Popular Post anon8 Posted January 14, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted January 14, 2014 pretty much a constant feature at Mikes, a group of young european tourists just getting robbed, a large crowd watching from the new balcony and taking photos, the fat policeman with the slicked back hair always arrives,to help it along and collect his share, hes probably a family member I guess, the yabba guy is pretty up tight and hoping he gets his fix quick but its going down to the police station because the europeans cant understand why they are being lied to. thats a few more tourists who wont be back again In this day & time with the internet I just do not understand how there can be a seemingly never ending supply of ignorant ,oblivious tourists in the world. Maybe in the case of non-English speaking foreigners. But all the others ? I think part of the problem is calling it a "scam". That conjures up images of a genteel con game, a battle of wits where it's possible to outmaneuver your adversary with your worldly savvy and the help of local law enforcement. If they called it the brutal jet ski extortion with knives and clubs, perhaps it would be taken more seriously. Plus, for every 10 victims of the scam, there's always one guy who says, "come on in, the water's fine". And they look like sooooo much fun to someone who just arrived from an urban jungle where it's freezing back home. Exactly! If a some guy wondering around Jomtien beach, from chair to chair offers dark blue pieces of glass for sale, swearing it is a safire, and gives you a story how his brother works in the mines, smuggles saffiers out, you feel this is deal of a lifetime, a 300.000 baht safire is offered at 2000 baht, that is a scam. What happens every day with jet sky rentals is extortion. Victim is threatened with violence, and money extorted from him. If vendors force on the Indian victims to go get cash, and his friend, under threat of violence is kept on a beach as a hostage, in civilized country the charge is kidnapping. Here it is called scam. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phycokiller Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 the young bearded guy who works as their negotiator has now shaved his beard, the chances arent high but perhaps he reads this forum, as an experiment I will mention he also wears black gloves and florescent orange shoes and has an unknown visa status, certainly not a work permit anyway 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonseeker Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/116484/russians-caught-up-in-pattaya-jet-ski-scam/ That is exactly how it happens. Anyway PETERCOOL, kudos for quitting. I often wonder what kind of foreigners join the "police-forces" here. I am sure some of them have really good intentions and it must be frustrating for them once they realize the Thai culture of corruption & ineffectiveness. Police work here is so far behind anything I have seen in the Western world, or even countries like Malaysia etc. A nice day to everybody and if you get bored, head down to Mike Shopping and watch the crooks late afternoon. MS> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubascuba3 Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 I walked past when the Russians were getting stitched up, they looked gutted. Usual script, police hanging about near the beach, usual fat one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KittenKong Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Regardless of who is scamming who, or whether the damage is real or imaginary or old or new, there are two extremely simple solutions to the problem of jet-ski and motorbike damage scams. The first is to require the operators to insure their vehicles at their own expense. If they need to charge more for rentals as a result, so be it. Market forces will sort out the pricing (even in a cartel paradise like Thailand). This could be implemented by City Hall in a matter of days, if they wanted to. There would be no losers in this, apart from the scamming operators. The other option is simpler and in many ways better: just ban jet-ski and motorbike rentals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smedly Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 if you didn't know it already the so called mafia run this city, one of their primary objectives is extorting huge sums from tourists through various scams - the mafia also have a colour - you can guess what it is Power and money all the way to the top Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmo Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 (edited) I am sorry to be late into the petercool party, but a couple of observations. 1) The jetskis have damage all over them already when rented out. If there is damage when returned it is totally expected and does not prove anything. The same damage gets used times and times over to scam different customers. 2) Somehow petercool totally ignores eyewitness statements. A random copper listening at a corner of police station knows things better than eyewitnesses. I hope this attitude is not widespread among police forces. We have tens of eyewitnesses who have seen the same thing going on tens of times each with the same group of people doing the scamming. I am one of them. How convenient that my observations account for nothing. At best the copper at the station has heard two very conflicting statements of what has happened and I do cannot imagine I could have any mystical capability to distill the truth from and be very sure about it. Sure looks like some volunteering for police without any formal training gives wildly inflated opinion about the capabilities of a copper. The eyewitnesses have seen both when the jetski is rented out and when it is returned and how the same damage gets used on several customers. 3) How poor is the privacy issues at thai police stations? I sure hope that if I ever have any business to a police station I can do my business without all random people loitering at the police station learning everything about it. 4) I agree there are people also not getting scammed. I have also seen hundreds of cases when somebody comes out from a jetski ride and no scamming happens. I have also in two cases have witnessed real damage done to jetskis. For example one case near the very north end of beach road there was a large area of exposed rocks and a totally drunk renter blasted his jetski into the dry 8ft away from water over these rocks one cannot even walk on. HOWEVER ALL OF THIS MATTERS NOTHING TOWARDS THE MAIN POINT THAT THERE ARE LARGE NUMBER OF SCAMS ONGOING. Edited January 27, 2014 by jmo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petercool Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Since you have now joined the party erroneously attributed to me, let me say that you need to read and re-read everything that I wrote where at no point did I say scams were not happening and let me also say that your 4th paragraph is mostly spot on. However, you saw only two cases of real damage and I saw many. One final point, no-one is interfering with privacy at any Foreign Volunteer desk. That is where foreigners are directed by Thai police officers in the first instance. Have a nice day. