Knife Used In Pattaya Jetski Scam - Irish Tourist’s Life Threatened

[JibJab]

This high season is pretty low, increased competition for money, police owned jet skis, corrupt police everywhere, why is anyone surprised this shit is happening? These Irish guys will go home and tell their friends, who will tell their friends, etc etc , next high season even lower, blah blah.

This is not Disney Land people, pay attention.Give then what they want, the police are in on it, and live to play another day.

You have hit the nail on the head. Tell everyone about these thugs.

[KeyserSoze01]

Nothing to see here, move along.

This crap has been going on in Pattaya and Phuket for years and the BiB will do nothing as they are feeding at the trough of tea money from the scum who run the jet ski concessions.

If you think this is ever going to change, I have a nice bridge to nowhere that I will sell you, cheap!

Amazing Thailand, NOT.

[geriatrickid]

Time for some foreign journalists to pay a visit. Just the PR Thailand needs.

Where's a crusading journalist when we need one?

Oh, sorry, I forgot, no one wants to pay for the news anymore so there's no budget to send someone to cover the story. Drat.

N'er mind, the alternative media will take up the story.

The Thai government doesn't care. It never has and it most likely never will. Tourists that are ripped off in Pattaya will still return as long as they can get their sex cheap sex.

[nontabury]

One day these little scumbag idiots are going to pick on the wrong tourist(s) and end up on the receiving end of the blades that they so eagerly wield.

The Irish are known for their ability to demonstrate violence when provoked (just ask the English) and they can be very tough nuts to crack so these Thai morons were lucky on this occasion. We should invite a few groups of lads from Edinburgh and Glascow over and see how the Thai mini mafia fair against them!

Divvent forget the Geordies! After all, we are Scots with our brains kicked oot!

Well I never,I always thought a Geordie was a Scotsman,but with brains, and minus the chip on his shoulder.

[GooEng]

The bottom line is that most of us can live in Thailand, and never be affected by these lowlife thugs.

i disagree.

the bottom line is that just reading about something like this affects anyone living in thailand - tourists, expat residents and thais.

it's an absolute screaming disgrace! the complacency and inability of the TOT and local authorities to do anything to stop it is not alarming - it's pathetic. this after all is not a new scam, it's something that's been on tv and everyone knows about, and affects the lifeblood of the country's economy - tourism - yet still nothing is done.

the complicity of the police is just another illustration of the evil paradox that exists here in thailand whereby the most powerful, well organised and insideous criminal organisation in the country is it's police force.

i am sick to death of reading about stuff like this, it IS on the increase along with many other things that are gradually turning this place from a friendly and prosperous easy-going country into a disreputable, unwelcoming cess-pit.

with reduced honest revenues available to the various pockets that NEED to stay filled i can only see it getting worse.

in the last 4 or 5 years i have seen more and more of this decline and i am sad to say that i am already making the moves to get myself, my wife and my two wee boys out of it, i simply don't want my family in a country where this is the norm.

[siamjimi]

Thats why expats should direct everyone to thai beaches. Koh samet and the like have almost no issues.

Ditto ILYELOL - the thai way to compensate for loss of revenue is to double or triple the prices and scam the money off the tourists

I have lived in thailand 6 years - I am embarassed to take my family to Pattaya even if its for the restaurants - I tell everyone I know to stay clear of Pattaya beach

I stopped telling anyone I live in Pattaya - now i use the village name of my home to explain I DO NOT LIVE IN PATTAYA - I live NEAR Pattaya

The responses i get about Pattaya are - "Sin City" - dirty - filthy scum ridden streets with mafia and scams everywhere you look

They need to clean Pattaya up or they will loose more and more tourist revenues

I also tell everyone that asks where to go - Samet - Samui - Tao - PP - any place but Pattaya

[pompoiman]

i walk the beach daily and spend time hanging around the areas these scum of thai society are working there scam, its no good crying over spilt milk.

if people dont do there home work wherever they are going for the first time in the world they will be scamed,

i have personally watched 3 lots of people being scamed for the same damage (rear right rubber trim come away from the ski) it is blatantly obvious they are sticking it back down with water based pva glue or similar, not 2 part resin based marine glue (adhesive) or whatever is the proper adhesive to use,

city hall has to stamp this out, in the mean time it might be a good idea if all flights landing in bkk play <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="

Edited November 30, 2010 by pompoiman

[dasy]

Thats why expats should direct everyone to thai beaches. Koh samet and the like have almost no issues.

