New Scam Or Not By Farang At Jj Market

[teatree]

Was shopping yesterday at Chatuchak market and was approached by a 25 - 35 year old white male(eastern european), he was wearing a a large sun hat like indiana jones style, shorts, t shirts and carrying a rucksack.

This was outside where the Banks /Toilets/Admin offices are.

He asked me if i am European too which i replied yes English and he then rattled off a long story about just arrived in BKK from Koh Samui and was trying to get cash from the ATM with his HSBC card which has been locked because of it being use in BKK - he has spoke to HSBC and they confirmed this but couldn't unlock it till Monday and all he had was his Czech passport and 2 notes of Czech money (passport / HSBC card / passport) are all in his hand to confirm each part of the story. Two Czech notes think they were a 100 and a 50 or 1000 and 5000 not sure as didn't want to touch them to extend the conversation.

Then the hit happens "They will not change my Czech money in the Bank its like they have never seen it before and it doesn't exist, its worth about £50 can you give me the Baht equalivent and you can change this when you get home"

At this point i said "sorry I live here and will not be going home for a long time -best you go to Khao Sarn road and i'm sure you can get help there"

Then i walked off - he wasn't there when i walked back through 30 minutes later.

I don't know if it's a new scam is starting in JJ or if it was genuine but if any of you are hit upon like this then its a new scam and you have been warned.

if its genuine I hope the dude is okay.

Easy solution - tell him that you will lend him the money on the condition that he leaves his passport with you. When he has access to his funds you arrange to meet, he pays you back and you give him his passport.

[bendejo]

There's a Nikita Khrushchev-looking guy who works the foreigners in Vientiane, looks like someone who falls down drunk and sleeps peacefully in the streets afterwards. He'll ask you to help him out as he's expecting $ to arrive in a few days. Sometimes he does ok for himself, getting tourists to take him to dinner etc.

[Tod Daniels]

I have found more times than not, if ANYONE approaches you first and speaks anything resembling what passes for "engrish" in this country; it is a scam, no matter their race, creed or color.

Here in an example that happened to me yesterday;

I ran into an old french guy outside Robinsons where I smoke after reading the paper. Of course he first asked if I spoke english, then related a story about a visa run to Phnom Penh, being robbed, yet only losing his money, not his passport. I looked in his passport and sure enough he did have a newly issued and used tourist visa from Phnom Penh, along with the entry/exit stamps from Suvarnabhumi Airport. At least that much was true about his story.

He said he has lived in Lamphun 18 years, had a thai wife, and several half-thai children. Thinking if you've been here that long, have a wife and children, you certainly should be able to speak at least some thai, I spoke to him in thai. We conversed in thai for about 10 minutes. Strangely enough he didn't speak 'kam-mueang" (nothern thai) he spoke "passa-glang" (bangkok-thai). I also wondered if he had a wife and kids in Lamphun, why didn't he call them and have them figure out a way to get home?

He wanted money to call France for a wire transfer, so I gave him 50 baht. As he took it I cautioned him saying if I saw him begging around here in the next day or so I'd have a problem with him. I told him; he could either take my 50 baht and not beg around here or decline to take it and beg to his hearts content. He took it, and to his credit I haven't seen him.

Was it a scam? I don't know, but at least some of his story was true, so I gave him 50 baht, which is my limit on 'sob stories' here in this country.

[sanook2me]

There's a Nikita Khrushchev-looking guy who works the foreigners in Vientiane, looks like someone who falls down drunk and sleeps peacefully in the streets afterwards. He'll ask you to help him out as he's expecting $ to arrive in a few days. Sometimes he does ok for himself, getting tourists to take him to dinner etc.

cheers for the heads up..i'm off there next week so i''ll keep an eye out for him..

as the OP i have been back to JJ market loads of times since and have not encountered this man and no one else has reported him so it may have been genuine.....

The thing is his notes were no good to me anyway as i am here the same as him.. he wanted Europeans to swap the money so they could exchange the notes once they were back home........

[Harcourt]

I heard first hand from a chap that was in Czechoslovakia or Bulgaria. He went to a bureau du change to exchange his US$ for the local currency. (I forget the exact amounts so I'm using examples...) The official exchange rate was 15 of the local denomination for $20. A man approached him and offered him 20 notes for $20. The tourist agreed. The exchange was made, and when the tourist counted the bundle of notes, there was only 19....he pointed this out. The local apologised, took back the bundle, reached into his pocket and brought out a single note which he added to the bundle, and then handed the bundle of local notes back...then disappeared.

Later, the tourist inspected the bundle again...it was two genuine notes and a bunch of paper. With some sleight of hand, the crook had swapped the bundles.

Good trick.

But the tourist realised what had happend, so he went to every currency exchange office that he could find, and each time he was approached outside with the same offer, he would agree, do the exchange, count it...and then happily walk away with 19 real notes, much to the chagrin of the would-be crooks!!

[tmifune]

Well, heres my hard luck story.......

Living in Goa now and had a very bad experience 3 weeks ago with an ATM keeping my card with a message UNAUTORIZED USE. Asked the bank what was up and they said they could do nothing since it was my bank that refused the card and it cannot be returned to me. Also, have to say that I was down to my last 600 rupess ( around 10USD ). Waited a good 12hrs till my banks call center opened up and asked them what happend? They tell me Visa had some kind of security breach and some cards where canceled. Sent out letters and new ATM cards etc. Told them I am in India for at least 6 months and I can't just fly back to get my new ATM! card!!! Luckly I have a friend in US who went through the Western Union hoops to get me some stay alive funds. I used the money to open a bank account here in Goa so that could transfer funds from my bank in the US. "This was and option they suggested."

So I go through all the online crap and have to wait 2-5 business days for the accounts to become active. Well I wait and check everyday until I read some message that the account in Goa is not active/refused! Which is BS since I had already used it. Sent emails, online messages and called but could not get anything out of them other than try it again. Well after 3 weeks of aggrivation they responded to one of my original Call Center messages and apologize that they had not related the proper information to me that it was not possible for their bank to do transfers to another bank out of the country!!! So now I am using the online billing option to send funds to my friend in the US so that he can figure out how to transfer money to me here without using Western Union.

Anywise, you can see above how easily it is to get into a bad situation. I was down to my last $10 US. If it wasn't for my friend in the US I would be in a very bad/desperate state.

Edited July 16, 2009 by tmifune

[Groongthep]

Great News! I have just been informed via email that I have won the Nigerian lottery! All I have to do is wire transfer a small $500.00 deposit to Lagos and I'm stinking rich! Whooopeee!

Edited July 16, 2009 by Groongthep

[Birdman]

Yeah, right. Easy to get into a bad situation. And because of that someone usually has more than 10 US$ and a CC.

[tmifune]

Yeah, right. Easy to get into a bad situation. And because of that someone usually has more than 10 US$ and a CC.

Oh, I have a CC but its with the same bank. Can't use it here without a pin number. Never needed to use a pin for the CC in the US. Just swipe and sign. Also, the the Call center said that visa canceled the CC as well (again, nothing to do with me). As for being down to 10 US$. I have been using my ATM in India for 2 months. So walking around with 10 US$ did not worry me as all I needed to do was to get more $ from an ATM.