Spotting A Future Expat In Trouble?

[TAWP]

a 419 - Thai Version, come to my mind.

I think you may be right and this belongs in the scam thread.

It so happens that just two days ago, I got an email and phonecall from an old friend in Canada who's been married to a Thai for over twenty years. With his permission, I quote below the email, redacting some of the names:

Hello Thakkar,

I was wondering if you can assist us? We have an emergency situation in Hong Kong.

We have an acquaintance that is detained at the immigration department of the Hong Kong airport. His name is Nelson Morgan.

Here is some background information. He met my sister in-law on the internet and they both wanted to get married. They have known each other for a year, through the internet. As part of Thai wedding ceremonies, there is a dowry involved for the bride. Nelson claims that he is from Britain, and that he has never travelled to Asia before. There was a large sum of British pounds($125,000)and 15 K of gold which was discovered by the Hong Kong Immigration during their routine searches. I did speak with Nelson, but he was very difficult to understand. He had a heavy unknown accent, not British at all, and very similar to French.

He was detained and was not allowed to go through to Bangkok so he can wed my sister in law. He requests that we send an outstanding fine of $1150.00 USD through western union to an address on Nathan Road in Hong Kong. It belongs to a so called “agent”, working on behalf of the Hong Kong Immigration. Do you know if this really exists in Hong Kong? I have never heard of this and I feel very suspicios. They require the receipt as proof before releasing him. The officer in charge, Mr. Chung, says that he will not entertain third parties. Any person, including lawyers, coming to see him at the airport will be arrested for money laundering. He was offered to connect with the British Consulate, but Nelson declined, according to Mr. Chung.

We have sent off an e-mail to the Hong Kong British Consulate. Checking their website, their was a PDF file to download. There does not appear to be anything they can do except to act as a co-ordinator between the detained party and his friends/family.

Please see the following e-mails that I am forwarding to you below. The strange thing is

The e-mail address does not indicate it is coming from the Hong Kong immigration department. Has things changed that much since the hand over to China?

Anyways, we as an outsider are not familiar of the procedures in Hong Kong regarding this matter. If you wish to discuss this further on the phone, I'll call you.

We do not wish to be swindled by a group of potential gangsters. I have attached his photos that he sent to my sister in law.

Your advice is greatly appreciated!

There is a well known scam going around Asia (even a friend of mine in Iran was approached) with men, seemingly rich and very handsome, contacting women on dating sites and quickly falling for them. He then says he wants to send gifts to them, sometimes a box with cell phone, money, an engagement ring etc. The box will however be caught in the customs and an agent from a delivery company will email and call the women and request full tax to be paid. Often the amount quoted is upwards to 30 000 baht.

The phony delivery agency even have a website.

Problem is that while the guy pretends to be from England or France (usually), he has an accent, emails are actually coming from Malaysia (all the cases I have seen sofar), the agency HQ is supposedly in Malaysia etc.

From what I gathered there is an African (most likely Nigerian) gang operating out of Malaysia, with roaming cell phones from UK, that is doing this on a fairly large scale. The amount of female friends approached by this over several different sites by the supposedly same people would indicate this.

[soihok]

I did speak with Nelson, but he was very difficult to understand. He had a heavy unknown accent, not British at all, and very similar to French.

Being British means anything under the sun now, so accents don't really come into it.

Maybe Nelson is from Newcastle, they sound French also.

Have you just made that up?

[robblok]

Yep, makes the world go round.

Just one question are you allowed to talk to strange girls or is it just a one way thing for the woman folk and giving the man folk more leeway ? If that is the the case then i don't really think its fair.

In my case my mrs doesn't speak to guys unless spoken too, tells me not lady like. Unfortunately nobody understands my Thai so conversations are nil, except ladies that have studied English who love the chance of a practise but the mrs is watching like a hawk and understands whats being said, but saying all that, my previous comments are about using the Net to talk, looking to talk, very different.

Just trying to figure out if you measure her liberties different then yours. That was why i asked, i have the same liberties as my wife(call her gf wife makes me feel old). If i can do something so can she.

