"students" Survey

[The Skipper]

Students taking tourist surveys.

Do they work for the TAT?

They are everywhere and wear AMAZING THAILAND uniforms.

Grabbing, pulling, stepping in and blocking the path, shoving a clipboard in your face.

Very rude and getting more and more aggressive I notice.

I've been told it's a scam but surley the TAT would not condone the use of their AMAZING THAILAND logo.

This has been going on for years and it appears they work for TAT?

True?

[Ijustwannateach]

I don't know who they work *for*, but I know (from someone that was doing it) that they get something like 40-50B for each fully completed survey, so they have an incentive to be aggressive.

[Stephen Cleary]

Im no too sure aboot those ones wearing some crappy amazing Thailand t-shirts, but i always take the chance tae get interviewed by some raunchy lookin uni. uniformed girls wearing high-heels, a four inch skirt and some tight skimpy top. So short and tight like, that ye can see her belly-button stickin oot.

Pretend yer just in the country fir a few days, cannae speak any of the local lingo and then ask one of the flirts oot on a date. Works every time.

Hanging aroond chatting away with some scad-looking student lass fir free certainly beats having tae pay a drink fir a chat with some old hacker doon Soi Cowboy wearing plastic flip-flops.

Edited May 23, 2007 by stevesuphan

[Aujuba]

I know some of the 'interviewers' along the tourist areas are asking for your hotel info so a Real estate company can contact you about buying a condominium or something like that. A Thai friend of mine has her students do tourist interviews at the exit points from the country for the TAT. She collects info about tourists' spending while in the country and gives her research data to the government.

[orchis]

Timesharing in real estate.

[cali]

Timesharing in real estate.

Bingo. All they care about is the part where you write your name and where you are staying, figuring if you are a sucker for a survey scam, that makes you a good mark to reel you into a timeshare scam. Just tell a surveyor in advance that you will not give them your name and see how interested they are in you filling out the survey.

[cm-happy]

I've only been approached twice for an interview.

The first time was in BKK at the Thai Culture Museum. Students on class trip in their uniform asking questions about the importance of Thai classical music.

Second time at Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai again by students on a class trip and wearing uniforms.

This time wanting to know how I liked CM only without a question and answere sheet, but a recording machine so they could review respones to their prepared questions and write their paper.

Never any problems on each occasion.

[qualtrough]

This particularly one might be a scam, but it is quite common for high-school students to be tasked with interviewing farangs for some assignment. I think I have had that happen 3-4 times. No big deal.

[lomatopo]

They are paid for generating raw sales leads, the first step in the sales process. Typically these are passed along to several enterprises who then follow up with 'warm calls', which usually involve real estate. Suggest you politely decline, or if feeling the need to comply, offer up a bogus telephone number.

[rgs2001uk]

I don't know who they work *for*, but I know (from someone that was doing it) that they get something like 40-50B for each fully completed survey, so they have an incentive to be aggressive.

most of theses girls are uni students who are employed because they speak english.

i have spoken to many of them, as you say, they get paid for each survey completed, this is timeshare, i put any old crap on their forms, eg first time in bkk, staying in big hotel etc etc, put whatever you want on their forms, but not your hotel or room number.

there is also a second lot, with scratch cards, saying you have won a suitcase etc, funny how every card has you winning something.

the girls told me if i went to the taipan hotel (suk soi 23) with them , they would be paid 500 baht, again timeshare.

the tourist surveys at the airport, appear geniune, the last one i did was about singapore, wasnt even asked for name address phone number etc, thats what made me think it was genuine,also a professional looking 4 page questionaire, not a back of a fag packet job, which is usually the first giveaway.

[Flow]

Dozens of them in the Sukhumvit Asoke area. They seem to operate out of the Taipan Hotel. Owners of the hotel may be part of this? I dont know. But it certainly is time share. Someone I knew was locked up in some room on the ground floor at the Taipan. He said they were extremely pushy and wouldn't even unlock the door unless he signed on the dotted line. According to him "a pretty scarry expereince".

[The Skipper]

So, just another tourist scam,..... pretending to work for the Tourist Authority?

You would think the Tourist Auuthority of Thailand would be upset with a group of scammers using their logo and misleading tourists?

.

[Austhaied]

Im no too sure aboot those ones wearing some crappy amazing Thailand t-shirts, but i always take the chance tae get interviewed by some raunchy lookin uni. uniformed girls wearing high-heels, a four inch skirt and some tight skimpy top. So short and tight like, that ye can see her belly-button stickin oot.

