What's the sketchiest situation you've been in while traveling solo? How did you handle it?

I'm heading to Istanbul and Medellín in the next few months for my first real solo trips and honestly the safety side is what's making me nervous. Not enough to cancel, but enough that I keep googling "is X neighborhood safe at night" and getting conflicting info from old blog posts.

For those of you who've been in genuinely sketchy situations got scammed, felt unsafe, had something stolen how did you actually handle it in the moment? And how did you know about the risk beforehand (or did you not)?

Curious what tools/apps/habits you use to stay safe, or if you just wing it and hope for the best.