Any Truth To This?

[tangoll]

This just came into my email inbox, and I was wondering if anyone else had heard something similar...

"BEWARE.... Bangkok's Airport Duty Free Shops.- You may get jailed for shopping there..

Spread news to your family members, friends, relatives to be careful at Bangkok Airport (presumably, Suwanna)

fraudulant arrests are being made, due to duty free shops staff purposely put some

extra stuff in your purchased stuff, then police arrests,and they share such money with

each other for their own needs,or greed, but you may suffer humilation, arrests and

money losses,

INDIANS' ASSOCIATION OF TAIPEI

An Indian was detained in Bangkok for stealing a pack of cigarette in a

duty-free shop in Bangkok International Airport..

He had paid for chocolates and a carton of cigarettes. The cashier put a

packet of cigarette into his bag and he thought it was a free pack. He was

arrested for shop-lifting and the Thai Police extortion price was 30,000

Baht for his release.

He spent two nights in jail and paid 500 Baht for an air-cond cell, 200-300

baht for each visitor, and 11,000 baht for his final release. The Police

shared the money in front of his eyes. On top of that, he was charged in

court and fined 2,000 baht by the magistrate and handcuffed and escorted to

his plane. His passport was stamped "Thief". While there, his relatives

requested help from the Indian Embassy and was told that they are helpless,

many Asians are victimised similarly daily and letters and phone- calls to

the Thai Authorities are ignored.

He shared a cell with a Singaporean the 1st night who paid 60,000 baht for

his release. The 2nd night was an Malaysian national who paid 70,000 baht

Mind you this was not in a shanty shop in downtown Bangkok but in a duty

free shop in Bangkok Int'l Airport.

BE WARNED.

PS: Above is 100% correct information- because Mr.Rajan Khera's customer

from India faced exactly the same scenerio mentioned above when he was

intransit at Bangkok Int'l Airport."

If the above is true, that would be a new low for the Thai authorities to allow

such a practice to occur. That's why I never buy anything from airport shops and

my carryon bag is with me 100% of the time and closed tightly.

[colino]

Never heard of this happing would be good if anyone can trace the source.

I know that the staff in duty free will sell any amount of cigs or tobbaco.

Every time i go in the staff tell me 10 cartons or more i get 10% discount.

colino

[ajarnmark]

This just came into my email inbox, and I was wondering if anyone else had heard something similar...

"BEWARE.... Bangkok's Airport Duty Free Shops.- You may get jailed for shopping there..

Spread news to your family members, friends, relatives to be careful at Bangkok Airport (presumably, Suwanna)

fraudulant arrests are being made, due to duty free shops staff purposely put some

extra stuff in your purchased stuff, then police arrests,and they share such money with

each other for their own needs,or greed, but you may suffer humilation, arrests and

money losses,

INDIANS' ASSOCIATION OF TAIPEI

An Indian was detained in Bangkok for stealing a pack of cigarette in a

duty-free shop in Bangkok International Airport..

He had paid for chocolates and a carton of cigarettes. The cashier put a

packet of cigarette into his bag and he thought it was a free pack. He was

arrested for shop-lifting and the Thai Police extortion price was 30,000

Baht for his release.

He spent two nights in jail and paid 500 Baht for an air-cond cell, 200-300

baht for each visitor, and 11,000 baht for his final release. The Police

shared the money in front of his eyes. On top of that, he was charged in

court and fined 2,000 baht by the magistrate and handcuffed and escorted to

his plane. His passport was stamped "Thief". While there, his relatives

requested help from the Indian Embassy and was told that they are helpless,

many Asians are victimised similarly daily and letters and phone- calls to

the Thai Authorities are ignored.

He shared a cell with a Singaporean the 1st night who paid 60,000 baht for

his release. The 2nd night was an Malaysian national who paid 70,000 baht

Mind you this was not in a shanty shop in downtown Bangkok but in a duty

free shop in Bangkok Int'l Airport.

BE WARNED.

PS: Above is 100% correct information- because Mr.Rajan Khera's customer

from India faced exactly the same scenerio mentioned above when he was

intransit at Bangkok Int'l Airport."

If the above is true, that would be a new low for the Thai authorities to allow

such a practice to occur. That's why I never buy anything from airport shops and

my carryon bag is with me 100% of the time and closed tightly.

Completely unbelieveable. Dont you come up with some plausible stories?

BKK is not a freaking place where they put blame on passengers for doing nothing.

That indian must have stolen something. I have seen so many indians on the airport making fun of Thais on their face, including joking (?) about stealing stuff from the shop (how do I know this? coz I understand hindi completely). Maybe they are just joking about stealing or they have something in their minds.

