What Do You Make Of This Guy?

[mysterybkk]

so today i was standing in front of a hotel waiting for a cab when i was addressed by a guy. he told me that he got drunk last night before taking the bus to bangkok (yeah we already know where this is going) and on the way there he was robbed of all his cash. first little red flag: it's 4pm and he's STILL drunk? he was telling me what an idiot he is and that he went to the police who brought him to the embassy, he got kicked out for being drunk..... you know, the usual BS. now the part that struck me as odd was that he didnt look like your normal scammer. apart from being totally wasted he looked like he takes care of himself. def not a druggie. he was wearing nice expensive clothing too. and he was also fairly educated, as well as able to speak fluent french and german with me.

he said even 40 baht would help him out, so to get him off my back i gave him the 40. he seemed very grateful.

my first question is: is the british embassy even open on a sunday? and also, why would someone like that be begging for money? of course it seems highly suspicious, but maybe someone else has some thoughts about this. it was really strange because this was taking place literally in front of the main entrance to a nice-ish hotel downtown and nobody reacted to it until i pointed it out to the desk manager who promptly had him escorted from the grounds.

[jerrylee]

I would'nt give him more, but 40 bht I'll help the guy out like you did ...

[krading]

"this was taking place literally in front of the main entrance to a nice-ish hotel downtown and nobody reacted to it until i pointed it out to the desk manager who promptly had him escorted from the grounds."

So you made a point of going into the hotel to report this vagabond to the desk manager after being menaced out 40 bht.

[OxfordWill]

Jesus, you did him more harm than good. What if he was genuine?

[garyh]

If he is above board he can get his credit cards sorted out when he is sober, maybe he will learn not get drunk and go on the bus.

[mysterybkk]

Jesus, you did him more harm than good. What if he was genuine?

yeah i know.... it was a difficult moral decision but in the end my gut told me that there was something funny going on. hence my reaction.

[sibeymai]

Drunk is not something that a regular scammer can act easily. If you thought he was drunk he may have been drugged. Possibly he was legit. The UK embassy has a reputation for being one of the most unhelpful in LOS and being a Sunday wouldn't help. If the guy accepted 40bt then I'd say he was probably genuine. A scammer wouldn't waste their time with you for 40bt and almost certainly wouldn't present as drunk.

[dantilley]

my first question is: is the british embassy even open on a sunday?

It's not open on Sunday in the normal public sense of being open, i.e. you can't go in there and submit a new passport application or whatever, but I reckon there must be someone in the building at all times in case of emergencies. Perhaps the guy persuaded the security guards his case was urgent enough to get him inside, and was then booted out upon further inspection once he was in.

Or the whole thing could be made up - I've had a westerner approach me before with the usual being robbed, embassy closed, etc. story - not exactly fitting the description of your guy though, but still not an obvious down-and-out. In my case I gave him 100 Baht - not a big loss to me and you never know, it could have been for real. I really hope I could count on people to help me out if I was in a similar predicament some day. (On the other hand, if it is a scammer, he only needs to get 10x100 Baht from people to make 1,000 Baht a day - similar to what some English teachers earn...)

[krading]

If he's there every day it might be a bit suss.

[StatlerandWaldorf]

Difficult one. Sounds very different to all the scammers I have encountered, but if the scams always remained the same we would all be aware of them right?

What can this guy do with 40 baht? get something to eat but not much else.

To be honest you never really know with something like this. I once heard a guy in the embassy who had travelled from somewhere else in Thailand to BKK and had checked into a cheap hotel late at night, gone out to get something to eat and then could not find his hotel again! He was at the embassy as a last resort after 2 days of searching for the hotel, he had lost all his bags, passport etc etc etc.

The truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

[Boater]

by any chance did he have a northern accent? , and was this on sukhumvit soi 3, 4 , 5 or 6??? ......... as there is a guy from manchester who has been pulling this same scam there for years

[mysterybkk]

Drunk is not something that a regular scammer can act easily. If you thought he was drunk he may have been drugged. Possibly he was legit. The UK embassy has a reputation for being one of the most unhelpful in LOS and being a Sunday wouldn't help. If the guy accepted 40bt then I'd say he was probably genuine. A scammer wouldn't waste their time with you for 40bt and almost certainly wouldn't present as drunk.

no, he was really drunk, i've never seen someone that reeked of alcohol as much as he did. one thought that occurred to me was that he may have been an alcoholic but then again, he looked too healthy for that....

by any chance did he have a northern accent? , and was this on sukhumvit soi 3, 4 , 5 or 6??? ......... as there is a guy from manchester who has been pulling this same scam there for years

it was next to emporium. i am not familiar with all the english accents, however it was definitely not someone from manchester. he was in his late 30s though if that's any help.