I think thats very good idea there are numerous beaches / islands with great facilities without this BS which will at the end prevent our tourists to return. If you had a great time in a country far away from your own and you come back you will tell all of your friends who will think less than twice to also come and see Thailand. The decision to come will be hindered right away if you come back with negative stories.

[somchaismith]

Dunno what's worse. Reading the usual jetski shit scams in Pattaya or having to download 6 megs of &lt;deleted&gt; and looking at three posers, who didn't fight their way out of a paper bag.

[cxxis]

Just read somewhere that the TAT received a budget of many milj. THB to upgrade/update about 80 tourist related web sites. Might be an idea to annonce that jet-skies are ilegal in Thailand and urge ALL tourists NOT to rent one.

[VictorOne]

What else can you expect? Politicians and political parties get away with fraud, high courts are made up out of crooks, the police cannot be trusted, prosecutors take money. So in a matter of fact "conning" has become a common thing.

Given the fact that the people involved are mostly hardened criminals they go always for a short con and thus is violence part of the deal.

I am afraid that this is a fact of life. Nobody can be trusted in tourist areas.

99% of all Thai's give the rest a bad name.

Scum is too kind a word for these yobo's who should be exterminated as the vermin they are.

The 'goddy - goody two shoes' have been looking through rose tinted specs for too long.

Tell all your friends the real truth about Thailand and let the cretins die a slow death by starvation.

[fred007]

One day these little scumbag idiots are going to pick on the wrong tourist(s) and end up on the receiving end of the blades that they so eagerly wield.

The Irish are known for their ability to demonstrate violence when provoked (just ask the English) and they can be very tough nuts to crack so these Thai morons were lucky on this occasion. We should invite a few groups of lads from Edinburgh and Glascow over and see how the Thai mini mafia fair against them!

I love your comments ...keep up the good work .......Thai Mini Mafia......

[jori]

99% of all Thai's give the rest a bad name.

Scum is too kind a word for these yobo's who should be exterminated as the vermin they are.

The 'goddy - goody two shoes' have been looking through rose tinted specs for too long.

Tell all your friends the real truth about Thailand and let the cretins die a slow death by starvation.

Christ that leaves just 1% of Thais that are good. Where's the BB gun?

[philw]

The bottom line is that most of us can live in Thailand, and never be affected by these lowlife thugs.

i disagree.

the bottom line is that just reading about something like this affects anyone living in thailand - tourists, expat residents and thais.

it's an absolute screaming disgrace! the complacency and inability of the TOT and local authorities to do anything to stop it is not alarming - it's pathetic. this after all is not a new scam, it's something that's been on tv and everyone knows about, and affects the lifeblood of the country's economy - tourism - yet still nothing is done.

the complicity of the police is just another illustration of the evil paradox that exists here in thailand whereby the most powerful, well organised and insideous criminal organisation in the country is it's police force.

i am sick to death of reading about stuff like this, it IS on the increase along with many other things that are gradually turning this place from a friendly and prosperous easy-going country into a disreputable, unwelcoming cess-pit.

with reduced honest revenues available to the various pockets that NEED to stay filled i can only see it getting worse.

in the last 4 or 5 years i have seen more and more of this decline and i am sad to say that i am already making the moves to get myself, my wife and my two wee boys out of it, i simply don't want my family in a country where this is the norm.

Sadly and sincerely I agree with you.

I made the decision 12 yrs ago that I did not want my kids growing up in this asylum.

I don't regret it.

The turning point for me was when my mother in law bought her 15yrs old son a series 3 BMW...........