I have read this story on another spam-blog.

Anyone with a bit of brain can analyze this story very easily. When you buy something from duty free shop they put it in a temper proof, transparent bag that can be sealed only once. Before putting things in the bag, they also put the invoice there. So one can check easily number of items in the bag with invoice. How can a shop keeper put anything in that bag.

Everytime on entry and exit, I must buy a lot of stuff and all that time it is handed to me as per above details. Never had any problems. But I can speak Thai (not Isaan) very politely and of course I dress politely as well.

[tangoll]

Hey a*holemark, where in my post did I say I believe the posted message that I received in my mailbox was true? I was merely checking things out. If you don't believe it, just say you don't believe it, and let each reader form his/her own judgment. So you understand Hindi and speak Thai, well bully for you. By the way, your English sucks.

[yumidesign]

Hey a*holemark, where in my post did I say I believe the posted message that I received in my mailbox was true? I was merely checking things out. If you don't believe it, just say you don't believe it, and let each reader form his/her own judgment. So you understand Hindi and speak Thai, well bully for you. By the way, your English sucks.

this has already been done to death in a previous post some time ago and reported in Singapore Newspaper

[jrbkk64]

This just came into my email inbox, and I was wondering if anyone else had heard something similar...

"BEWARE.... Bangkok's Airport Duty Free Shops.- You may get jailed for shopping there..

Spread news to your family members, friends, relatives to be careful at Bangkok Airport (presumably, Suwanna)

fraudulant arrests are being made, due to duty free shops staff purposely put some

extra stuff in your purchased stuff, then police arrests,and they share such money with

each other for their own needs,or greed, but you may suffer humilation, arrests and

money losses,

INDIANS' ASSOCIATION OF TAIPEI

An Indian was detained in Bangkok for stealing a pack of cigarette in a

duty-free shop in Bangkok International Airport..

He had paid for chocolates and a carton of cigarettes. The cashier put a

packet of cigarette into his bag and he thought it was a free pack. He was

arrested for shop-lifting and the Thai Police extortion price was 30,000

Baht for his release.

He spent two nights in jail and paid 500 Baht for an air-cond cell, 200-300

baht for each visitor, and 11,000 baht for his final release. The Police

shared the money in front of his eyes. On top of that, he was charged in

court and fined 2,000 baht by the magistrate and handcuffed and escorted to

his plane. His passport was stamped "Thief". While there, his relatives

requested help from the Indian Embassy and was told that they are helpless,

many Asians are victimised similarly daily and letters and phone- calls to

the Thai Authorities are ignored.

He shared a cell with a Singaporean the 1st night who paid 60,000 baht for

his release. The 2nd night was an Malaysian national who paid 70,000 baht

Mind you this was not in a shanty shop in downtown Bangkok but in a duty

free shop in Bangkok Int'l Airport.

BE WARNED.

PS: Above is 100% correct information- because Mr.Rajan Khera's customer

from India faced exactly the same scenerio mentioned above when he was

intransit at Bangkok Int'l Airport."

If the above is true, that would be a new low for the Thai authorities to allow

such a practice to occur. That's why I never buy anything from airport shops and

my carryon bag is with me 100% of the time and closed tightly.

Completely unbelieveable. Dont you come up with some plausible stories?

BKK is not a freaking place where they put blame on passengers for doing nothing.

That indian must have stolen something. I have seen so many indians on the airport making fun of Thais on their face, including joking (?) about stealing stuff from the shop (how do I know this? coz I understand hindi completely). Maybe they are just joking about stealing or they have something in their minds.

I have read this story on another spam-blog.

Anyone with a bit of brain can analyze this story very easily. When you buy something from duty free shop they put it in a temper proof, transparent bag that can be sealed only once. Before putting things in the bag, they also put the invoice there. So one can check easily number of items in the bag with invoice. How can a shop keeper put anything in that bag.

Everytime on entry and exit, I must buy a lot of stuff and all that time it is handed to me as per above details. Never had any problems. But I can speak Thai (not Isaan) very politely and of course I dress politely as well.

Mr. Ajarn!!,

You have no clue! I buy cigarettes all the time at the airport and always refuse the plastic bag. Cigarettes ARE NOT put in sealed plastic bags!! Liquids only!!

[torrenova]

Anyone with a bit of brain can analyze this story very easily. When you buy something from duty free shop they put it in a temper proof, transparent bag that can be sealed only once. Before putting things in the bag, they also put the invoice there. So one can check easily number of items in the bag with invoice. How can a shop keeper put anything in that bag.

