Phuket Foreigners Losing Homes To Con Men

[kenmackie]

This is not a new scam. It's only greed that will make anyone fall for it. They just change the way they approach the victim from time to time and from country to country.

Anyone that has seen "The Sting", (Rboert Redford Paul Newman ) must see the similarity .Just because you get conned in Thailand does not mean theese local guys don't know how to pull off a conviincing scam.BEWARE

[techboy]

There's only one thing to say: You cannot con an honest person.

Simply a dumb cliché. You can play on a person's virtues just as easily as their weaknesses. Ain't you ever listened to a politician speak?

[techboy]

Som Nam Nar!

Every Child knows not buy property in thailand and not fall in love with a thai lady.

The problem seems to be with the adults.

Yup.

[atyclb]

Probably much closer to the truth!

I returned to Thailand a few months ago to find my Thai wife of 6 years had bank financed our paid off car and gambled away $12,000 US.

Said something about her girlfriend and her were "setting up the victim" Didn't work.Now she is mad at the girlfriend-I told her it was her car and her problem when she asked me to pay the bank.

I have filed for divorce b4 she gets everything I own- It's all true about these women.

As a prominent Thai journalist at the BKK post writes, "cheating and corruption at every level of society, incompetence is the sum of our failures"

I believe all the scenarios suggested here are possible.

Is it not true that boiler room scams conned " westerners" out of big bucks? Supposedly the loot was used to open bars. If westerners can be scammed, and they are, anything is possible.

I believe there is a high % of women that will scam you, albeit bar girls have a higher rate. Thai men will also scam each other as reported by a Thai friend conned by his high school classmate (40 years later)

I think part of what Thai women may do is believe there is an endless supply of money from the BF/ husband, especially if they lack personal development and financial skills (budgeting/ saving) Think about it, many of these women only watch TV cartoons and/ or the idiotic soap operas.

Even the current Prime Minister did not get legally married but has a common law husband. Perhaps related to fear of financial loss.

[pete600]

How frickin stupid can some people be!!

As stupid as you or I on GBH.

GBH is colourless and tasteless and was clearly in the glass of water.

It gives the victim total trust.

It is often used in date rape.

A friend of mine went shopping in Panthip plaza

and emerged with his new ipod and laptop and other goodies

in a large shopping bag.

He was targeted by a tuk tuk driver who took him to his house.

There he was also given a glass of water and did not remember much more

except that he gambled and lost everything.

He was not a gambling man.

Well she she seams to remember everything more like greed than GHB

[Kilgore Trout]

As stupid as you or I on GBH.

GBH is colourless and tasteless and was clearly in the glass of water.

It gives the victim total trust.

It is often used in date rape.

A friend of mine went shopping in Panthip plaza

and emerged with his new ipod and laptop and other goodies

in a large shopping bag.

He was targeted by a tuk tuk driver who took him to his house.

There he was also given a glass of water and did not remember much more

except that he gambled and lost everything.

He was not a gambling man.

Well she she seams to remember everything more like greed than GHB

This is just getting ridiculous; no drug (including GHB) can do this to people. If it could, people would be spiking everyone's drink and having them emptying their bank accounts.

This is a perfect example of how gullible people can be; case in point.

[LivinginKata]

Well she she seams to remember everything more like greed than GHB

This is just getting ridiculous; no drug (including GHB) can do this to people. If it could, people would be spiking everyone's drink and having them emptying their bank accounts.

This is a perfect example of how gullible people can be; case in point.

Might be rediculous to you but I have spoken to respectable Thai people who have themselves emptied their bank account and given to another person. And I am not talking about Thai ladies married to a Farang. I am talking about respectable business people. It does happen. And more often than you might think as many people duped don't want to talk about it.

[Kilgore Trout]

Well she she seams to remember everything more like greed than GHB

This is just getting ridiculous; no drug (including GHB) can do this to people. If it could, people would be spiking everyone's drink and having them emptying their bank accounts.

This is a perfect example of how gullible people can be; case in point.

Might be rediculous to you but I have spoken to respectable Thai people who have themselves emptied their bank account and given to another person. And I am not talking about Thai ladies married to a Farang. I am talking about respectable business people. It does happen. And more often than you might think as many people duped don't want to talk about it.