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddyjenkins Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Since you have now joined the party erroneously attributed to me, let me say that you need to read and re-read everything that I wrote where at no point did I say scams were not happening and let me also say that your 4th paragraph is mostly spot on. However, you saw only two cases of real damage and I saw many. One final point, no-one is interfering with privacy at any Foreign Volunteer desk. That is where foreigners are directed by Thai police officers in the first instance. Have a nice day. Ummm, no, you saw nothing, you were sitting in the police station, not stationed on the beach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petercool Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Paddy, as I have said numerous times, many, many of the cases that came to the station involved people who admitted that they had done damage so I did not need to be on the beach to see those. But since no one wants to hear that I will stop saying it and leave you all to say what I have also said ... yes, there are scams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubascuba3 Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Paddy, as I have said numerous times, many, many of the cases that came to the station involved people who admitted that they had done damage so I did not need to be on the beach to see those. But since no one wants to hear that I will stop saying it and leave you all to say what I have also said ... yes, there are scams. Peter, its fake damage, part of the con is to convince the mug that they caused the damage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petercool Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 scubasacuba ,,, it could very well be but many "victims" admitted crashing into another jet ski or worse. Believe me, I have seen all the types of scams and am aware that many never reach the police station and it is those that everyone else here is focused on. Thanks for your polite post BTW. Others have been less so .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smedly Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Paddy, as I have said numerous times, many, many of the cases that came to the station involved people who admitted that they had done damage so I did not need to be on the beach to see those. But since no one wants to hear that I will stop saying it and leave you all to say what I have also said ... yes, there are scams. Look it is blatantly obvious that these jetski's were damaged at some point as they do have damage, the problem is that these crooks keep claiming for the same damage over and over, it has never been fixed or repaired - this has been going on for years not weeks or months, these thugs are extorting tourists over and over again for the same existing damage Peter if you don't understand that then change you user name to peterfool because that is what you are Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubascuba3 Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Peter, why don't you come down and have a look, its most days about 4.30, you can sink in with crowd like we all do and observe for yourself. Its shocking as the same script is repeated daily. Maybe you will be able to do something to get it investigated. Alternatively us vigilantes :-) can do a sting and film the whole thing, numerous Thai visa witnesses and off to the police station we go with news reporters :-) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubascuba3 Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Also let's not talk about the genuine ones, they muddy the waters, this is about the daily jet ski scam where rogue police hang about around the beach in order to get the mugs to pay up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddyjenkins Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Paddy, as I have said numerous times, many, many of the cases that came to the station involved people who admitted that they had done damage so I did not need to be on the beach to see those. But since no one wants to hear that I will stop saying it and leave you all to say what I have also said ... yes, there are scams. I know exactly what you have been saying and you are still wrong. It doesn't matter what people agree to in the end at the station, exhausted, scared, shouted at, threatened, under pressure from all sides, the police barking at them that they face jail and wont be going home, the gang making physical threats...they will agree to whatever seems like a way to get out... The only way to truly know is to be there and observe as a primary eye witness...as i have been many times and all i have seen when there have been disputes is a scam, and that is being polite. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phycokiller Posted January 28, 2014 Author Share Posted January 28, 2014 they got a few more young Russians yesterday, I hope it gets some publicity in the Russian media Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phycokiller Posted February 14, 2014 Author Share Posted February 14, 2014 (edited) just a reminder for new visitors. all jetski renters opposite mikes are being scammed now, thats between about 6 and 20 people a day. thats probably about $10000 a day they are extorting from tourists just at that one spot. its not a pretty site and often extra police are brought in to make sure renters understand they will go to jail if they dont pay over the large amounts of money. obviously plenty of people are still unaware of this scam. Edited February 14, 2014 by phycokiller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubascuba3 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Its the most profitable business in Pattaya. You need some enthusiastic brave journalist to set up a sting, its not difficult but you need to be brave to follow it through. Maybe British media can do it rather than Thai local papers who feel the pressure to leave well alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokin Joe Posted May 7, 2014 Share Posted May 7, 2014 I have a different concern about jet skis. I want to know what idiot named them that instead of boatercycles. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tokay Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 Its the most profitable business in Pattaya. You need some enthusiastic brave journalist to set up a sting, its not difficult but you need to be brave to follow it through. Maybe British media can do it rather than Thai local papers who feel the pressure to leave well alone. It still won't stop. It has been aired on Thai TV, in Thai language, and nothing was done about it. What to know why? Ask the "Godfather" and his seed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
for real Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 Paddy, as I have said numerous times, many, many of the cases that came to the station involved people who admitted that they had done damage so I did not need to be on the beach to see those. But since no one wants to hear that I will stop saying it and leave you all to say what I have also said ... yes, there are scams. People at the police station ADMITTING that they caused damage???? You must have spent a lot of time at the police station Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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