Driving up and down Bangna trad highway in short trousers to school.....

[george]

where i can download all issue PO ?

Here they are: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/files/category/16-pattaya-one-news-pdf/

[PhilHarries]

Just read somewhere that the TAT received a budget of many milj. THB to upgrade/update about 80 tourist related web sites. Might be an idea to annonce that jet-skies are ilegal in Thailand and urge ALL tourists NOT to rent one.

Best idea on the thread unfortunately the people that would be called upon to police any ban are the people who own the jet skis.

Maybe it's time the Thai government outsourced the police force. Get a private security contractor in.

[BigC]

Jeez...

Somebody is going to get killed or severely injured by one of these riff-raff. And I bet when it happens, the police and other officials will claim no knowledge of any scams ever happening in Pattaya.

TheWalkingMan

should ban jet skis. that will make them all un happy. even the good jet ski people as they will lose their business due to the bad rivals. thats if there is such a thing

[dantilley]

Just read somewhere that the TAT received a budget of many milj. THB to upgrade/update about 80 tourist related web sites. Might be an idea to annonce that jet-skies are ilegal in Thailand and urge ALL tourists NOT to rent one.

Best idea on the thread unfortunately the people that would be called upon to police any ban are the people who own the jet skis.

They wouldn't have to be actually made illegal, just an announcement saying they are would have the desired effect. And tell every hotel, travel agent and online booking website to tell their customers also. This would be better than widespread media coverage or embassy announcements and so-on which always blow things out of proportion - i.e. "don't rent jetskis on Pattaya" soon turns into "don't even think about come anywhere near Thailand for your holiday", which isn't what the country needs right now.

[striderman]

these guys are always going to go to weapons first as a show of strength.

i have seen these guys pull scam after scam, and it's more or less the same characters time after time.

but to outnumber them, it's not going to happen there are just too many of them on the beach.

they act as a team, they pull scams all the time, it's their day job.

talking about picking on the wrong tourists and ending up on the receiving end is i'm afraid a dillusion.

you are never going to win a fight on the beach in Thailand, in the long run u will lose.

and no expat is going to help a stricken tourist they know better than to get involved in something that will involve personal risk and his immigration status.

[Beggar]

I know this gang. Very often I sit there at the beach. It seems to be always the same procedure and this has been going on for many months now. A sad story...

[EyesWideOpen]

   Sometimes I wonder if Pattaya has a government..... Every once in a while I see pictures of officials at grand openings, so I am pretty sure they exist. But their goal should be to run Pattaya in a reasonable fashion. So let's go over the basics. Pattaya is a tourist town. Any issues that harms tourism, in fact harm everyone in the entire town. So I would think that the government would IMMEDIATELY crack down and stop this jet ski  bullshit. The fact they do not clearly indicates to me that the hands in the till reach all the way up to the top. There is no other reasonable explanation for their lack of action....

  So allow me to propose a simple solution. Ban all jet skis...This is elegantly simple, and easy to implement. All these headline grabbing face losing reports about jet skis scams go away. Hopefully the scumbags involved in this may go away as well. There is an additional side benefit, as the lack of jet skis would prevent Russian swimming tourists in Jomtien from being run over and killed. So my idea looks to me to be a win win win.... 

  

[Foggy Bottom]

Just read somewhere that the TAT received a budget of many milj. THB to upgrade/update about 80 tourist related web sites. Might be an idea to annonce that jet-skies are ilegal in Thailand and urge ALL tourists NOT to rent one.

Best idea on the thread unfortunately the people that would be called upon to police any ban are the people who own the jet skis.

Maybe it's time the Thai government outsourced the police force. Get a private security contractor in.

They tried that once - as I remember it, the "contractors" came, built a few airfields, bombed the neighbours, developed fishing villages into the largest brothels east of Suez, then buggred off again after the neighbours kicked their sorry asses out of the region.

Still, at least they gave it a go.