Perhaps weak minded people, but I still don't buy it. People will always look for some way to avoid accepting responsibility for their actions.

Why don't we do a test in a controlled environment, if you win you can have the paltry sum in my bank account

[evanson]

"they taught me some basic ways of cheating".

Sums it up for me.

Som nom nah

Maybe she was drugged.

No, she was just greedy and incredibly stupid. How many times have any of you heard the 'gave me a glass of water' crap? A Thai friend of mine's sister even managed to get herself to her bank in CM and draw out 5 mil for a gang.

Anyone have some of that magic water? Christ.

Edited October 9, 2011 by evanson

[evanson]

Might be rediculous to you but I have spoken to respectable Thai people who have themselves emptied their bank account and given to another person. And I am not talking about Thai ladies married to a Farang. I am talking about respectable business people. It does happen. And more often than you might think as many people duped don't want to talk about it.

Perhaps weak minded people, but I still don't buy it. People will always look for some way to avoid accepting responsibility for their actions.

Why don't we do a test in a controlled environment, if you win you can have the paltry sum in my bank account

Exactly. Many of you forget how unbelievably superstitious and gullible even the highest of hi so's are.

[Rumpole]

It is interesting that all the victims seem to jump at the chance of renting out or selling their family home paid for 100% by their husbands, rather than just saying, "You'll have to talk to my husband about that" - end of story.

This.

[ronthai]

Typical Thai, she has everything and more life here in Thailand could have her to offer and it STILL IS NOT ENOUGH. Why not cheat and steal some more. Glad she lost it all at her own Thai game.

[boggle]

blah blah blah.

lambs to the slauter.

Old old scam here in los. maybe on a bigger scale. I knew people who were experts. Taken it up a level now.

Sorry but, som na nai.

[boggle]

Sounds like GREED rears its head again - some are not happy with everything they have been GIVEN!!! - think about and remember all men who have given! its a matter of time before the love of your life comes up with an IDEA

I know as do others!

p.s. my wife aint from any bar

mine not either niether is my fiends big nose!

[boggle]

How frickin stupid can some people be!!

As stupid as you or I on GBH.

GBH is colourless and tasteless and was clearly in the glass of water.

It gives the victim total trust.

It is often used in date rape.

A friend of mine went shopping in Panthip plaza

and emerged with his new ipod and laptop and other goodies

in a large shopping bag.

He was targeted by a tuk tuk driver who took him to his house.

There he was also given a glass of water and did not remember much more

except that he gambled and lost everything.

He was not a gambling man.

some very smart people here. shoe laces and tieing seems relevent here

[boggle]

The person who has lost out here is the foreigner and his kids, not the wife. Maybe they had a family together and the the kids have also lost out them because there will be less or no money for their education and food / clothing etc. If anyone reading this finds themselves in a situation where you have essentially lost your life, your wife, all your money and possibly your children where one moment earlier you were living a happy life with kids in school, and an easy lifestyle I think that would be utterly devastating. Not only are you looking at financial disaster but if you are a family man as well you will be utterly distraught as to how you are going to look after and bring up your children never mind yourself. Your dreams are shattered and your partner gone. Your life is devastated and then you have to deal on your own with the money lenders threatening you, lawyers and courts who want substantial sums to start EACH case plus security deposits lodged to court to cover possible damages if you lose, while the money lender has the property you bought for 20% of what you paid for it by being in on the scam. Note that he does not have to lodge any deposits into court, his court fee is tiny and he will have lawyers in tow."Its a good business" one lawyer said to me! Yes it sure is - you cheat or scam some not so clever girl into signing over one piece of property probably for a smallish amount with a lot of lies and promises it will all work out. Then once trapped, persuade her to commit fraud under threat when she can't pay, so as to get the rest of the property until there is none left, safe in the knowledge you as the money lender have committed no fraud, won't go to jail, and can fight a case against the person from whom you have taken all his immovable assets because he will likely have insufficient funds to bring the cases against you. Even if he can it will take years and probably you can just bribe the court to find in your favour. I truly believe that there are several gangs working in Phuket who target wives of foreigners and use many diiferent ways to con them into putting the property which under Thai law has to be in their name, on the line to a lender - the lender is of course into the scam too and loads all his interest up front knowing full well the property will come to them becasue the rates of interest are simply astronomical. The transfer fees to the land department also add to the cost of the loan. These ^&**&^%$%^ scum basically get a house for about 20% of its value and get the transfer fees paid for them as part of the deal.

