Even knowing about these scams, you can fall victim. Once about 50 miles outside of Barcelona, my son and I drove out of a rest stop only to learn we had a flat tire in our rental. While I had the trunk open looking for the jack, a "Good Samaritan" pulled over to "help", then ran off with my son's backpack which fortunately had just a few clothes and an old Ipod. Honestly, what defense did we have, the perp ice picked the side of tire while we were eating. We weren't even aware of what all happened until later (the REAL luggage was in the trunk, which I guess I was guarding). I was told that Gypsies pull these scams in teams, a variation being the rock or paint thrown at car, the key being that you pull over for "Good Samaritan". I was told also they look for rental cars (not hard to spot). Of course the real damage was several hours lost limping into Barcelona tire shop on spare, $150 new tire/repair.