularly near the Pelicanos Hotel, John & Jospeh's and near the steps leading from Lucky's Bar. As someone else has aid we did not see any babies with them, but most had undernourished dogs!!!!

sorry but what is a pea man/potato man??

Come on Sanji, see if you can explain to her who they are and what they do without swearing.

Sue

Ok, here goes, on my best behaviour
Hola Meishka

The potato/pea men are a group of people who erect a makeshift table (usually always an upturned cardboard box) on the streets or on the promenade.
On the table are 3 items, either shells or half potatoes hulled out with a pea under one.
The object is to guess where the pea is, when they have been whizzed around the table.....and you can place money down to bet.

Sounds quite simple doesn't it.?
Unfortunately, it is a S C A M and you will never ever walk away winning....they may let you win once to entice you into thinking your luck is in and then place even larger monetary bets down....there might also be another "tourist" who wins and a crowd gathers around the table and everyone gets excited at the good luck that this particular tourist is having.

That lucky tourist is part of the "set up" and is not a tourist at all.
The S C A M has many members who are positioned at strategic points to look-out for the police and within seconds the cardboard table will be collapsed/discarded and the group members dispearsing amongst the crowds at the first whiff of the authorities approaching.

While the crowds gather around the table, then members of the S C A M will professionally pick your pockets.
They are nasty people and will resort to violence should you try and walk away with any winnings that you acquire....they pounce on you and proclaim that the game was the best of three or they just change the rules to suit themselves.

Keep away from them, they are low life scum, you will never ever get the better of them...NEVER.!!!!!

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Hi Sue
We stayed in Benidorm in September and seen the potato men quite a few times, especially along from the Don Pancho hotel.The other lot that gets my back up are the time share touts who hang around in the old town. They also hunt in packs and the majority of them are english which includes a woman on a disability scooter.They are offering tickets for a fiesta and before people know where they are they are whisked away in a taxi for about three hours and subjected to the hard sell, we seen a couple of old people being whisked away it's awful.

Westie

Thanks for putting me in the picture!

Just a heads up, we just came back from Beni and saw these con men - it was mentioned in the local rag there too.

It's the old find the pea trick, where they have three hollowed out half potatoes with a pea under one. They swap the spuds around and bet you 50 euros you can't pick which spud the peas now under. I suspect we've all at least heard of this before if not seen it for ourselves. Of course several 'friends' of the magician are in the audience picking correctly and 'winning' the money. Once you've let yourself be persuaded that there's easy money to be made and have a flutter yourself, of course the pea is never under the spud you thought it would be. The guy we saw, on the main strip not far from Tony Roma's using a little portable table, wasn't even that good - at one point I could see him pushing the pea around with the end of a finger whilst juggling the spuds....

Reminds me of a similar scam I saw in london many a moon ago, this one was three cards one of which was a queen. You bet your money on being able to find the queen after he'd finished moving the cards about. What was interesting was that as I watched a plainclothes policemen turned up, flashed some ID, arrested him and carted him away by foot. It took me a while to realise that the copper was almost certainly no copper at all but a way for both of them to disappear with peoples money without an argument.

Yep and its not just the Pea Men themselves you need to watch for, its the pick-pockets in the crowd around them. Theres more of them than you think. If you stand well back and look around you will see spotters on corners/junctions looking out for the police!

Best Regards - Taggy

Too true Taggy ,seen it with my own eyes last year and couldnt believe what was happening

The pea bloke was doing his tricks and whilst this was going on someone was going round the back of the audience trying to go through pockets and even pinching a chain from around some blokes neck

yip i always cross the road when i see the pea-men on the promenade ..as Taggy says , if you stand back you can see at least 4 spotters , who look as if they could handle themselves .

I feel sorry for anyone caught. out like this , the rep used to tell you about them on your arrival , but more and more companies arent bothering with reps , or people use resort hopper and the like.

There were a lot of them in action this year. I'm fairly sure that getting people to play the game isn't the object at all (who would be that stupid?) It is to get a crowd of people milling around them for the pickpockets to work over. I counted eight people who were obviously involved in one group, including two dressed as English tourists! It was quite funny to see the main man run off with his cardboard box "table" when one of the spotters saw a police car approaching.
I also noticed a couple of times that some of the people selling drinks on the beach were obviously up to no good, judging by their hilarious reactions when the beach patrols came near. That's part of the fun of the beach though, sitting watching the strange things that go on!

I think that the Spanish police have only themselves to blame.
I'm sure that they could stop them if they really wanted to .
Surely they have plain clothes police that could round these people up.
Maybe its not on top of their priority's