[Thakkar]

Call me old fashioned, (OK, you can ), but if a Thai female (married or not) is on the Web talking to farangs, to me it's the same as going into town and seeing my lady sitting in a bar having a cosy chat with a farang and everything that that could lead too. When on the Net reading stuff ones mind isn't a blank, it's working very hard taking in all sorts of stuff. One can talk of trust but l think inevitably one thing leads to another.

You sound a bit insecure about your relation, sure maybe one thing leads to an other. It could happen but only if she isn't happy in her relation. Nobody will force her to set the next step but if it happens it could be a one time thing or a sign on the wall something isn't good in the relation.

Better to work on the relation then to exclude temptation.

It's impossible to exclude *all* temptation, so, yes, much better to work on the relationship. The more you feel you have to hold on, the less it's yours.

[TAWP]

Reminds me of another ~45 year old European man recently, msg'd and praised her pics. She replied shortly 'thank you', and he wrote back that he wanted to meet her when he comes to Thailand, but that he was jealous that other men could see her sexy pictures and asked her if she could take them down, and asking if she could send more sexy ones to him, but him only...

Apparently some men are so possessive so they think one email reply that doesn't tell them to f-k off equals a relationship. Being modestly polite can be dangerous for a girl...

[TAWP]

So we are on the same wave length though she does know and tells me the lengths some ladies will go to get my attention and has made it clear to me why Thai ladies surf the web.

There is a huge difference between women that has a Myspace/Facebook profile and talk to their friends and those that actively goes and message other men. Always look at who initiated the conversation. Maybe your wife just lacks friend that is online or haven't jumped on the 'social networking'-craze.

[robblok]

So we are on the same wave length though she does know and tells me the lengths some ladies will go to get my attention and has made it clear to me why Thai ladies surf the web.

There is a huge difference between women that has a Myspace/Facebook profile and talk to their friends and those that actively goes and message other men. Always look at who initiated the conversation. Maybe your wife just lacks friend that is online or haven't jumped on the 'social networking'-craze.

My mrs has absolutely no interest in the computer. Every farangs lady we have met has been a nightmare, and every Thai thats jumped on the band waggon that the mrs is wed to a farang has been a pain in the ass, thankfully in the past. So she is happy wth her old friends from her school days which have few hang ups. Perhaps l am lucky, beautiful wife, doesn't want to listen to other peoples crap or complicate her day and is content to live an uncluttered life.

That is a good thing its good to have a wife that does not get influenced easily by others.

[robblok]

So we are on the same wave length though she does know and tells me the lengths some ladies will go to get my attention and has made it clear to me why Thai ladies surf the web.

There is a huge difference between women that has a Myspace/Facebook profile and talk to their friends and those that actively goes and message other men. Always look at who initiated the conversation. Maybe your wife just lacks friend that is online or haven't jumped on the 'social networking'-craze.

Almost all my wifes friends are on facebook. But they are all around 24-28 so that is a different generation as Transam's wife every generation does things differently.

[Chunky1]

So OP caught his girl browsing social sites for other farang and he wants to know what to tell the other guy? weird day.

[Chunky1]

Reminds me of another ~45 year old European man recently, msg'd and praised her pics. She replied shortly 'thank you', and he wrote back that he wanted to meet her when he comes to Thailand, but that he was jealous that other men could see her sexy pictures and asked her if she could take them down, and asking if she could send more sexy ones to him, but him only...

Apparently some men are so possessive so they think one email reply that doesn't tell them to f-k off equals a relationship. Being modestly polite can be dangerous for a girl...

:whistling:

[TAWP]

So OP caught his girl browsing social sites for other farang and he wants to know what to tell the other guy? weird day.

Uh, what?

[Chunky1]

Call me old fashioned, (OK, you can ), but if a Thai female (married or not) is on the Web talking to farangs, to me it's the same as going into town and seeing my lady sitting in a bar having a cosy chat with a farang and everything that that could lead too. When on the Net reading stuff ones mind isn't a blank, it's working very hard taking in all sorts of stuff. One can talk of trust but l think inevitably one thing leads to another.

my wife is young and the same way. she would never waste time online chatting to random men. i really think OP and robo and some others in this thread are wearing blinders. wake up people.

