connda

Same with any Nigerian scam, this scam requires a victim who possesses two things: greed and stupidity. Must have both. So if someone falls for this...well, can't feel too sorry for them.

And you have never done anything stupid. Casting the first stone.....???

The scam is telling the Farang they need money to pay off the loan sharks that's the only scam. If some one tell you that watch them ask you for the money

Your wife knows has two friends trying to scam her and you What nice friends

My wife may be Thai, but she is not a philanthropist. She might bail out family, but she draws the line there. I've been with her for a relatively long time. She's tight with money.

These are the same style scammers some of whom got busted in Bangkok recently.

They operate everywhere. Facebook is currently a very popular target. They will engage their victim in a fairly drawn-out 'courtship' which eventually ends with them requiring cash for something - to 'release' funds, to pay customs duties on expensive gifts, etc etc.

I engaged one recently but he gave up after only a month and before I could squeeze enough info out of him to provide any clues as to his real identity. He was posing as the MD of a construction company in the UK who buys materials from Thailand. Claimed to be a widower and even had pictures of his dearly departed in hospital (which a google image search showed them up as stills from the UK series "Holby City" - lol).

My advice to these ladies is to teach them how to use Google image search, for a start. Pretty much all of them use images of people they simply lift off the web, in their fake profiles.

Good suggestion. Thanks!

I thought it was the fat , out of shape Western guy getting scammed by the beautiful Thai lady ?????

I'll concur. That happens too. But we have Thai Visa to keep us informed and set us straight.

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

Not much sympathy , greedy people victims of smarter greedy people..

And your free from greed? Casting the first stone....???

Greed gets the best of them. I can't say I feel sorry for any of them. If it's too good to be true, it usually is, but they can't see past the big bucks they are going to get so they get suckered in. Happens to people all over the world.

I'm not saying this in a bad way, but there are a lot of people in the world (and Thailand) who are rather simple, ignorant, and unsophisticated (as in, not very knowledgeable of the realities of the world). They make good targets (marks). It really unfortunate, which is why I'm saying, take the time to educate your less 'worldly' friends, and in this particular case, your female Thai friends.

My own wife is no rocket scientist, she has never been out of Thailand (well, Laos for a visa run with me), and a decade ago she might have fallen for this too. But she was the one who warned her friend. Scams like these just need to brought to the awareness of the larger community. That all.

Do you really want us to feel sorry for those poor ladies?? Why are they on a number of datingsites themselves? To find true love, yeah sure. In 99% of the cases, they are there to find another sponsor. If they end up scammed by someone smarter than them, serves them right!!

Come on. Give them a break. How many Thai women marry for "romantic love"? Pretty darn few. For all you that hit the "Like" button, how many of your girlfriends or wives are with you because of "romantic love".

Even in my 'home country', many women look for 'security' in a spouse. They 'marry up'. In what country is it not common for the average women to consider security and status when selecting a potential spouse?

"If you have any single, female Thai friends, please warn them of this heartless, savage scam. Please!"

What was the organisation they met through?

Knowing this would be more beneficial to pass on and you can pm me if you don't want to publish the name.

In the latter case, Facebook. In the first case, I'd have to talk to my wife's friend. I'm not sure she would tell me though. They are both worried about losing face. Really sad.

I can't believe some people on here, moaning at not getting discount over a period of 2 days in a already cheap form of transport. We're so hard done by brigade. Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

It's the principle of it. You don't 'get' that?

I originally started this thread thinking that the major currencies were the only currencies taking a hit in comparison to the Thai baht. My reasoning was that I thought that this was a sign that Western currencies were weakening globally (which is somewhat true depending on your perspective).

I sat down this morning and compared global currency pairs to the THB over a period of two to five years. The Thai Baht has strengthen over time against virtually all currencies with the exception of the Australian and New Zealand Dollars, Philippine Peso, and the Singapore Dollar (although over the last few month many of these are weakening). The Taiwan Dollar, Swedish Krona, and the Norwegian Krone have stayed about par (although I might have missed a couple of others). Virtually everything else has taken a hit against the Thai Baht from their five year highs.

USD about -19%; GBP about 22%; EUR about 27%

So money is flowing into Thailand. Wonder how long it takes to get back to reality?

I've since discovered that many of those motorbike spare parts shops (with all the multi coloured bike rims out the front) have them too. 200 Baht for the two tools and 5 plug strips.

I'll look into it. Thank for the info!

amazing. give some elderly people and children under 90 cm tall a free ride and foreigners will find that is a good reason to bash thailand.

The bashing should not be Thai bashing I agree, however if a gesture such as this is racistly implemented then it should criticised.

Hold on a minute...even if this restricted to Thai nationals only, and excludes farangs how is this racist ?, unless as a farang you have PR/citizenship you have no legal status in Thailand, you are in effect a perpetual tourist, and for the most part over never paid tax here, never worked etc etc, so why should they benefit from this.

