Travellers to Paris, please be aware of this scam. This is simply begging, albeit in a different, perhaps clever form & should be discouraged. The scam goes like this:-

As you are walking or taking photographs, a person will suddenly bend down near to you & appear to "find" a large gold wedding ring. He/she will look at it & if they know that you have noticed, they will immediately point to the a fake hallmark which says "18k" on the inside of the ring. They will then say to you in French something along the lines of "That was lucky!". After a few minutes talking they will then offer you the ring & proceed to walk away. They will then come back to you & say that they are hungry & need 5 Euros to buy a sandwich. Your train of thought will be "Hey, this person just handed over a gold ring they found, what's 5 Euros?"

The result is that you end up 5 Euros lighter & only a piece of brass to show for it. Save yourself the bother & simply do not entertain these con artists. This practice is currently rife in Paris. The areas concerned are between the bridge near to the Eiffel Tower down to the Pont Nuef & all along the upper riversides & bridges along the way.