We've Been Scammed On Koh Samui!

[richoz]

How they Bait You 101

• Both the male and female are given a card to scratch each.
  
• The females card is the marked card (i.e the winning card). The timeshare hooligans believe it will be easier to persuade her to come back with hubby for the sales pitch (oop's I mean to collect the prize).
  
• All the cards are marked, from memory (and this was shown to me by one of the hooligans), it is was lots of white doves (drawings) in the corner, but one had only one wing. There are of course diffrent variations. but the cards are all marked.
  

[bifftastic]

I got 'scratch carded' in Chaweng in May last year. An English couple, some story about a bike accident, having to pay out thousands of baht, now stuck in Chaweng and get paid for scratch cards but only if the mark (that was me) sits through the 90 minute presentation. They showed me how the cards were marked, something to do with the numbers in the corner i think, anyway, that's a fairly good method, when you 'confide' in someone that it's a bit of a scam so they feel they're being let into some kind of secret.

OK, so I sat through it, nice enough guy doing the presentation, I listened, he talked, ended up they wanted £10,000 off me! Showed me some brass plate on their wall which was meant to re-assure me they were registered with a city bank in London (as if that would make me feel better about them!)

Any way, he did his 90 minutes I didn't give him any money, they gave me some voucher thing saying i'd won a weeks free accomodation in Phuket (during which I'd need to sit through another presentation or have to pay for the hotel), dunno if the guys on the road got paid. Didn't use the voucher as when i was going to Phuket got a very nice hotel for 700 baht/night (not one of those on their 'list')

Seriously though, if you're going to pay someone for something expensive and it's something you can't actually touch and take away with you there and then, why would you pay on the spot? You'd at the very least do a google search and if it was a few grand you'd go to a lawyer, I mean you would, wouldn't you?

The product they're selling may well be worth buying and not a scam at all, I wouldn't know, can't comment on that aspect of it.

[ArthurPewty]

They offer the same scratchcards at Nana and near Gaysorn. I won a flight to New York last time. I handed it to the girl and told her to take her mum shopping in NY and have a good time.

[reallyok]

I am fully authorised by the good Offices of the Governor General of Australia representing the duly elected parliament and it's territories and under the soverignty provisions to offer you a 50% share in the Syndey Harbor Bridge plus a 50% share in the Sydney Opera House.

Due to offshore banking regulations to take advantage of this once only offer you cannot pay me in cash but you can buy for me the full ownership of a luxury resort on Ko Samui with at least 200 rooms, and have the ownership recorded in my Thai name. To be fair I would also be requiring that you pay all land taxes etc for the next 20 years in advance.

Fair deal?

Like the harbour bridge deal, but what about the painting, its quite an on going job you know!

[priorstp]

Scam or no scam, have you no Backbone, we have a voice and can all say no, what are they gonna do???? stupid is as stupid does and you wont see a penny, you will just waste the rest of your holidays complaining about how stupid you are.

[Hawk]

Stupid people are fun.

Keep them coming.

[elcent]

Is the loss higher compared to the jewelery scams?

[HappyThaiLife]

This is not a troll, this is a scam that has been going on for awhile here in Thailand.

It happened to me once in a tourist spot. A young thai woman and a young thai/italian man approached me on the street (he mentioned he was 1/2 italian, who knows?). I smiled and knew it was a scam at the start so I played along. I scratched 3 cards; 1st and 2nd cards were not winners but hey, lucky me, the 3rd card was a winner! And these two scammers basically jumped up and down, smiled, got really excited for me and then said we must go to their office. I then grabbed the other cards from her hand and asked if I could scratch some more...they said no. So I offered them 100 Baht and while they were wondering about this lunatic falang, I scratched about 4 more cards until the man got a bit angry and grabbed them back. He asked me why I scratched more cards when I already won! I told him I scratched more because less people could be scammed. He said it was not a scam, it was his girlfriend's job. I then told him to piss off as I wasn't in the mood to talk crap anymore on the street. She seemed upset but that was just a pouty act to grab my cash. I then motioned to a police officer down the street and told them I would go and give the policeman 10K Baht just to watch them get grabbed by the police. They ran up the street, jumped on their scooter and swore at me as they rode by. I was laughing hysterically. The policeman saw this and came up to me so we went to the volunteer tourist police and I told a Brit fella the story. He heard it all before and cautioned me on being so abrupt with them; he told me I should have just walked away. But these two scammers were persitent and it was broad daylight on a crowded street so I thought...what the hel_l, lets scratch a few cards!

As for getting a refund? Forget it. Chalk it up to experience and go back to Aussie.

[Larry321]

forget the lawyer and his letter,what you think, how many letters they received already??

take 5000 baht, show them the police officer, and ask him to come with you to their office(if there is one at all)

if they refund your money, you pay the policeman.

yes the best way or move on

you have been tricked by a scam that has been running for years in Spain please do not leave Aus if you have no idea how to travel the world.

sorry you have been very foolish

and more foolish to think thai law will do anything. Oh they will for 400,000 B but you will not solve it

Let me explain

when my friend had his car stolen in Korat he reported it to the local police.

Arriving at the police station he found that the local police were using it as a runabout.

Sorry

Edited January 4, 2010 by Larry321

[DegenFarang]

Your fault here buddy. Consider it a lesson learned. This isn't Australia where the rule of law prevails. It is Darwin at work in Thailand, and unfortunately you were not the fittest in this situation. If you were too dumb to see what was going on, you don't deserve that 30,000 Baht. hel_l those guys worked hard for it - they probably have to cycle through ten or twenty couples to find somebody as dumb as you to give them the money.

[tommybkk]

I worked for this company in Koh Samui. Took me 4 days to quit the job. Involves too many tricks.