It is big business believe me and it needs to be tackled. Instead of a feeling of som num na for some relatively uneducated getting tricked, possibly getting drugged, maybe it would be worth a moment to think of the ingenuity of the people doing the persuasion against which many people have no defence or experience. It would be worth several moments to consider the enormity of the damage done to the foreigner and his kids. Several lives may be destroyed through this. Irreparable damage to the family unit and probably the life savings of the foreigner targetted, leaving him devoid of hope and broken. Remember the Thai woman has probably lost very little as most do not come into a relationship with many assets - it is the foreigners assets being targetted here. The gangs target the foreigners because they have expensive assets and no support when the shit hits the fan - most probably cannot afford to go to court and so the criminal can succeed all too often.

It may be som num na for the wife (if she was drugged then not so and Ii am inclined to believe the people running this sort of scam would more likely than not try that to ensure success). It is not som num na for the guy who has lost everything. The mechanism is 'Sale with right of Redemption". Loan value typically 20% of value of property - add agents fee - add 6 months interest in advance - add transfer fees at the land department - add bribes to the land department if property not in sole name (or subject to lease) as they will have to break the law accepting forged documents to transfer the property. Interest 3% or 4% per month.

Eg. 10 million house - 2 million cash, 50k agents fee, 50k land official, 300k transfer fee = 2.4 million add 6 months at 4% interest 6 x 96,000 = 576,000. So Registered sale of house for 2,976,000 and if in six months you cannot repay the loan = 2,976,000 plus 300,000 transfer fee back = 3,276,000 then the house STAYS WITH the money lender - it's already in his name. If you are the foreigner how will you know this has happened. It's simple - no one will tell you anything, in fact they will be working together to actively hide it, your wife will be scared out of her wits when the realisation finally hits.

Then after 6 months the money lender being a kindly Thai will offer to extend the loan based on money from the next property she has in her name (if more than one), back down the land office, more bribes to agents, land officials and taxes paid to the government. Rinse & repeat until there is no money left. The foreigner will know nothing until it is too late because he will hear nothing and see no-one. Safes don;t help - they can crack them.

Don't be so quick in your judgements people!

There is a new website at thiascare dot com which is collating names of all the people involved in these scams. If you have been 'had' contact the people there - they are well connected and their list of names is gathering momentum. It is totally anonymous by the way. I gave my details already! Get on over there.

wow!

[sunray69]

....and then 450 days later after the divorce, she picks up her share of the house money!

...Would any of you be surprised if this was the case?

...no! TIT 55555

Thats clear this is a full setup for the wife getting the money of that house, who can really believe she was not in it?

[lee68]

Same type of scam happened to my wife up here in chaing mai .some guy came around to my land and said they were from a telecom company and wanted to rent a piece of my land to put a mast on and pay a lump sum and rent for 10 years,and of course my wife took the bait,but actually rang me in the uk first and asked me what i thought,i told her to get a lawyer and meet with them,so she took her brother to the meet with her, witch ended up in a hotel room downtown,were they tried to entice her into a card game.luckily my brother in law dragged her out and we never herd any more from them.they claimed they came from hut telephone company,never heard of it,im lucky,might be living in one if it wasn't for the brother in law!

[lee68]

....and then 450 days later after the divorce, she picks up her share of the house money!

...Would any of you be surprised if this was the case?

...no! TIT 55555

I've lived here 18 yrs and these scams go on all the time in Thai society,there so greedy and will jump headfirst into anything that they think is a get rich quick scheme

[lee68]