Edited August 9, 2009 by mysterybkk

[OxfordWill]

Well, dont beat yourself up about it. But I was once in a similar situation and my wholelife Ive never had credit cards.. probably a mistake come to think of it.

[britmaveric]

Only 40bht? - if he was a con man - not very good one from the sounds of it.

[connel707]

so today i was standing in front of a hotel waiting for a cab when i was addressed by a guy. he told me that he got drunk last night before taking the bus to bangkok (yeah we already know where this is going) and on the way there he was robbed of all his cash. first little red flag: it's 4pm and he's STILL drunk? he was telling me what an idiot he is and that he went to the police who brought him to the embassy, he got kicked out for being drunk..... you know, the usual BS. now the part that struck me as odd was that he didnt look like your normal scammer. apart from being totally wasted he looked like he takes care of himself. def not a druggie. he was wearing nice expensive clothing too. and he was also fairly educated, as well as able to speak fluent french and german with me.

he said even 40 baht would help him out, so to get him off my back i gave him the 40. he seemed very grateful.

my first question is: is the british embassy even open on a sunday? and also, why would someone like that be begging for money? of course it seems highly suspicious, but maybe someone else has some thoughts about this. it was really strange because this was taking place literally in front of the main entrance to a nice-ish hotel downtown and nobody reacted to it until i pointed it out to the desk manager who promptly had him escorted from the grounds.

Was he from Nigeria, said he was from Ghana, and did he call you papa......haha..?????

[visareal]

Well, dont beat yourself up about it. But I was once in a similar situation and my wholelife Ive never had credit cards.. probably a mistake come to think of it.

was caught once like that too , myself. was drugged and robbed in a karaoke in koh samui. lucky someone, a farang, helped me back to my hotel. credit cards? never go near them, damned credit cards, i mean.

Edited August 10, 2009 by visareal

[jumparound]

I was hit up for a cigarette outside of Pantip last week.

Some dirty thin British bloke.

Looked like he had no money.

How sad but what does one do.

I wish i had given him 100b now.

Dog eat dog

Every dog has its day.

Howay the lads

[SMEEERE]

Well my uncle had this happen to him, genuine, was robbed of everything inc mobile phone, think about it, where would you start, you can remember anyones number straight away,.and the thais wont take you anywhere without payment, as it happened he remebered the name of the hotel his friend was staying at and that started the ball rolling, very scary, you may have done the guy a favour, we will never know i think,.

[JUDAS]

Sounds like nothing more than a very drunk TV member having a laugh after reading about all the scams on here

[PatinBKk]

You did the right thing, 40 Baht will stand him some pork and rice with a bottle of water. Hopefully then he will feel a bit better/sober and be able to sort himself out......robberies on Thai transport are rife so it is believable he had his money/cards stolen......though he should learn from the mistake and keep his wallet safely in a deep front pocket

[stub]

The 'robbed on the bus' line is a scam. As mentioned earlier, there is an English guy who has been using this line for a while around Suk soi 4. The 'even 40 baht' line is to make it seem more genuine - more often than not people will give 500 or 1000 baht if they believe the situation. Drunk guy who could speak German doesn't sound like anyone I've bumped into - the English guy is sober when I've met and seen him (although with that thick accent, many people might assume he is drunk )

[orangezeke]

about 3 months ago, early monday morning i had a meeting at charn issara tower 2 on petchburi road. i arrived to see a group of policemen huddled around looking at a clutch of photos of a body on the lobby floor. from what i picked up, the day before an 18 yr old canadian kid had gone there on bad advice - he was supposed to go to charn issara tower 1 on silom where he would meet a contact. he had been robbed in northern thailand, was out of money, had no passport, no open consulate and nowhere to stay that night. in despair he simply took the elevator up to the 4th floor of the plaza and jumped.

it was in the thai paper but i saw no mention in the english rags.

it really made me think because i am often quick to dismiss people who approach me with a sob story. if i had seen that kid walking around looking lost, what would i have done ? i am horrified to think that i might have done nothing.

Edited August 21, 2009 by orangezeke

[MrHammer]

If it's a white person I will usually hear them out, unless it's an obvious Nana plaza troll.

If it a black man, I will ignore him and walk away. No need to get involved with the worldwide criminal network of Nigerians.

If it's an Indian looking fella with a British accent and a story about jewels, a bargirl and a closed embassy, then I'm calling the cops.

[sanook2me]

So many scams that the real genuine cases are hard to fathom out if it was for 40 baht and he looked okay i would think this was genuine my basis for this is that its just happened to a good mate of mine.

My mate had 1 English atm card (stupid now) no travellers checks or credit card. Luckily he was travelling around and meeting up with old friends like me.

