Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Vows To Crack Down On Thailand Tourist Fraud

[surayu]

Knowing Suthep, it seems the word "fraud" in the titles have been added by mistake....

[surangw]

try to start at the top and work down, see how fast it all stops

[kandahar]

Isn't this this same schlemiel who "doesn't respect farangs?"

And his criticism of the cruise line is ludicrous. The tuk-tuk drivers have about as much right to scam cruise ship passengers as I do to gang-bang Sutep's wife, video tape it and sell it to a porn site.

When the passengers do get scammed, they blame the cruise line (and could easily sue them - and win) and then guess what? The cruise line avoids Phuket next time.

His comments about foreigners scamming foreigners and Thais and foreigners scamming foreigners is pandering to the Thais listening who might bristle on the notion that they are anything but a nation of honest, hard-working, racist licentious hypocrites.

At least the leadership is maintaining the standards of ineptitude.

Re- read his full statement and get the whole story. He didn't blame the "cruise line", he blamed the tuk-tuks for blocking and preventing the passengers from using the tour buses that the tourist paid for. But added the tuk-tuk had just as much right as the tour operator. But the problem is the tuk-tuks rip off the tourist by over charging them. Two separate issues here.

The tuk-tuk drivers in that case didn't have ANY right. Buses and vans were pre-booked by the passengers and tour operators. They have no right to demand that a passenger who has already paid for one service, abandon a portion of that payment and use the Tuk-tuk service. Tuk-Tuk drivers are losing out to better marketing by wiser competitors. If they want the business, they need to be marketed better and, if half of what I read about the tuk-tuk operators is correct, then fat chance of them being portrayed as a better option by any marketing campaign.

They didn't only selfishly demand satisfaction where it wasn't due, they hurt a lot of other business operators who stood to gain by receiving tourist expenditures. It is the rest of the businesses who need to stand up to the tuk-tuk operators.

And of course, the law needs to be enforced.

[haveaniceday]

Arghh, Amazing Thailand

[saintofsilence]

"He added that from the year 2007 to 2010, around 6,000 Thais were arrested for cheating tourists, and 517 groups of foreign gangs were arrested. "

It would be nice to know what penalties these 6000 thais received .

[Greyman]

For most Cruise Ships, the biggest profit, per head, is achieved by the tour excursions department.

No organised tours, no visit to the port.

However, cruise itineraries are planned and booked up to 2 years in advance, so if they can sort out the taxis quickly, they may get away with not losing the ships.

[IAMSOBAD]

Thais think we are here as ATM machines for their profit.

From every level they try to scam us.

From the taxi from the airport to the police to the hotel to the bars to the clubs to the farang double pricing to the tuktuk mafia to the jet ski mafia to the litter police to the helmet police.... TO THE GRAVE!

[EyesWideOpen]

This is so funny I do not even know where to start..... The government officials either know every scam, or are a part of the scam. ( Think police...) As these scams have gone on on a wide scale basis for years, what he is really implying is that the government let these scams go on with the proper tea money paid. So what I think is some genius in the government has decided that these scams are actually costing Thailand billions of baht in tourism, and it is now time to stop them. Also partly due to the increase of tourists from China who are being scammed along with the regular farangs. However the Chinese government will not put up with this crap, and are applying heat...

[saintofsilence]

Thais think we are here as ATM machines for their profit.

From every level they try to scam us.

From the taxi from the airport to the police to the hotel to the bars to the clubs to the farang double pricing to the tuktuk mafia to the jet ski mafia to the litter police to the helmet police.... TO THE GRAVE!

The only way to stop these scams is to start putting the offenders issuing severe penalties including putting them behind bars and treating all crimes more serious.

Many of the jet ski scam have involved violence but to my knowledge no one has been convicted except JJ in Phuket and now he is back doing the same again.

[pomchop]

A good start would be to google Thailand Scams and start reading. Might take a while though as there are 3.8 MILLION results.

[pauljones]

Start at the Airport and get to the bottom of the Duty Free Scam where the police lock up tourists in a short time hotel, then extort them for thousands of dollars.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=thailand+duty+free+scam&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

[pauljones]

Here is a quote from the Thailand Tourist Mafia Flick Page.

WIDESPREAD SCAMS AIMED AT FIRST TIME VISITORS

Every morning at 9AM the Tourist mafia blanket the tourist/hotel/shopping districts with a network of english speaking scammers.

