Scam with Excise officers at the Aranyaprathet border.

Scammers selling cartons of cigarettes at the Aranyaprathet market are in cahoots with the Excise Tax officers. You are approached as usual by a Thai or Cambodian guy and they offer you the cigarettes very cheaply, any brand and collect the cash from you and hand the smokes to you between the two banks at the entrance to the car/bus parking area. The Excise officers are in the banks watching through dark tinted windows and radio the plain clothed officers that then allegedly arrest you.

They then inform you that for each carton you will have to pay up to B5000 fine or be arrested and charged. Naturally you don’t want to be arrested and charged, so they take you to the ATM or get the cash from your wallet if you have it on you.

My friend, who got caught up in this scam, had to go to the ATM and pay for 4 cartons of cigarettes B20, 000. NO receipt issued.

He then went around the market and saw the guy that sold him the cigarettes and got up him over the incident. The seller said they made him do it and were targeting Farungs as they had the cash to pay them.

So be warned, they are in cahoots with them and you will be fined for anything these guys are selling you from over the border.

Its a scam of sorts.. i mean your friend did do something illegal.

Nothing new been happening fo years,many threads about this.

These people are scum.

Its a scam of sorts.. i mean your friend did do something illegal.

AKA entrapment in other places, and its not a scam of sorts, its scam through and through, the upstanding officers are not up holding the law, they are lining their own pockets...

Its a scam of sorts.. i mean your friend did do something illegal.

AKA entrapment in other places, and its not a scam of sorts, its scam through and through, the upstanding officers are not up holding the law, they are lining their own pockets...

They are taking advantage of foreigners who are wanting to flout Thailand's customs laws. I don't blame them. Don't break the law in Thailand, and you rarely get hasseled, if at all. This is from someone who has lived in Thailand for 10 years +. No sympathy from me.

For what it is worth, there is a old thread running in the airport forum where people were banging on about being fined for brining in illegal ciggies over the limit.

Turns out that the 5000 baht fine (from memory) is the official fine per carton.

i buy my smokes at 7-11 and i've never been harassed....

Buy from the carpark, that strange when you do visa run ? first why not buying from the no manland ? second never buy 2 cartons from the same seller, buy one (hide it and later on buy a new one) or easy buy at 7-11 eleven.

Don't break the law in Thailand, and you rarely get hasseled as said Saram

Do not act if you over the laws

If I read this right, the smokes were actually purchased in Thailand and not imported by the buyer, which in my opinion there is nothing illegal involved on the buyers side. It cant even be called entrapment as nothing illegal has taken place. If anyone is breaking the law its the seller by selling smokes in Thailand without paying the import duty

I have a feeling of the buyer bought the cigarettes in the noman zone (duty-free) and he walk back with few cartons, head high / i am a farang, i can do what i want / and he got caught.

The story perhaps has evolved from this stage !

So what happens if you choose the arrest option?

So what happens if you choose the arrest option?

You get arrested?

That 'scam' has been going on for years.

You buy cheap, duty free, over the limit, you get stopped somewhere along the route home for being in possession of too many ciggies and are asked to pay the fine. They often drag you off to the ATM to get the cash to pay the fine, they take your ciggies and quite possibly pass them back to be sold to the next mug that comes along who thinks they can also 'get away with it'.

You run contraband and you take your chance. Up to you.

After 6 yearsof visa runs,i am warned on every one that you are allowed 1ltr spirits and 1 pack of ciggies.

THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE IS IT

........ and you realise that those ever so cheap fags are nearly all counterfeit fags?

I have a feeling of the buyer bought the cigarettes in the noman zone (duty-free) and he walk back with few cartons, head high / i am a farang, i can do what i want / and he got caught.

The story perhaps has evolved from this stage !

It is a negative to your view. He bought the Cigs on the Thai side outside the car park between the 2 banks, they had a tax stamp on the packets already. It is just an outright scam and a way for these humps to get extra cash for them and their boss, otherwise why was he not arrested and why did they take him directly to an ATM to get the cash and not supply a receipt.

I have also read something similar to this thread before.

I am just giving you and others a warning about the scam in case they had the same idea.

i buy my smokes at 7-11 and i've never been harassed....

Cheap-scape farangs trying to save pennies on fags???? Why not just give up!