If someone as farang had citizenship or PR and they were refused based on the colour of their skin..then yes this would be racist, but for the vast majority of over 60 farangs in Thailand are not PR or citizens.

Let me ask you this, Do the UK hand out free bus passes to every over 60 tourists visiting the UK who has no legal staus there ?...think not

When you are have and Non-B or Non-O Marriage and work here and pay taxes here and support a family and hire Thai workers and pay taxes and pay taxes and pay taxes -- how the h*ll do you equate that to being a perpetual tourist. You realize that they only hand out 100 PRs per nationality which is f**ked up if you happen to be from a large country with a large number of expats in Thailand. The immigration policies are FBARed and make it difficult to impossible to obtain a PR or citizenship. It's a really closed system.

I've worked here, I've paid taxes to the Thai government (unlike most rural and lower class Thai -- which is a lot of people), and yeah -- I should benefit from gratuities extended to Thais because it's MY TAXES that are helping pay for these!

I am grateful for the half-price MRT travel card and find the BTS quite expensive.

Even though it is relatively expensive, I really do enjoy riding BTS. Just wish they would have extended it to Don Meung before the 1997 financial crash. I lived in Laski for awhile and it would have been sooooo much better than taking the 29 bus to Mo Chit.

To extend it to Don Muang before the 97 crisis it would have to have been specially built for you, BTS didn't open until 1999.

Yo, facetious one: Have you been to Don Muang, mai? North Bangkok -- Mo Chit to passed Don Muang? Did you miss the hundreds of tons of concrete super-structure poking up out of the ground like a gigantic tribute to financial disaster? Put the 'reality goggles' on the next time you're in North Bangkok and open your eyes. Construction on the BTS Don Muang line was started prior to 1999 but never completed.

"There's a sucker born every minute" - P. T. Barnum

I hate scammers. But it's amazing at how gullible so many people are in this world.

A 'hot' scam that is targeted at single Thai females is on the rise. It goes like this:

Thai woman finds a male friend online. It might be though any of the various social media sites or dating sites. The man is rich, handsome (he sends his 'picture'), but he has a problem. He has inherited millions of baht from a recently deceased family member, but he needs 100K baht to pay for a lawyer and banking fees to get the money 'release' to his account. Oh BTW, he has fallen madly in love with the gal and wants to get married as soon as possible, but he needs that 100K so he can brings those millions of baht with him before the marriage.

Two of my wife's friend have fallen for this BS, heartless scam. One borrowed money to send to her rich husband to be, and she is now in serious debt to some not very nice people. She's got screwed coming and going. The other friend was talking it up with my wife about how rich she was about to become, and my wife said, "STOP!!!". She only lost 40K out of 110K she was going to send. I told my wife she should report it, but she said the friend would not because she would loose face. So the scam goes on....

If you have any single, female Thai friends, please warn them of this heartless, savage scam. Please!

Yes and no, I noticed today there was a paper outside the office about residency certificate which ended with: no fee have to be paid. It also said it can be done at police stations and the tourist police office. There is no such thing as cashier stamp for this certificate anyway because it is a free document.

I have to come back to pick mine up on 11 april, one of the most crowdy days, for my residency certificate needed for a yellow book.

I wonder why?

It's nice to have a yellow residence book though. It makes dealing with Thai government offices much easier.

Yeah, the 2 tickets I've gotten here in Thailand were both for illegal turns, and both time I never saw a sign until it was pointed out to me. Like duhhhhh! Like you, it's not the fine, which I'd be happy to paid directly to the officer (unfortunately illegal), but it's the time it takes to go to the police station, pay the fine, and wait around until your license shows back up. I do like it when they have the "cashier" close by. Much more convenient.

Yes, Immigration could ask someone to "show evidence" -- but there is no firm rule that they will nor what they want to see. Usually, they judge people by how they handle themselves at Immigration, how long they've been in Thailand, the age and educational difference between them and their wife, source of income, etc.

They aren't qualified (or really that interested) in looking over someone's 401K statement -- but they love to see official-looking documents from a mannerly person. Chance are they'll just wave it away, without looking, when the document is presented quickly, with a smile.

I'd suggest dressing up, or at a minimum, wearing business casual. If you look professional, they will probably assume that you have financial resources. Can't hurt!

I am grateful for the half-price MRT travel card and find the BTS quite expensive.

Even though it is relatively expensive, I really do enjoy riding BTS. Just wish they would have extended it to Don Meung before the 1997 financial crash. I lived in Laski for awhile and it would have been sooooo much better than taking the 29 bus to Mo Chit.

Nice to know I'm officially 'elderly'.

"Hi -- here's my driver's license, ta bian baan, and tax id. Can I have a free ride?"

"Not for you farang. During Songkran, you pay double!!!"

I'd love to be in BKK over SK in order to give it a whirl.

^ Never mind, "Cockpit" stores have them.

