Every year about half a billion people become official tourists. They leave behind about $423 billion in money on the official level. No one knows how much they contribute to the local thugs and con men. Tourists are robbed and beaten in most countries, but many never bother to report the incidents knowing full well the futility.

Tourists congregate in the same places. They drive in a state of rubbernecking ecstasy. And they are terrified of local law enforcement.

One of things that bad people want besides your money is your passport. The U.S. Embassy issued 1100 replacement passports to travelers last year, 1060 in Italy and 250 in Prague. The most common problem is pick pocketing (about 30 percent of crimes), followed by break-ins into cars. Nobody likes to be considered a tourist; we are travelers, cultural ambassadors yearning to soak up new experiences and sights. In America, few local people stray downtown after dark. Unfortunately, many tourists stay in business hotels built downtown and go for early morning jogs or late night strolls. Are they crazy? No, they're just tourists.

It seems odd, but the most dangerous places for tourists are where tourists hang out. In Europe, pickpockets and thieves like to hang out exactly where you will: the American Express offices (how did they know I just picked up a ton of cash?), popular tourist attractions, main squares and train stations.

Crowds are ideal areas for minor theft, getting on buses or trains, waiting in line for museums or even going to the bathroom. But the top spot to get ripped off is where the tourists are. It's the ideal place to meet con men, gypsy beggars, pickpockets and other minor ne'er do wells.
If you want to meet violent thugs and muggers you will have to wait until the sun goes down and hang around tourist bars. You know, those places where bus tourists sneak you away to down a few drinks and see the local lovelies without the benefit of clothing. Sometimes your new friend will drug your drink or will cause a scene with the bouncer resulting in your expulsion (minus your wallet). Your new drinking buddies may invite you to a swinging club which just happens to be in a deserted alley.

Trains
In Russia, China, Central and Southeast Asia, Georgia and Eastern Europe, trains are targets of organized thefts and abductions. In Central Asia and Eastern Europe thieves inject gas into sleeping cars. Pickpockets and petty thieves jump on at one stop, clean out cabins and then jump off at the next stop usually before a border.
Buses
Buses are prime targets of criminals and terrorists because they hold a lot of people in a confined area, have few exits and generally travel rural routes-also, the unarmed passengers are usually carrying most of their earthly belongings with them. Buses also follow regular routes along remote roads which allows the civilized bandit to pull off an 11:30 a.m. ambush and make it home for lunch. Checkpoints will shake you down for nonexistent drugs, unexpired visas, and lack of special permission for their area. Local thieves will jump aboard, rummage through the roof luggage and then jump off long before you notice your nice frameless pack missing.
Automobiles
Young kids will watch you park in the tourist attraction's parking lot and then swoop down to clean out your trunk. Junkies will smash every single car window along the beach in the Caribbean to find the wallets kept safe and dry inside. Skinny teenagers in cheap leather jackets will wait until you park your new rental car in Moscow before stealing it and hustling it off to Baku.

More Dangerous Places for Tourists
Here's a brief overview of where tourists are considered the daily sustenance for bad people.

North America/Mexico
The United States is plagued with inner-city crime. Guns are commonly used, and convenience store clerks should get combat pay. Tourists are under attack, often with more violent consequences than are found in many "uncivilized" countries. Mexico is still wild and woolly. Big, bad Mexican desperadoes still exist. Mexico's frontiers are rife with mean, dusty border towns where anything can be had for a price. Corrupt federales, will steal your money and sell you back your personal belongings. Cheap, dark bars still sell ammo, drugs and women. Convention hall-sized whorehouses feature nonstop knife fights. Petty crime flourishes in resort areas.
Jamaica mixes ganja, sun and reggae with a massive murder rate. Other Caribbean islands have their grubby little spots where tourists come to do bad things and end up thumped, robbed or killed.

South America
Mexico is Utah compared to Colombia. Kidnappers in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil await you. Pickpockets and thugs in Rio hope that tourism will pick up before the death squads kill them all.

Africa
In Algeria, Islamic fundamentalists are killing foreigners as fast as they can. Nobody even thinks of going to Mauritania unless they want to be kidnapped and sold off as a white slave. Djibouti still has rebel activity and Ethiopia and Somalia have the meanest bandits in the world. The Sudan has a very vicious war being waged in the South.

Sub-Saharan Africa
The Hutu and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi are still whacking each other with pangas and, if they by chance see a tourist, will stop fighting long enough to roll them. The mean deeds of folks in the Congo, Central African Republic, South Africa, and Nigeria would make a Russian gangster blush. Desperately poor urban thieves and roving bandits in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda are stepping up crimes against tourists, and Madagascar requires a cautious approach as it slides into anarchy. Adventure travel to the outlands and cities of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Angola are strictly for soldiers of fortune since even aid workers are fair game in these places.