Everytime on entry and exit, I must buy a lot of stuff and all that time it is handed to me as per above details. Never had any problems. But I can speak Thai (not Isaan) very politely and of course I dress politely as well.

Well, if you are familiar with shopping for real brand name perfumes, toiletries and the like for ladies either in shops generally or at airports, you will know that one of their long standing sales gimmicks is the set purchase (things added together) or the free handbag size version of the larger one you have bought.

I recently purchased some in Singapore and I can categorically state that my "free" handbag size was not listed as such, it was available for seperate purchase and it was not included on the receipt, even at zero cost. Admittedly, these were placed in the sealed bag but I had absolutely no proof of purchase for two bottles of perfume I had received free. I could, perhaps and in certain circumstances, have been arrested or at least stopped for a potential theft.

As for cigarettes, well I have never seen them placed in anything other than a clear or non clear open carrier bag.

The one thing that makes this a lie is that duty free don't sell nor have single packets of cigarettes to buy or steal You would have to go to a 7/11 type of store to get a single pack.

[Carmine6]

PS: Above is 100% correct information- because Mr.Rajan Khera's customer

from India faced exactly the same scenerio mentioned above when he was

intransit at Bangkok Int'l Airport."

Emails that have this kind of seeming corroboration always raise a red flag for me.

Do they even stamp "thief" in passports? That sounds pretty odd. I can understand some generic identifier for someone who's blacklisted, but are there like 20 stamps - thief, murder, arsonist, rapist, etc?

[hhgz]

"This just came into my email inbox, and I was wondering if anyone else had heard something similar..."

When I receive spam, financial hoaxes, and politically motivated rages, I discard them. I'm not sure why you read this cr@p, much less believe it.

[Guest Bellini]

Any truth to this?

... Spread news to your family members, friends, relatives...

No, there is no truth to this. Any email that starts or ends with "Spread news to your family members, friends, relatives" or anything similar is a hoax. You can be 100% sure of this.

[chiangmaibruce]

This is a duplicate thread ... about a hoax ... talk about waste of bandwidth

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Beware-Duty-...am-t261481.html

[johna]

The Nation, Letters

Are police involved in |airport shoplifting scam?

Published on April 30, 2009

An Indian traveller was detained in Bangkok for stealing a box of cigarettes from a duty-free shop at Bangkok International Airport,

He had paid for chocolates and a carton of cigarettes. The cashier put a packet of cigarettes into his bag and he thought it was a free pack. He was arrested for shoplifting and the Thai police extortion price was Bt30,000 for his release. He spent two nights in jail and paid Bt500 for an air-conditioned cell, Bt200-300 for each visitor, and Bt11,000 for his final release. The police shared the money in front of his eyes. On top of that, he was charged in court and fined Bt2,000 by the magistrate and handcuffed and escorted to his plane. His passport was stamped "Thief". While in jail, his relatives requested help from the Indian Embassy but were told the embassy was unable to assist.

The man shared a cell with a Singaporean on the first night, who paid Bt60,000 for his release. On the second night there was a Malaysian national who paid Bt70,000. Many Asians are victimised similarly daily, and letters and phone calls to the Thai authorities are ignored. This was not in a shop in downtown Bangkok but in a duty-free shop at Bangkok's international airport. Be warned.

J NIRMAL KUMARThe

Nation May 2

Letters to the Editor

Ref: Are police involved in airport shoplifting scam? Letters, April 30

I echo the voice of J Nirmal Kumar's letter. Recently a young student from an Asian nation was in transit to the US via Bangkok, and at the airport's King Power duty-free shop he was accused of shoplifting. He was then handed over to the police, who later made him sign documents in Thai and took him to the police station.

Later one South Asian man claiming to be a Thai police officer demanded Bt300,000 from him and even made a long-distance phone call to his parents demanding the money. The guy claiming to be a Thai policeman later turned out to be a volunteer appointed by the police to help the tourist. Anyway, the student's family sent money, and he had to pay a huge amount for his release. After a few days in police custody, his passport was stamped with a few words in Thai.

His embassy was also helpless and could do nothing. It seems as if there is nexus of duty-free staff, police and the rescue or tourist volunteers who work in unison to trap innocent travellers. The majority of the cases seem to be South Asians, followed by Chinese.

The problem starts when duty-free staff immediately hand the accused person over to the police, and some volunteers working inside the airport also play a role in trapping travellers by speaking English and appearing to be helpful.

As far as we know, there are more than two or three such incidents every day, and each of these goes unnoticed. Most of the victims are from Asian countries, so the police just do not care.

This racket must be busted. The mafia of duty-free staff, police and so-called tourist volunteers needs to be handled immediately.

JOHN BIGS