[DoctorG]

My son was planning to come to Thailand for his honeymoon. I am advising him to go elsewhere. He likes to spend money, not like his cheap-charlie dad

Are we really the only ones that understand that the decline in the tourist numbers here will adversely affect the Thai economy?

Is the Thai government unaware of the long-term impact, or is everyone here just looking out for their own short-term financial gain?

I can understand it from the poor who are just trying to survive, but governments are supposed to be for the greater good. Yes, it is OK, I know the answer already .

[RickBradford]

Luckily, these days we have something called the 'Internet'.

So, we know that of course the local cops are going to do nothing, but it doesn't matter.

If you want to really damage these a**holes, you must use social media -- Facebook and Twitter, because that is where opinions are formed these days. The upside is that you could do some serious damage via these channels without going near the cops or the useless newspapers.

[buzz]

Scum of Thailand ... thai mafia linked businesses involved in tourism should be wiped out ... why doesn't the TAT step in and do something ... set-up a scene - video it and have the cuprits charged with extortion ... do the same in Phuket and in Samui with the Taxi mafia.

I mean it can't be that hard - can it ?

These guys are just biting the hand that feeds 'em, and it's the law abiding tourist businesses who suffer !

here is some video of the some jet ski thugs in action

http://www.thaivisa...._1#entry4054113

I'm sure they had a vid on one at Chawang beach a couple of years ago as well ... was in the newspapers

The point is, the useless TAT should not only do promo work, they should be an Authority and go after these pricks - catch 'em out red handed with their own evidence and then make a big deal in the press - They can then blow their horns that something is being done. by them.

I know i know, it'll never happen (thats probably why I live here !)

[outre99]

Definitely second that. I've been living on Maerampung beach for the last 2 years. It's only 40 minutes from Pattaya but is still very Thai, although the number of farang has been slowly increasing. There are no scams or jet skis for that matter, and i'm yet to meet our finest BiBs. The beach is in the same national park as Koh Samet but a lot cheaper and much easier to get to. Now going to Pattaya feels like culture shock.

Edited November 30, 2010 by outre99

[toenail]

A couple weeks ago I got on Virtual Tourist and wrote up some scams in Pattaya but not everyone coming here will do their homework and read virtual tourist which tells about tourist sights and scams from people who have visited cities around the world. Maybe the "famous" Pattaya tourist police could stand at the bus station and pass out leaflets warning the tourists of the scams. Aren't they here to help the tourist?

The past 2 months there have been been comments on Thaivisa plus videos recording these scams. Thee was a comment by Pattaya Mail newspaper about these jet ski scams AND THE CITY JUST TURNS THEIR HEADS. What does it take???????????????? I think the mayor and city officials are afraid of the local police.

[saintofsilence]

   Sometimes I wonder if Pattaya has a government..... Every once in a while I see pictures of officials at grand openings, so I am pretty sure they exist. But their goal should be to run Pattaya in a reasonable fashion. So let's go over the basics. Pattaya is a tourist town. Any issues that harms tourism, in fact harm everyone in the entire town. So I would think that the government would IMMEDIATELY crack down and stop this jet ski  bullshit. The fact they do not clearly indicates to me that the hands in the till reach all the way up to the top. There is no other reasonable explanation for their lack of action....

  So allow me to propose a simple solution. Ban all jet skis...This is elegantly simple, and easy to implement. All these headline grabbing face losing reports about jet skis scams go away. Hopefully the scumbags involved in this may go away as well. There is an additional side benefit, as the lack of jet skis would prevent Russian swimming tourists in Jomtien from being run over and killed. So my idea looks to me to be a win win win.... 

  

how do you implement it ?

[Beetlejuice]

The solution is; do not visit Pattaya.

These illegal practices will continue as long as there are those victims waiting to happen in plentiful supply. Just stop using these tourist scammers and put them out of business.

Edited November 30, 2010 by Beetlejuice

[manta]

Thats why expats should direct everyone to thai beaches. Koh samet and the like have almost no issues.

You have got to be joking, Samet with it's national park tax is the biggest rip off going...