[robblok]

Call me old fashioned, (OK, you can ), but if a Thai female (married or not) is on the Web talking to farangs, to me it's the same as going into town and seeing my lady sitting in a bar having a cosy chat with a farang and everything that that could lead too. When on the Net reading stuff ones mind isn't a blank, it's working very hard taking in all sorts of stuff. One can talk of trust but l think inevitably one thing leads to another.

my wife is young and the same way. she would never waste time online chatting to random men. i really think OP and robo and some others in this thread are wearing blinders. wake up people.

Yes wake up mr chunky, your so afraid that someone might steal your wife. Maybe your not that good a man if you can't keep her.

Different folks different strokes. I trust my wife 100% and she trusts me. We were in an open relation before meaning i could go out and meet and bed other girls. She could do the same with guys. We did this for a while but in the end it created some problems so we stopped it. I have absolutely full trust in her and I would not lock my wife away from temptation.

Remember when you were a kid (maybe not too hard to remember) forbidden things always tasted better. However if you can do things your less tempted to do so. I could smoke and drink if i wanted and i never touched a cigarette. I might have if my parents made a big deal out of it. Its similar in relations in my view if you worry too much and check too much you either create a feeling of distrust or drive them straight in the arms of an other.

I can only say that you and I are real different, what i have read from your post you are quite boring you don't even let employees get on first name basis with you. You seem to think your always right and everyone has a prostitute wife. Transam on the other hand i like a lot more and he can accept about different folks and different strokes. He is also really knowledgeable about cars. You always talk like you know everything and your way is the right way. But i haven't seen you post anything interesting or displaying knowledge.

[zzaa09]

How does one break this news to OP?

When males on Facebook write things like the underlined to Thai females, and OP and his girl friend think it was honest talk spoken from heart, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is the male Facebook writer that is naive and needs news broken.

Naive is as naive does......

[Chunky1]

I trust my wife 100% and she trusts me. We were in an open relation before meaning i could go out and meet and bed other girls. She could do the same with guys.

Thanks for the advise, but I prefer that my wife stays disease free.

[tigerfish]

I trust my wife 100% and she trusts me. We were in an open relation before meaning i could go out and meet and bed other girls. She could do the same with guys.

Thanks for the advise, but I prefer that my wife stays disease free.

i doubt it!

god living with someone like you would most probably be enough to drive even the pope to drink.

dont hold much hope out for your misses!

isnt alcoholism a disease?

[Moonrakers]

I like to play poker on face-book from time to time.

My face-book image is actually a picture of my misses. My wife really is rather an attractive lady and so I find it quite amusing that on nearly every game I get players trying to chat me up (thinking that I am my wife), whilst I am left to concentrate on winning the game

[robblok]

I trust my wife 100% and she trusts me. We were in an open relation before meaning i could go out and meet and bed other girls. She could do the same with guys.

Thanks for the advise, but I prefer that my wife stays disease free.

ah your one of those guys from the middle ages who hasn't heard of condoms and such. Anyway she stayed disease free. But like others said you are the kind of guy that would drive the pope to drink. Anyway its good that there are guys like you. It only makes the rest of us look more fun.

[robblok]

Sadly from my own life's experiences l have leaned only 3 things are 100%, Time, Tide and Death.

Trust is very low down on the persentage scale.

You forgot taxes

[robblok]

Sadly from my own life's experiences l have leaned only 3 things are 100%, Time, Tide and Death.

Trust is very low down on the persentage scale.

You forgot taxes

Thanks, forgot about that.

To be honest i have had bad experiences in the past too trust wise. But i feel i can't be in a relation if i don't trust the other party. That does not mean i don't look out for myself or go blindly into anything but if i feel i can't trust someone i would end the relation.

[welsh1]

Yes i see a future expat in trouble. You will soon be dumped and replaced by a wealthy Belgiam guy who can treat your gf as his princess.

And he might be a lot younger also

When you come from being out all day..and she tells you your dinners in the dog ..it will be all down hill from then on

[tigerfish]

Yes i see a future expat in trouble. You will soon be dumped and replaced by a wealthy Belgiam guy who can treat your gf as his princess.

And he might be a lot younger also

When you come from being out all day..and she tells you your dinners in the dog ..it will be all down hill from then on

or even worse the dinner is the dog itself !

no only joking all you norh eastern isaanites.

spent many a day tucking into a nice piece of bbqed "maah" washed with some home brew lao khao.

