Overpriced 'bottakuri' bars
In nightlife-heavy areas, occasionally a friendly tout on the street will invite you into a bar promising cheap drinks or a good time, leading to an unexpectedly enormous bill once you're seated. The simplest defence is the oldest one: politely decline unsolicited invitations into bars from street touts and choose a place you found yourself, whether from a guidebook, a queue of locals, or simple browsing.
Unofficial tour guides and ticket resellers
Occasionally, unofficial guides or ticket sellers operate near major attractions, sometimes charging inflated prices for services or tickets available directly and more cheaply through official channels. Buying tickets to major attractions (USJ, Kaiyukan, the Amazing Pass) directly from official sites or on-site counters avoids this entirely.
What genuinely isn't a concern
Violent crime targeting tourists is genuinely rare in Osaka, and the low-level pickpocketing common in some major tourist cities elsewhere in the world isn't a significant pattern here either. Ordinary city awareness — not flashing large amounts of cash, keeping bags zipped in dense crowds — covers most of what's realistically worth thinking about.