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jet ski scams


phycokiller

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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

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  • 2 weeks later...

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. biggrin.png MS>

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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.

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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

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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 by jmo
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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
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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 .... :)

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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

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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 :-)

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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.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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 by phycokiller
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  • 2 months later...

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.

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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

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