The person who has lost out here is the foreigner and his kids, not the wife. Maybe they had a family together and the the kids have also lost out them because there will be less or no money for their education and food / clothing etc. If anyone reading this finds themselves in a situation where you have essentially lost your life, your wife, all your money and possibly your children where one moment earlier you were living a happy life with kids in school, and an easy lifestyle I think that would be utterly devastating. Not only are you looking at financial disaster but if you are a family man as well you will be utterly distraught as to how you are going to look after and bring up your children never mind yourself. Your dreams are shattered and your partner gone. Your life is devastated and then you have to deal on your own with the money lenders threatening you, lawyers and courts who want substantial sums to start EACH case plus security deposits lodged to court to cover possible damages if you lose, while the money lender has the property you bought for 20% of what you paid for it by being in on the scam. Note that he does not have to lodge any deposits into court, his court fee is tiny and he will have lawyers in tow."Its a good business" one lawyer said to me! Yes it sure is - you cheat or scam some not so clever girl into signing over one piece of property probably for a smallish amount with a lot of lies and promises it will all work out. Then once trapped, persuade her to commit fraud under threat when she can't pay, so as to get the rest of the property until there is none left, safe in the knowledge you as the money lender have committed no fraud, won't go to jail, and can fight a case against the person from whom you have taken all his immovable assets because he will likely have insufficient funds to bring the cases against you. Even if he can it will take years and probably you can just bribe the court to find in your favour. I truly believe that there are several gangs working in Phuket who target wives of foreigners and use many diiferent ways to con them into putting the property which under Thai law has to be in their name, on the line to a lender - the lender is of course into the scam too and loads all his interest up front knowing full well the property will come to them becasue the rates of interest are simply astronomical. The transfer fees to the land department also add to the cost of the loan. These ^&**&^%$%^ scum basically get a house for about 20% of its value and get the transfer fees paid for them as part of the deal.

It is big business believe me and it needs to be tackled. Instead of a feeling of som num na for some relatively uneducated getting tricked, possibly getting drugged, maybe it would be worth a moment to think of the ingenuity of the people doing the persuasion against which many people have no defence or experience. It would be worth several moments to consider the enormity of the damage done to the foreigner and his kids. Several lives may be destroyed through this. Irreparable damage to the family unit and probably the life savings of the foreigner targetted, leaving him devoid of hope and broken. Remember the Thai woman has probably lost very little as most do not come into a relationship with many assets - it is the foreigners assets being targetted here. The gangs target the foreigners because they have expensive assets and no support when the shit hits the fan - most probably cannot afford to go to court and so the criminal can succeed all too often.

It may be som num na for the wife (if she was drugged then not so and Ii am inclined to believe the people running this sort of scam would more likely than not try that to ensure success). It is not som num na for the guy who has lost everything. The mechanism is 'Sale with right of Redemption". Loan value typically 20% of value of property - add agents fee - add 6 months interest in advance - add transfer fees at the land department - add bribes to the land department if property not in sole name (or subject to lease) as they will have to break the law accepting forged documents to transfer the property. Interest 3% or 4% per month.

Eg. 10 million house - 2 million cash, 50k agents fee, 50k land official, 300k transfer fee = 2.4 million add 6 months at 4% interest 6 x 96,000 = 576,000. So Registered sale of house for 2,976,000 and if in six months you cannot repay the loan = 2,976,000 plus 300,000 transfer fee back = 3,276,000 then the house STAYS WITH the money lender - it's already in his name. If you are the foreigner how will you know this has happened. It's simple - no one will tell you anything, in fact they will be working together to actively hide it, your wife will be scared out of her wits when the realisation finally hits.

Then after 6 months the money lender being a kindly Thai will offer to extend the loan based on money from the next property she has in her name (if more than one), back down the land office, more bribes to agents, land officials and taxes paid to the government. Rinse & repeat until there is no money left. The foreigner will know nothing until it is too late because he will hear nothing and see no-one. Safes don;t help - they can crack them.

Don't be so quick in your judgements people!

There is a new website at thiascare dot com which is collating names of all the people involved in these scams. If you have been 'had' contact the people there - they are well connected and their list of names is gathering momentum. It is totally anonymous by the way. I gave my details already! Get on over there.

wow!

Good post

[bigbamboo]

Brings a whole new meaning to Samuel Johnson's famous warning.........a man's life is incomplete until he marries. Then it's finished.

[Alboy666]

There's only one thing to say: You cannot con an honest person.

My GF would run away from them. She's quite intelligent, honest and values what little money she earns.

hahaha. Your trust is heart-warming!

[trevorg]

How frickin stupid can some people be!!

More than we can believe!

[templedog]

Similar thing happened to me in Manila about 15 years ago lost $4000.

@Petertucker

SAME exact thing happened to me in Manila!

I was asked to help a man win back his money from his corrupt Malaysian boss!!

I knew something was up, and that this was smelling like a big

scam, but I played along for the experience of a weird situation.

