Airport Customs Scam

[MJP]

I was reading an article on the bbc news website about the kingpower story and noticed some comments at the bottom submitted by two readers documenting bad experiences, i was suprised to see that people were getting scammed like this. Has anybody any advice if this happens at the airport.

Comments by BBC news readers in response to king power story.

Another scam at Bangkok Airport is when the Thai customs meet passengers off airplanes from Dubai/Qatar where there is cheap duty free. The customs tell passengers to put duty free items inside their check-in luggage when they take it off the carousel - or they will be prosecuted for smuggling. They then tell people that it will be OK not to show or declare any duty free items. When the passengers reach the arrivals area, the customs pounce and you are arrested and taken to customs head office at BANG NA and told to pay four times the duty or go straight to jail. There is an ATM machine next door to the customs office. Your goods are kept by the officers and they then pocket the money you have paid them and you are free to go without any criminal record.

Paul Grant, London, UK

Same happened to me in April this year. The police arrested me and charged me approx £400. There were 5 of us in our group, we purchased 1000 cigarettes at Heathrow, but on leaving the plane at Bangkok the police approached me and told me to keep them in one bag. I did as I was told, and that was the set up, so when I got through customs with the other four people they arrested me and would not accept what we told them. They took copies of my passport and made me sign at least six documents, all in Thai. They would not give me copies so at this moment I don't know what I signed. They escorted me to an ATM. I have been in touch with the British consulate who asked me if I want to make a complaint but I don't want to go to another country and find they have done something to my passport. I will never return to Thailand again, it was the scariest time of my life.

Lynn Ward, UK

I don't know how to add the web link.

Been in and out of LOS for the last 8 years. Even brought two laptops and a whole bunch of other electricals through with me last time. Also a shipment from home of household goods via sea freight.

All zero duty. Never had a problem.

Never had visa problems either.

I travel through airports worldwide and I find Suvarnabhumi to be one of the best.

[ESB7]

Why is thai visa full of antagonistic know it all's.

That's what all online forums are generally for... ranting, trolling, pontificating, demanding, mocking, and most of all, accumulating virtual status that you might not be able to acquire in meatspace.

If you get status, you can rant; if you don't like someone's rant, you can brand them a troll; then get a few others to roll in and pontificate. Sometimes it's deserved when you get someone demanding information; sometimes it's not, and that's when to mock those who "acquired Na", and think they've joined some kind of forum-ocracy.

It applies to all forums on all topics... it's easy to forget that forums are not real "territory"; and there is no real "status"... they are just lines of data stored on someone else's hard drive somewhere, much like e-mails... so just imagine you're at a party and ignore the people whose comments you're not interested in as you would in meatspace; and shower niceness upon those who's views you are... there are few things as embarrassing as watching a statusgrasping pontificator rowing with a demanding troller; but everyone deserves a bit of rant or mock now and then, I reckon, as long as we can all shake hands after.

I agree,

I can add little to the duty free issue. I had a lovely end to my Thailand holiday yesterday. I arrived back in the UK and while sitting on the tarmac waiting to disembark the plane i could here the loud 'chavvy' family from leicester conspiring to firstly smuggle there 4 complimentary wines off the flight and also to take 1400 fags from dubai through the nothing to declare channel. So i quietly reported them to the flight attendants who duley confiscated the wine. That was just a jab i thought next was the knock out blow, when we got into Birmingham arrivals i stayed close and shopped them and another loud co-conspiritorial family who they were friends with to the customs. I went through customs and took up my position and waited, oh the look on there faces when they got pulled, fantastic. I even went and stood next to the puzzled scum outside while they waited for a taxi for leicester. Yes it was a lovely end to a horrible flight.

So just goes to show the Thai visa nastiness can rub off.

Charming....were you bullied at school maybe?....any chance you could help find Bin Laden with your fantastic detective work

[jackh]

I've been coming to Thailand often for many years. Last July was it for me. Thailand is no longer the "Land of Smiles' but more the "Land of Scams". While many places have scammers, Thailand is in a class by itself. I don't need to travel to places where I have to assume that everyone I come in contact with is out to scam me. This is the feeling I get now in Thailand.

So, forget Thailand. I'm never coming back. I have plenty of places much better than Thailand to spend my money. In a few years Thailand will be nothing more than a memory for the majority of tourists that Thailand has benefited from. Pity the fool who lives/ works/ or invests in Thailand. What a dump!

[Beacher]

I've never known a country to work so hard at trying to convince people NOT to make it their holiday destination.

Amazing Thailand alright!

[on-on]

While many places have scammers, Thailand is in a class by itself.

I realize Thailand has its problems with scams and I'm not here to white knight those problems, but good God - a class by itself? This has to be someone who has never been to Latin America or India or The Philippines or the like. Things that have never even approached happening to me in Thailand: having guns pulled on me, being thrown in jail repeatedly on shakedowns, having my pocket picked, etc, etc. This latest stuff is very worrying and I agree with that, but there's no need for hyperbole. It's bad enough on its own.

[Disting]

If you want real fun and games, come and join me for a 6 week trip in Nigeria then you will never complain about Thailand again.

I usually buy my young daughter a toy of some sort in Dubai and walk out of the airport with the Dubai duty free bag on display. I dont drink or smoke and every time I get the excise man hit me up after passing through customs. I do take great pleasure in playing the difficult falang just up to the point where he is about to get nasty and then showing him the dancing camel or whatever toy is in the bag. The look on his face when he realises he cant scam me for anything gives me something to chuckle about in the taxi to downtown. Roll on Wednesday and the next bag of toys.

[hhgz]

"I do take great pleasure in playing the difficult falang..."

Everyone needs to justify their existence, and it reads as though you've found your niche of acting as a jerk.

[noahvail]

"I do take great pleasure in playing the difficult falang..."

Everyone needs to justify their existence, and it reads as though you've found your niche of acting as a jerk.

Ad hominem comments don't make for very good reading.

Besides, if our toy-carrying friend wants to do a bit of one-upsmanship against a "tax" collector who is most likely going to scam him in a certain country, where's the harm? It's not like a "tax" man who gets $ signs in his eyes when he sees a Dubai duty-free bag, is going to bust him for trading in endangered species now, is it.

[syd barrett]

If you want real fun and games, come and join me for a 6 week trip in Nigeria then you will never complain about Thailand again.

I usually buy my young daughter a toy of some sort in Dubai and walk out of the airport with the Dubai duty free bag on display. I dont drink or smoke and every time I get the excise man hit me up after passing through customs. I do take great pleasure in playing the difficult falang just up to the point where he is about to get nasty and then showing him the dancing camel or whatever toy is in the bag. The look on his face when he realises he cant scam me for anything gives me something to chuckle about in the taxi to downtown. Roll on Wednesday and the next bag of toys.

If you continue to do this in Nigeria you will come to a sticky end.

Don't take the p*** out of Nigerian Customs men. Believe me, they will remember your face.