Money Stolen From Your Thai Bank

[Soutpeel]

A lot of things like that are happening lately in LoS, bottom line is...if you wanna make sure you don't get robbed of your money, set the withdrawal limit lower. Who needs 400.000 baht in cash, in 1 day?

Or....dont bank in Thailand..

[johnnok]

I have seen all these reports and happy I wasn't a victim. Now, I get this: It may be a new scheme of taking small amounts of money from many people or something else I don't understand. It involves two bank accounts at the Kasikorn Pattaya Tai location:

1. On my account, a mysterious 200 baht "Money Transfer No Book -- Service ATM 09001" withdrawal in November.

2. Again, exactly the same thing, another 200 baht, in December.

3. On my wife's account, she's got the very same thing in November (but not the same day as mine), but none in December.

The catch is, we've been in the USA since September, with both our cards in our possession. The amounts are so small they don't even warrant a phone call. I'll raise the issue at the bank when I'm back this Spring, but in the meantime, someone is getting my money and I'm getting nothing for it.

I was confused about this "transfer" too, according to the bank it is an annual fee for your ATM card, new one on me, i did pay 100 baht to renew ATM card last time but was unaware of an "annual" fee. That was the official explanation at the bank last week anyway.

Just saw a strange line of 200 bahts this morning and was afraid of some scam. I saw the answer (and was already worrying less ) on TV but hey, when money is at stake, better to check myself.

So I used kasikorn Chat from their online banking service and they confirmed that: " function append(text){document.write(text); scrollTo(0,50000); scrollTo(0,50000); scroll(0,50000); } The code ATM 09001 is Annual Fee of Debit Card 200 baht."

[IanForbes]

This is very worrying. I need to open a savings account in Thailand soon and I was opting for the BB.Not now.

I suppose that these accounts that have been targeted are not in Thai names? The names of foreigners .

I would be grateful if posters would indicate which Bank they have not encountered this kind of theft from.

I will open the account in the wifes name ,,we have the same surname though,,which is not Thai.

I've never had a problem at the Siam Commercial Bank and I have a ATM card that I use occasionally. But, I seldom have a lot of cash in that bank... only a few thousand dollars. It's just enough to transfer funds to other Thai banks when I want to help a Thai national. My Canadian bank charges far too much to transfer funds anywhere. Even a simple withdrawl costs me $5 no matter how much I take out. I only get charged 20 baht for using my Thai ATM card transactions.

[luvU2much500THB]

This is very worrying. I need to open a savings account in Thailand soon and I was opting for the BB.Not now.

I suppose that these accounts that have been targeted are not in Thai names? The names of foreigners .

I would be grateful if posters would indicate which Bank they have not encountered this kind of theft from.

I will open the account in the wifes name ,,we have the same surname though,,which is not Thai.

I've never had a problem at the Siam Commercial Bank and I have a ATM card that I use occasionally. But, I seldom have a lot of cash in that bank... only a few thousand dollars. It's just enough to transfer funds to other Thai banks when I want to help a Thai national. My Canadian bank charges far too much to transfer funds anywhere. Even a simple withdrawl costs me $5 no matter how much I take out. I only get charged 20 baht for using my Thai ATM card transactions.

good heart

[DMasut]

I have heard many stories regarding this and have even had several friends experience money disappearing from their Thai Bank accounts. Usually sources of the theft were from:

1. Thai girlfriends (some from dubious "Bar" backgrounds... and a few from supposedly good families) having use of their ATM cards. NEVER GIVE YOUR ATM CARD AND PASSWORD TO ANYONE!!

2. Thai girlfriend gives her "contacts" at bank or other vendor/business to use the numbers to withdraw money via someone they know in an illegal business. Which it seems everybody in Thailand knows (even Policemen) somebody involved in a corrupt and / or illegal business.

3. One person I know that got arrested for fighting at a bar gave account information to one of the officers at the jail (Southern Thailand) and mysteriously when he got out his bank account was cleaned out too. (1.5 Million THB)

4. British national friend whose family member got access to their banking info and ripped him off.

5. Hotel employees on Koh Samui stole credit cards, ATM and Traveller's Cheques, but eventually were caught.

For these reasons I keep two Thai Bank accounts and never keep more than 80,000THB in either one at anytime. I have a Singaporean Bank I keep most of the money I have not invested. The Tax benefits are good and it is much safer in Singapore (The Asian "Swiss Banks") because of their secrecy and privacy laws, and severe penalties to crimes related to banking.

With Electronic Banking faster than ever it makes sense to keep most of your money in a country "OUTSIDE" of the country of residence.

Keep your bank books and account PIN numbers in separate places and be very vigilante about where you keep them, who has access to those places and NEVER "lend" your ATM/Credit Cards to your girlfriend/wife/ etc.

If you really need to do this...open up a joint account so you can limit how much goes into the account....and more importantly how much goes out... but also realize you leave a backdoor opening for them to use your credit to apply for loans or borrow on.

If you can't buy something under your own name...don't buy it. You can rent.

[mucker]

For these reasons I keep two Thai Bank accounts and never keep more than 80,000THB in either one at anytime. I have a Singaporean Bank I keep most of the money I have not invested. The Tax benefits are good and it is much safer in Singapore (The Asian "Swiss Banks") because of their secrecy and privacy laws, and severe penalties to crimes related to banking.

I've often thought of opening a Singaporean account. Can you recommend a good one? Who are you using and how much is enough to open an account and qualify for credit cards, online banking, international atm cards?

Edited March 21, 2009 by soundman
Fixed quote formatting.

[NanLaew]

I've never had a problem at the Siam Commercial Bank and I have a ATM card that I use occasionally. But, I seldom have a lot of cash in that bank... only a few thousand dollars. It's just enough to transfer funds to other Thai banks when I want to help a Thai national. My Canadian bank charges far too much to transfer funds anywhere. Even a simple withdrawl costs me $5 no matter how much I take out. I only get charged 20 baht for using my Thai ATM card transactions.

good heart

It's called jai dee

....or sponsorship.

Edited March 21, 2009 by NanLaew

[ernest1966]

There have been many recent reports on tv about cloned cards being made via the atm. This is relatively eeasy to do. Attach a card reader to the atm and hook up a camera to view the keyboard. The card gets read, someone monitors the camera for the PIN and a new card is cloned. This tech has been around now for 10 years or so.

Many banks have dropped the withdrawal limit to 5k baht per transaction.

BB is widely known to have many employees that steal money from the bank... Again on television reports.

Ernest

[TopDogger]

I've never had a problem at the Siam Commercial Bank and I have a ATM card that I use occasionally. But, I seldom have a lot of cash in that bank... only a few thousand dollars. It's just enough to transfer funds to other Thai banks when I want to help a Thai national. My Canadian bank charges far too much to transfer funds anywhere. Even a simple withdrawl costs me $5 no matter how much I take out. I only get charged 20 baht for using my Thai ATM card transactions.

good heart

It's called jai dee

....or sponsorship.

.... or stupidity..