Pretend yer just in the country fir a few days, cannae speak any of the local lingo and then ask one of the flirts oot on a date. Works every time.

Hanging aroond chatting away with some scad-looking student lass fir free certainly beats having tae pay a drink fir a chat with some old hacker doon Soi Cowboy wearing plastic flip-flops.

:D

[petedk]

QUOTE(stevesuphan @ 2007-05-23 15:40:18)

Im no too sure aboot those ones wearing some crappy amazing Thailand t-shirts, but i always take the chance tae get interviewed by some raunchy lookin uni. uniformed girls wearing high-heels, a four inch skirt and some tight skimpy top. So short and tight like, that ye can see her belly-button stickin oot.

Pretend yer just in the country fir a few days, cannae speak any of the local lingo and then ask one of the flirts oot on a date. Works every time.

Hanging aroond chatting away with some scad-looking student lass fir free certainly beats having tae pay a drink fir a chat with some old hacker doon Soi Cowboy wearing plastic flip-flops.

Hey! Maybe they are my students. I send them out to interview tourists. They once told me they went to Soi Cowboy lloking for tourists but didn't see me!!!! I told them I was in the bars looking for them.

Actually the so called TAT interviewers do work for the Taipan hotel. One of my friends was conned by them. To cut a long story short he lost 2 or 300,000 baht and had to have a lawyer help him out. The police were asked to help but refused or weren't interested.

Everytime i see some tourist being stopped I want to warn him. I often have lunch at the Taipan and believe me, everyday there are sales meetings for tourists. I see many tourists waiting for the meetings. I want to warn thembut I guess i'll get into too much trouble.

[Ijustwannateach]

Yup- best to stay out of it personally. Sooner or later they'll burn someone with bigger guns than they have (or more likely a Thai interest with more money will have a conflict with them), and then they'll join the "gem store/tailor/Grand Palace closed" scam warning list on the tourist brochures.

[The Skipper]

QUOTE(stevesuphan @ 2007-05-23 15:40:18)

Im no too sure aboot those ones wearing some crappy amazing Thailand t-shirts, but i always take the chance tae get interviewed by some raunchy lookin uni. uniformed girls wearing high-heels, a four inch skirt and some tight skimpy top. So short and tight like, that ye can see her belly-button stickin oot.

Pretend yer just in the country fir a few days, cannae speak any of the local lingo and then ask one of the flirts oot on a date. Works every time.

Hanging aroond chatting away with some scad-looking student lass fir free certainly beats having tae pay a drink fir a chat with some old hacker doon Soi Cowboy wearing plastic flip-flops.

Hey! Maybe they are my students. I send them out to interview tourists. They once told me they went to Soi Cowboy lloking for tourists but didn't see me!!!! I told them I was in the bars looking for them.

Actually the so called TAT interviewers do work for the Taipan hotel. One of my friends was conned by them. To cut a long story short he lost 2 or 300,000 baht and had to have a lawyer help him out. The police were asked to help but refused or weren't interested.

Everytime i see some tourist being stopped I want to warn him. I often have lunch at the Taipan and believe me, everyday there are sales meetings for tourists. I see many tourists waiting for the meetings. I want to warn thembut I guess i'll get into too much trouble.

So, it's confirmed?

An outright tourist scam with the con artists posing as TAT representatives.

A tourist scam with the approval of the TAT. Not suprised.

I've always suspected the TAT has some interest in the GEM SCAM since it has been happening for decades.

Tourists getting ripped off all day, every day, the TAT knows it, nothing has been done.

I wonder if anyone at the TAT would care to comment?

[BFD]

I was approached once by a woman (about 40) and a younger fella (about 23 or so) and they gave me some 'scratch cards' along with the survey. I had just moved here, so I was jubilant when I scratched the 'GRAND PRIZE' on the scratch card. They explained to me that all I had to do was go to the Taipan hotel and listen to some Swiss guy explain to me about his Membership Card to get low prices on hotels around the world. Oh yeah, I had to pretend that I was only in Thailand for a few weeks and that I didn't know any Thai.

I actually went to the sales-pitch and listened to this high-pressure salesman yell at me for awhile about how I would be stupid not to jmp on board with this deal. I can't remember exactly, but I think the price was somewhere in the 250,000B range for a lifetime membership. It actually looked like a pretty good deal, considering how much I want to travel in the future, but I just don't have $8,000 burning a hole in my pocket, you know?

Anyway, I endured the yelling and got my GRAND PRIZE: a Taipan Hotel bag.

With wheels.

BFD!