[welsh1]

Yes i see a future expat in trouble. You will soon be dumped and replaced by a wealthy Belgiam guy who can treat your gf as his princess.

And he might be a lot younger also

When you come from being out all day..and she tells you your dinners in the dog ..it will be all down hill from then on

or even worse the dinner is the dog itself !

no only joking all you norh eastern isaanites.

spent many a day tucking into a nice piece of bbqed "maah" washed with some home brew lao khao.

Only bbq we have up my way is chicken on a stick....so a nice tasty dog will go down a treat ...

[robblok]

Think the point l am trying to make is that nothing is for sure cos anything can change or inter fear with a good relationship.

My previous English wife of 25 years, we were two peas in a pod, had everything, did what we want, both had illnesses at the time, she had half dozen major operations that could have left her in a wheel chair but she new l would be there for ever.

She worked in a bank, applied for a different position working with high fliers, great l thought, up the income a bit. Two years after she was a different person, mixing with the jet set, money people, suppose fun people, wine bars after work etc.

On holiday she came out with, l want to sell the house and do something different, l am fed up with my life l want to do other things. I could not believe what l heard, l could have died on the spot, and sadly thats what happened, divorce.

She made up a totally load of <deleted> for a divorce and at the financial hearing told a lot of lies in her financial report. Fortunately l had an anonymous tip off and did some homework for the court.. I also had an incurable disease, in court she said l never (financial reasons ) but the judge had a Consultants report on my condition and shot her barrister down in flames. In court she was served with a Penal Notice (threat of prison) for telling lies to the court and told to go away and come back with the truth.

I found out she had been going with one of the high fliers in the office, which was the reason for her moving on but the way it was done was appalling.

My point, we were very happy, no probs, would have cut my arm off for her and she me, a lovely person liked by all BUT something changed her dramatically to behave in a totally uncharacteristic manner with no thought for me what so ever, from my point of view it was the job change and mixing with different type of people with different types of lives. Thats why l say nothing is 100% and the unthinkable can happen.

Hope you see my comparison with the way the thread has gone over the use off the PC and the Net in that perhaps the grass is greener and/or theres something different out there which is talked about between strangers and perhaps taken in by the gullible..

I see your motivation, but i still don't want to live in fear of what might happen. I have always trusted my partners (but made sure i was protected financially). I will never change that, i could tell you the horror story about my first wife but it would not change much. You have your way of looking at things and i have mine. Your story is worse in a way as you would think that after 25 years things would stay.

I am still not old 36 and the wife 28, and i know i could get many other "good" girls if i wanted. So i am not that worried what would happen if i am left. Maybe that is also part of it.

Like i said before we even had a time that our relation was open (sounds more decadent then it really was but after a longer relation things can get boring and there is then a need to spice things up) and we both felt quite safe. Until she started to feel afraid of the girl i was seeing. So i had to end that and it made me see that she really cared and would go to great length to keep me. So i am quite secure in my relation.

But we all have our ways to look at things and that is good as long as there is a live and let live attitude and we don't shoot each other down. Of course its different if your opinion affects me i can get quite passionate then in my arguments.

[TAWP]

Transam>> Do you forbid your lady from taking the BTS or MRT?

I mean, more men hit on my gf there than online even...

[TAWP]

http://www.bts.co.th/en/index.asp

http://www.bangkokmetro.co.th/index.aspx?Lang=En

[Beetlejuice]

The technical term for these kind of people is, Internet Predators.

Write back and tell him if he contacts your girlfriend again, you will have him traced and report him to the police.

Edited July 23, 2010 by Beetlejuice

[Chunky1]

Edited July 23, 2010 by Chunky1

[Chunky1]

good girls in this country stick to their man like glue. if ur girl was out there screwing other men, i am not sure if any Thai man would still consider her a "good girl".

Edited July 23, 2010 by Chunky1

[t.s]

So OP caught his girl browsing social sites for other farang and he wants to know what to tell the other guy? weird day.

you've got it totally wrong. The OP just wishes to inform us that random men on the internet find his wife excruciatingly attractive.