His story he left his card in the atm machine the night before he left to go to Koh Tao when he got off the boat he realised he had no atm card and no money left in his wallet...he had to beg at a nearby travel agent to use their phone and phoned our mate who he was going to see on Koh Tao to come down to the pier to collect him and sort him out.

If our mate had not had been there he was bahtless with nothing in Koh Tao..

My mates background.. educated at a private school so nicely spoken and smart is a fully qualified maths teacher in the UK but is tall lanky and scruffy...student style...

if he came with the same story on an island... excuse me i need to get back to Bangkok i have no money can you give me anything?

would i believe him? before this happened i wouldn't have but now i think i may give these people a little money just in case!

[dantilley]

If our mate had not had been there he was bahtless with nothing in Koh Tao..

Most UK banks will FedEx a new card out to you anywhere in the world within 24 hours if you're stuck like this.

[SMEEERE]

If our mate had not had been there he was bahtless with nothing in Koh Tao..

Most UK banks will FedEx a new card out to you anywhere in the world within 24 hours if you're stuck like this.

Alliance Leicester wont, they will only post to your registered UK address and if anyones thee they can send on,.

[Tyke]

so today i was standing in front of a hotel waiting for a cab when i was addressed by a guy. he told me that he got drunk last night before taking the bus to bangkok (yeah we already know where this is going) and on the way there he was robbed of all his cash. first little red flag: it's 4pm and he's STILL drunk? he was telling me what an idiot he is and that he went to the police who brought him to the embassy, he got kicked out for being drunk..... you know, the usual BS. now the part that struck me as odd was that he didnt look like your normal scammer. apart from being totally wasted he looked like he takes care of himself. def not a druggie. he was wearing nice expensive clothing too. and he was also fairly educated, as well as able to speak fluent french and german with me.

he said even 40 baht would help him out, so to get him off my back i gave him the 40. he seemed very grateful.

my first question is: is the british embassy even open on a sunday? and also, why would someone like that be begging for money? of course it seems highly suspicious, but maybe someone else has some thoughts about this. it was really strange because this was taking place literally in front of the main entrance to a nice-ish hotel downtown and nobody reacted to it until i pointed it out to the desk manager who promptly had him escorted from the grounds.

He's a scammer for sure and you wasted your 40 baht - but we have all done it - some of the most plausible con-men dress and speak well - some of the most honest do not (just look at the crooks spewed up by the British 'public (read '

private') school' system in the Uk, who work in Government and the City of London, for example. With these guys, the fact that they screwed 40 baht out of someone, whilst incapable, is an accomplishment - it doesn't matter how much - that's why he looked so pleased. These tossers make it difficult for genuine cases.

[MrHammer]

So many scams that the real genuine cases are hard to fathom out if it was for 40 baht and he looked okay i would think this was genuine my basis for this is that its just happened to a good mate of mine.

My mate had 1 English atm card (stupid now) no travellers checks or credit card. Luckily he was travelling around and meeting up with old friends like me.

His story he left his card in the atm machine the night before he left to go to Koh Tao when he got off the boat he realised he had no atm card and no money left in his wallet...he had to beg at a nearby travel agent to use their phone and phoned our mate who he was going to see on Koh Tao to come down to the pier to collect him and sort him out.

If our mate had not had been there he was bahtless with nothing in Koh Tao..

My mates background.. educated at a private school so nicely spoken and smart is a fully qualified maths teacher in the UK but is tall lanky and scruffy...student style...

if he came with the same story on an island... excuse me i need to get back to Bangkok i have no money can you give me anything?

would i believe him? before this happened i wouldn't have but now i think i may give these people a little money just in case!

Sure, why not? Don't think anyone would have a problem with that on Ko Tao. It's probably more the people hanging around lower Sukhumvit that seem shady.

[Geekfreaklover]

If our mate had not had been there he was bahtless with nothing in Koh Tao..

Most UK banks will FedEx a new card out to you anywhere in the world within 24 hours if you're stuck like this.

Alliance Leicester wont, they will only post to your registered UK address and if anyones thee they can send on,.

Same with Barclays. They won't even send statements out here.

[Electra]

He was most certainly talking drivel.

In his circumstances no police officer, tourist or otherwise, would waste their time in escorting a drunken falang to any embassy. Secondly, the British embassy is not open for business to anyone on a Sunday. There will be a duty officer assigned for the weekend who in an emergency may be contacted by telephone but emergency means precisely that and invariably will be limited to those affected by sudden death or the gravely ill and where compelling compassionate circumstances are apparent. The duty officer will not actually be in the embassy and will more than likely be hoping to enjoy a weekend unburdened by the stupid and frivolous such as, say, a drunken Brit down on his luck.