Middle East/Mediterranean
Eastern Turkey is a mess: The Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, has the tourist- terrorism thing down pat. The PKK issued a warning that effectively broadens their battleground to hotels, beaches and other tourist attractions. They take great pleasure in ensuring that the lives of all people visiting Turkey will be in danger. There are also nasty things being done by rival Kurdish factions, Armenian terrorists, the special ops groups, drug smugglers, Hezbollah and more in Northern Iraq.

Europe
Europe is supposed to be a safe haven for tourists, but petty crimes in the tourist areas and central cities are common. Skinheads are busy in Germany bashing people with brown eyes and foreign accents. The Basque ETA in Spain likes to blow things up. Paris is crawling with gypsies and petty thieves. Sicily is still home to bandits who like to prey on tourists with lupares (sawed-off shotguns). Petty thievery runs rampant along the beach resorts of Spain, France and Italy during tourist season.

South/Central/Western Asia
The southern part of Russia is a seething mass of conflict with separatist, ethnic, mafia, drug and religious groups blasting each other into shreds. Afghanistan and Tajikistan are destitute, perpetual battlefield crisscrossed by drug smugglers. Pakistan has roving bandits and hot-headed killers that will rob policemen and armed convoys just for their bullets. Northern Sri Lanka is a bona fide war zone even though the beaches are full in the south.

Southeast Asia
Cambodia is a continual game of push-me pull-you as they play tug of war for control of the country. Meanwhile there are still enough land mines to put Doctor Scholl out of business. The north of Myanmar is still controlled by drug lords and hardwood timber smugglers. Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya still have local tribal wars that break out around eco-trekkers. The sex tourism industry in Thailand and the Philippines along with prevalence of AIDS in Southeast Asia poses a different type of threat for the adventurous.

The Sting - When traveling through Asian countries you could be the victim of overzealous law enforcement agents. In India and Thailand, there have been reports of threats of arrest on drug charges unless you give officers money. In Thailand, police officers make a monthly salary of about US$200. Thai police officers and their informants can receive a reward of 10,000 baht per kg of pure heroin recovered. It has been stated that after refusing these demands some foreign travelers were booked and charged for using heroin.

Some travelers have paid US$150-200 to get these cops off their backs. If you are taken to court in Thailand, the odds are not good. No foreigner has been acquitted of an offense in more than 20 years. In India, there are 40 young Westerners serving lengthy jail sentences who claim they were sent to prison on bogus charges.

Due to the severity of sentences and the low salaries of officers, Thailand, Malaysia and India can be considered the most dangerous destinations for backpacking youngsters. Indonesia, the Philippines and Latin America are also danger spots. The only solution is to avoid looking like a hippie, don't travel alone and try to get witnesses if you feel you are being pushed into an unethical transaction.

China/Far East
China is pushing its people to desperation and, despite more executions than there are daytime soap operas in Hollywood. Crime is increasing.

A DP Survival Course: Seven Things That Will Save Your Life

1. Be alert - Crooks need you to be distracted, lost, in need of assistance, or simply in the wrong place. Just adopting the habit of stopping and watching people around (and behind you) will arm you against crime.

2. Be sober - Alcohol, drugs, jet lag and having too good a time can fuzz your common sense, making you think for one unfortunate moment that you are with cool cats when you're really among wolves. Even pleasant encounters with the locals in bars can lead to ugly bruises and lost pesos if you don't stay in control. Scams begin when the perpetrator thinks he can overcome your better judgment. Bars and nightclubs are also where bad people hang out.

3. Use it or lose it - Preventing theft begins when you pack. If you are taking too many things or are forced to leave items in your car or hotel, you dramatically increase the chances of losing those things. Travel light, plan on giving away most of the items you bring and perhaps buying local clothes at your destination.

4. Insure and ensure -  I know this is something Marlin Perkins would tell you, but it really does make a difference if your camera, clothes, health and even life are insured against loss when travelling. Travelers checks are a pain, but worth it for large blocks of cash. Also, credit cards let you do everything from chartering aircraft to buying blowguns, and even Medivac insurance ensures that you can be flown to your local hospital if you get hit by a poison dart.

5. Trust no one, suspect everyone - When you travel, you will meet hundreds of strangers with either pure or unpure thoughts. It all depends on the image you present. If you are interested in their kids, their health and their family, the chances of something evil happening to you decrease. At the same time understand that financial pressures in some countries might force these same people to finger you to a gang of thugs, or pick your pocket.

6. Stay away from tourists - Tourists attract petty criminals and con artists like dogs attract fleas. It goes without saying that crime occurs at youth hostels, tourist attractions, main plazas, red light districts and other popular spots.

7. Prevent opportunists -  Crime generally occurs after you change $2000 at the Amex office or your wife hitches up her girdle to get $10 to pay the museum tickets. Zippers on back packs, luggage circling carrousels, papers sticking out of breast pockets, fat purses and bulging pockets are "Rob Me" signs. Places like trunks of rental cars, towels at beaches, and daytime hotel rooms are areas where cameras, money, and just about everything of any value should be expected to disappear.