They work in teams of 2 or 3 and are positioned near the entrance to tourist sites, hotels, shopping centers, on the BTS skywalks, MRT stations, tourist information booths, busy corners, temples, museums, and shopping centers.

They pose as helpful, friendly strangers and strike up conversations with novice tourists.

Their goal? They are there to lie and defraud every tourist they meet.

I call them the Thai Tourist Mafia.

They are participating in elaborate scams on tourists, including the Thai Gem Scam.

Many of the scam shops apparently are operated by influential people and have been in "business" for years defrauding tourists.

Tourists arriving at the airport, leaving their hotels or just walking around town are approached by these people all day long.

They are everywhere and apparently protected as they work in plain view of Police Boxes, Security Guards and Managers of these facilities.

Some of these scammers have been seen riding police motorbikes or going inside police boxes....

A nice lady at the Tourist Authority tells me they are "cooperating with the Police....and are dangerous."

Photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29324583@N05/sets/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21533131@N06/sets/

[pauljones]

Last June, The Bangkok Post reported the Police "fined" over 14,500 tourist scammers at the airport. in the first half of the year...The fine? 1,000 baht each.

Project that out for the entire year and the airport police collected 29,000,000 baht form the airport mafia!

Think it will stop?

[tartempion]

He said that there are many forms of cheating, starting with Thais cheating foreign tourists, foreign tourists teaming up to cheat other foreigners, and Thais and foreigners working together to cheat other foreign tourists.

Brilliant, brilliant.

This man attended university I hope to have such a clear understanding of all things

[pauljones]

I predict a crackdown and a news blitz of foreigners being busted for scamming other foreigners.. giving Thailand a bad reputation.....

SIGN AT THE GRAND PALACE

[nigelnigel]

yaaaaaawn...........Does tourism fraud mean the fraud perpetrated to get tourists here? But seriously, when does talk ever turn into something substantial here (or anywhere for that matter) ? Just 1 report of them doing something about:

1. Totally scamming tourists on the MBK/National Stadium walkway for littering/smoking infraction...a total set up to extract 1000b or more. NEVER see anyone getting taken but tourists.

2. All the jet-ski scams previously reported.

3. Random police checkpoints--we need your money and we will find something wrong

4. Tuk-tuk/taxi drivers totally scamming tourists....'why are we stopping at this massage parlor...?"

5. Insert here....

6. Insert here...

7. The list goes on and on and on....

Just one report of something substantial being done would carry a lot of weight in the eyes of tourists that there is some time of rule of law here. It's a great place but every time I see some tourist getting scammed I think how they will bring their story back home and too bad for Thailand.

[sangfroid]

Thais think we are here as ATM machines for their profit.

From every level they try to scam us.

From the taxi from the airport to the police to the hotel to the bars to the clubs to the farang double pricing to the tuktuk mafia to the jet ski mafia to the litter police to the helmet police.... TO THE GRAVE!

It starts at the airport exchange booths these days. The rate of exchange is less than the same banking company offers in town!!

[reason1]

Yawn....musical chairs..who gets the rippoff now?

[pattayabuggy]

It would be nice if he showed the way by clamping down at national parks and government offices.

You beat me to it, my thoughts exactly!

[sangfroid]

This is so funny I do not even know where to start..... The government officials either know every scam, or are a part of the scam. ( Think police...) As these scams have gone on on a wide scale basis for years, what he is really implying is that the government let these scams go on with the proper tea money paid. So what I think is some genius in the government has decided that these scams are actually costing Thailand billions of baht in tourism, and it is now time to stop them. Also partly due to the increase of tourists from China who are being scammed along with the regular farangs. However the Chinese government will not put up with this crap, and are applying heat...

Nothing in Thailand is illegal if the right people are getting paid off.

[sunnyrolfe]

Instead of complaining constantly about everything Thai we could all just go back to our overtaxed over PC feminist men hating unsmiling countries where we could find a lot more to complain about

[softgeorge]

:cheesy: Mission Impossible sorry. This is just another so called thai CRACK DOWN we have one every couple of days.

[scorecard]

When it comes to cheating tourists, Cambodia, Lao and Malaysia are a lot worse.

MALAYSIA?

Have you actually been there? Not once have I ever been a victim, so to speak. Sure some have 'tried it on' but it is nowhere near as endemic as it is in THailand.

