Topping up a Sim Card via scratch card is right up there with Quantum Mechanics in terms of complexity.

Dealing with mobile phone issues here has been an absolute pleasure here, whether it be with the girl in the 7-11 or the girl at AIS Callcentre. Compared with the sometimes mindboggling minefield of complexity of dealing with the former Aussie monopoly telco where you could get endlessy switched around on hold and come back to where you started or be swicthed to numerous people none of whom could or would help or even the automated systems which could be changed without notice.

As to whether it was a scam or not, will we ever know, can we move on now.

One week I purchased about $8 worth of gas and paid with a $20. The clerk put the $2 down on the counter as change, I picked it up and then remembered I had handed him a twenty...so I waited, and the other ten casually appeared.

Dunno about Thaland, but this seems to be a very common "occurrence" (I'm not 'biased', so I won't say "scam" LOL) to me in KL Malaysia whenever the change is less than 1 MYR (10 baht!).

Happened many times and the funny thing is... it "coincidentally" happened a lot when it was a Muslimfemale employee (wearing headscarf), and never-ever happened when it was a Malaysian-Chinese employee. In both case-types, these were low-level convenience store staff, so it's not because one is "poor" and the other is "better off".

Again, I'm not in any way saying it had anything to do with the Muslim factor. I'm just reporting fact that it "coincidentally" always happened with Muslim female employees and never with the other types, in all cases that I experienced. Has happened more than 5 times (lost count).

As soon as I notice change is lacking, I open my hand and say "Excuse me?" and then the lady "plays dumb" until I repeat start exerting more pressure and she suddenly "realizes" that she "forgot" and then gives me the change which she's already holding in her hand.

If she genuinely "forgot" (in all cases!), why would she already be keeping the change in her hand? Duh!

she thought you were tipping her for depriving you of the temptation seeing her face may have resulted in. isn't it obvious?

A Thai kid working in a 7-11 would never scam a farang. Thais are warm hearted, polite folks that would never, ever dream of taking advantage of their foreign guests.

Actually they wouldn't. Those Thai kids are like kids anywhere in the west and generally tend to have higher moral standards than adults. I can find lots to bash on about Thailand, but on Thai youth, most of them stand a lot taller than foreigners when it comes to the quality of honesty and decency.

I pretty much go along with this last statement, on the occasions where I have to interact with younger Thais, (older teenagers) I’m more than not impressed with their attitude and helpfulness.

I don't condone scams and I don't much care for those who act without ethics, but I would be lying if I claimed the dilemma (yes, there was one) caused me to lose a great deal of sleep tossing and turning, agonised by the tragic nature of the horned toad 'victims' (many of whom performed chillingly convincingly as would-be rapists when attempting to desperately 'sweet-talk' her with their graphically-described sexual acts they intended to perform to her person if she "knew a good thing when she saw one").

I know when I bought that old Enigma decoder, (jumble sale at Bletchley Park) it would come in handy!

.8>< SNIP NESTED QUOTES DELETED ><8

...God there're lot of ignorant snobs on this forum.

And bigots! Its like a home from home...

I knew nothing about IDD cards and pre-paid SIM cards and Western Union and Short Time Hotels until I left my home country

but luckily, as a young, healthy, reasonably smart and bold person, I have been able to make my own way (oh - more than my fair share of modesty too); others might not be so lucky, or reckless...

I did have to go back to the Vietnamese grocers' to request help with an IDD card.

Anyway, I don't think that it is a common scam, since most of us use the voucher ourselves. I am very nervous when the shop assistant tops up for me - I think he is using a discount rate / points-earning card of his own, and insist on seeing the top-up message before I leave the premises (not strictly true, since its a street-corner stand, not a premise at all!)

Anyway, I have never noticed such a scam, and I suspect have received significantly more change once (I only noticed later when I came to pay for something at the next shop, and there were more 100s than I expected), and never noticed short change. Although I find it more pleasant to believe that I live in a world of honest people than a world of fraudsters, so maybe I wouldn't notice,,,

ANyway, you would be wise to be wary of anyone making such an honest mistake in the future; we are all merely human.

SC

Maybe the message that came across in Thai said "Invalid Number" and the fellow just did not read it!