My personal experience: scammed in Soho
So I was in Soho for the first time about 15 yrs ago. I don't know the area and I'm a bit (no...a LOT) naive.
Once in a while I see a place with a nice looking girl out front some places offering some 4 or 5 pound cover to go in and see a strip show...but you have to buy a drink or two or something like that.
So I go into a place and they lead me to a small party-room type of thing, no-one else around but two girls, it's dark, music playing, disco lights on, a small bar. A waiter type guy asks me what I'll have to drink. I ask for a beer. A girl sits me down and then leaves.
Then the guy comes in and lays down a piece of paper in front of me. I ask what it is. It's the bill for the drink he says. I pick it up and look at it: something like 300 pounds for the one drink!
I say I'm not paying that, then another bigger guy comes in and stands over me. They say if I don't pay they'll call the cops.
At first I'm dumb and argue with them and saying yeah go ahead call the cops. But then I realized I didn't have any cash on me. So then I pretended that I was really scared and just wanted to settle it. I told them it would be really embarrassing if this got out and pleaded with them to just settle this with me. I told them that if they came with me to the money exchange place so I could get a cash advance on my credit card that I'd pay them and we'd be done with it. They fell for it!. As soon as I got to the safety of the crowded streets I told them to F off and call whoever they wanted!
There's also tons of apartment doors that say something like : Model, ring Apt. 3B. These are just girls working out of little apartments. Go to these places instead. Back then I got laid for 30 pounds with a nice blonde.