Really? Good to know!

Lesson 1, stay cool, don't tell them how to do their jobs, wait to be called.

Failure to adhere to this may result in a rant like the OP.

Immigration is no fun, but immigration for people wanting to come to my home country is worse.

If immigration in my country was housed in that sized facility and handling as many people as it does, that facility would be closed down, probably by the local Fire Marshall, because it is a major safety risk. Earthquake or fire (or both) when that facility is packed -- There's a major problem! We are in a active earthquake fault region, next to an active airfield (planes never miss the runway, right?) Actually, from a safety perspective, it's probably worth writing a letter to my Ambassador in Thailand.

I have experienced the same problems at immigration as you mentioned Connda. I have an appointment for my yearly retirement visa and show up early, only to watch as they call out numbers and process people during my scheduled time slot until someone finally acknowledges me. I have never been called at my scheduled appointment time. I have consistently had to ask when will I be called only to be told, "you sit down, we call you."

I don't have high blood pressure but the mere thought of visiting CM Immigration makes my blood boil, lol. I can deal with the one year visa renewal fiasco but then immigration requires the 90 day reporting for absolutely no logical reason what so ever.

I feel for ya and I know how you feel. Going down there makes me feel dirty in a way that is difficult to describe. These people dislike us, and none-to-subtly show us that we are little more than crap on the bottom of their shoes, and for those few hours that we are there they can use and abuse us to their liking. Average Thais tolerate us at best and openly despise us when the veneer of face is cracked through. The only thing that keeps me here is my commitment to my wife, family, and friends who I have developed and it happens to be the hub of the religion I've practiced for the last 40 years. . And I've sunk too much money and effort into establishing a home and a place to retire. But that once a year trip down to immigration reminds me of just how unwelcome we really are in this country.

Now I'm going to get ready to teach my Thai Native step son an English lesson. Maybe they can catch me "Teaching Without A Work Permit". Then they'll have grounds to toss me out of the country.

The high and mighty Thais are going to wake up one day to find that they have lost their business base and tourism to other ASEAN emerging countries who can actually welcome the influx of foreigners and foreign money.

This is pretty funny, hub of what religion? I assume Buddhist, practiced for 40 years?, would never have guessed it from your attitude.

If you think Buddhists don't get irate, try again. I'm just aware that I'm irate. I'm not a monk. I live in the real world. When I see something that isn't right, I speak up. I'm quite aware I'm pissed off. But I look at the situation down there and I'm surprised that more people are not angry. Sheep and cattle obviously don't care? Enough of this. I'm done. Enjoy your next visit.

I hate going to Immigration, but have always been treated with respect. They are WAY overworked and it is not their fault. Give them a break.

I detest going to CM immigration, some employees treat me with respect, others have blown me off (I know the difference), yes, they are under-sfaffed, but that is not an excuse for incompetence and disrespect. The entire immigration setup in Chiang Mai essentially screams: Foreigners not welcome here. Like I said, Pol Col Prachak is doing the best he can with what he's got, but the Immigration puyai in BKK and the government have set Chiang Mai up to be the poster child of how to make foreigners seeking normal visa services as uncomfortable as possible. Really. Give them a break? We are treated like cattle from the top - down, and the building is a safety hazard when it is crammed with that many people. You don't think the Puyai in the upper -echelon of immigration in BKK don't realize that CM immigration is more like a cattle yard then a public business office? Yes, they could do something about, but the chose not too. But the safety issue probably irks me more than anything. Cramming people into that amount of space screams disrespect for the highest level. Give them a break? No!

Just an update.

I went to chaengwattana immigration and the officers at visa section there seemed to know my dad personally. They were quite fascinated talking to me ofcourse in thai. When I inquired them about applying for permanent residence, they told me I can go apply directly for thai citizenship at some office near central world

Wow! A success story. Congratulations.

"Check the stamps and notice I need to come back in another month to "get my "real extension stamp".

What do you mean "real extension stamp". If your appointment wasn't for a "real extension stamp", what was if for?

Extensions based on marriage always gets 1 month "under consideration"

They final decision is made at regional head offices.

Married for five years and have the wedding band worn into the skin on my ring finger.

"Yes Mr. Thailand Immigration. We're just gaming the system. We're just faking it to get around your stupid, control-freak type of immigration laws. Yeah, the house, cars, motorcycles, family dogs, and financial support -- and the half a dozen villager who I support -- smoke and mirrors Mr. Thailand Immigration. You better send five or six investigation units to check into us. You know us rich farangs, I probably have Thailand littered with gigs and mia nois -- this is just my 'immigration wife'. "

Idiots. Trust me, I'm being kind.

Exactly, you're trying to take over!!

Yeah, maybe they'll catch me cavorting in the orchard behind our home with all the gigs I have in the village while my poor elderly wife works her fingers to the bone to support me.....whoa whoa whoa...wait a minute. That was her previous two Thai husbands.