What the hell, I was traveling alone and out for adventure, what can I say, "dumbass?".

I went with them to an apartment house......stupid of me. But I hadn't sensed danger, yet.

I was offered something to drink, but didn't accept it. The whole scam played

out EXACTLY as the Phuket woman described it, right down to, "Get some money to help us and we

will divide the winnings equally!" Hahaaaaaaaaa!! I was laughing inside.

Right at that last "leap of faith" where I was asked to withdraw ALL my savings,

I realized that this kind of "adventure" could be dangerous. So, I "willfully" agreed to go to an ATM.

They followed me very closely to the exit, and then I pushed one out of the way, and RAN my arse off to the main road!

Miraculously, an empty taxi was driving by and I jumped in........back to my hotel, with

a great story for friends back home! And a warning for others.

Sorry, her story brought back a strange moment from my past,

and I just had to share this.......I am not trying to "upstage" her story.

[templedog]

If you believe any of that rubbish you want your brains examining.

It reads like a story. A childish poorly written one at that.

But why do they print such trash, write such rubbish, think that farangs would believe such a thinly disguised piece of juvenile fiction?

Scams there certainly are but codswallop about simply non-credible gullibility and belief that a seven year old would reject is an insult to the intelligence.

Reject.

Next.

Are you saying that she made this up, and that it doesn't even warrant a 7 year old's attempt at fiction?

"you want your brains examining." 555!

Fact is, this <deleted> does happen, exactly as she described it.

it's an OLD gambling scam for suckers. However, I wouldn't be

the least surprised if she, (as someone else mentioned on this post), was in on it herself!!

Edited October 10, 2011 by templedog

[RedOctober]

[eslteacher]

There are very few honest people on this earth. It seems to becoming increasingly littered with scum.

You can't trust anybody.

Edited October 10, 2011 by eslteacher

[nocturn]

There's only one thing to say: You cannot con an honest person.

to the contrary honest people are very easily conned, just not using this particular methodology

[katana]

This story almost word for word with a few exceptions happened to my wife about a year ago in Hua Hin. Our house was for sale and the driver came saying he had a wealthy Chinese client. He toured the property and said his employer, who was here on business, would love the house and for sure buy it. Then the driver and a very nice hi-so looking woman came back the next day to look again and the woman sat down with us and even negotiated things like what furnishings would go with the house, how it was held (ownership), and what deposit we would require and she seemed totally legitimate. They called my wife the following day (when I was out playing golf) and asked her if she would come to a big resort hotel on the highway between Hua Hin and Cha-Am to meet the Chinese man and negotiate the deal to buy our home. She agreed and they sent the driver to pick her up.

She went and exactly the same scenario happened with a third (scary looking man) and the wealthy man having lost 3 million the day before insisting on gambling again that evening with the money he was going to use to buy our home. She was shown what looked like a bag full of money (had money on top) and he left the room and they proceeded to use exactly the same tactic on my wife to try to get her to learn the gambling game and cheat so that the man would not lose his money and would still be able to buy our home.

My wife refused the water that was offered (it was still given but she did not drink it), and not being a gambler, she also refused the plot and asked to be taken home. At that point she recognized it as a con and was terrified that they would kill her. She convinced them that she had no access to money or gold for their gambling scheme and after they held her for over two hours they had a private chat out of earshot before the woman came to her and told her they would take her home but if she ever said anything about it to anyone they would come after her. She believed that as the third man in the room when she arrived looked (in her words) like a Thai hit man.

The driver brought her home and she reckons she was lucky to get away with her life. I was only home the first two times when the driver and the lady came so I never met the others and I wasn't there to stop her from going with them, but I can say that the driver and the woman were very professional and convincing and we both thought originally that it was a genuine offer of a possible buyer to purchase our home.

As soon as I got home and heard the story, we drove back to the hotel to see if the car that we had seen them in was still there. If it had been I was going to go get the police to come immediately, but it was gone so my wife was to afraid to pursue it further and convinced me that these were very dangerous people.

I give my missus kudos for being honest, not a gambler, and recognizing when something is not right, and using her wits to convince them that she had nothing to offer them.

Wow...

Reminds me of the old Mark Twain quote:

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.

[AljJoe]

There's only one thing to say: You cannot con an honest person.

good one , here/