I use to live and work in Malaysia and I still go back rather frequently. Taxis are a serious rip off in the big cities such as KL and Butterworth/Penang. And they are not friendly either! You'll pay ten times the going rate of the biggest scam you'll likely experience in Thailand!

Agree, I used to work twice a month for 3 or 4 days each stint in KL. On numerous occasions had hassles with cheating and thuggish taxi drivers.

Also aware of a taxi driver taking a seriously ill hotel guest to hospital, taxi organized by the hotel bell captain. Taxi driver stopped the taxi in a remote area and demanded to check the visitors wallet then demanded a fee about 10 times the going rate. Stopped the taxi at the hospital gates, demanded the ill passenbger get out and sped away. The guests employer had a corporate contract with the hotel and the guest had stayed in the hotel on many occasions, guest and employer made a serious complaint direct to the hotel and to the hotel management company, all refused to listen, all refused to acknowledge that there was any problem. Additionally the guests employer asked 'the guest was seriously ill and in great pain, why didn't someone from the hotel go with the guest to the hospital? Hotel just laughed and said, 'It's normal, forget about it'. Police also refused to listen and just laughed.

Needless to say the hotel lost the corporate contract immediately, then they called to ask why the client cancelled the contract.

[bitterbatter]

So the taxi mafia really believes that the tourist buses are taking away their business? I think that they lose most of their business because they charge crazy prices.

[overhaul38]

An admirable goal and I wish him luck.

[inmysights]

Start with the jet ski mafia

Start with enforcing the pre-existing Law banning the bloody things.

[snuggzzz]

Isn't this this same schlemiel who "doesn't respect farangs?"

Yes it is, lots of replies have been made on this topic, however, DPM Suthep is only interested in votes, certainly not in farang.

[pepi2005]

So there is real hope now that the government-sanctioned fraud of charging 'farangs' about 5 times as much as Thais in national parks, at historic sites etc. will be stopped?

This is nothing else than fraud as the lame excuse that tourists 'earn more than Thais' is exposed as lie just by looking at the expensive SUV's the Thai visitors usually drive. A slap into the face of every 'tourist' who figures out that he has just been ripped off by a government official! And one reason why I don't visit such venues anymore, even though I have a WP and driving license - I just don't like the hassle, and often enough it occurs even though I can prove that I also live on 'Thai income', it's just such a pity that I 'look like farang'!

[Udox]

Tuk Tuks are little red open air 4 seater 'toy cars' which are primarily used as short local transport, and often with a driver intent on taking you where HE wants you to go or via places which will earn him a few baht in comission.

Tour buses and minivans are usually pre-booked arrangements and are up to 12 seated air-conditioned minivans with a registered company and driver and often a tour guide supplying a commentary. Tour companies do not sit on the road waiting for chance, local pick-up fares.

The two are very different set ups.

The cruise ship/US Military/Hotel guests all have a choice which service they would like to use - and they chose to use the air-conditioned minivan.

The tuk tuk drivers didn't get any customers - tuff luck! Maybe they are in the wrong business ?

If things are as bad as they constantly whinge about - why are they still doing it and not working for a tour company ? hmmmm

You cannot complain to McDonalds that the 7 -11 accross the road also sells burgers and coke - its called FREE ENTERPRISE

If it was as bad as that - why is Patong literally choked with red tuk-tuks ??

Another company is providing a better service than you - so either join them - or shut up !

Edited April 20, 2011 by Udox

[pauljones]

So there is real hope now that the government-sanctioned fraud of charging 'farangs' about 5 times as much as Thais in national parks, at historic sites etc. will be stopped?

This is nothing else than fraud as the lame excuse that tourists 'earn more than Thais' is exposed as lie just by looking at the expensive SUV's the Thai visitors usually drive. A slap into the face of every 'tourist' who figures out that he has just been ripped off by a government official! And one reason why I don't visit such venues anymore, even though I have a WP and driving license - I just don't like the hassle, and often enough it occurs even though I can prove that I also live on 'Thai income', it's just such a pity that I 'look like farang'!

If it's a National Park or facility funded by Thai taxpayers, then non-Thais should pay more. Agreed?

What I don't like is places like Siam Paragon Ocean World or Thai Boxing Stadiums where they hide the Thai price in Thai script and gouge the foreigners. That is fraud in my opinion.