Two scams in one day?

[Guest jonzboy]

I'm relating an experience from my visit to BKK earlier this month. Both events took place in one evening. Firstly, early evening, on way back to my hotel still sober but with a plan in mind. Suk Soi 11. I am passed by an Indian looking gentleman who points dramatically at my face and says "you have a lucky face!!!" I stared at him a bit and turned away. This one I already know about...

http://mssv.net/2011/06/20/you-have-a-lucky-face/comment-page-3/

After said few beers, I'm on my way along the main Suk road from Soi 22 to Suda's restaurant. On a very dark section I am approached by two middle eastern people, a young couple, but the woman was not dressed in a muslim manner. The man says he is from Dubai and asked me a number of simple questions, obviously setting the scene that he is a new arrival. He wants to change USD at a money changer and shows me his wallet with some banknotes inside. "Too late, all closed" I say. Anyway his interest in local currency is made clearer and he asks if I have any local currency banknotes. I say yes and he asks to see them. What the heck kind of scam is this, I ask myself, but, knowing that atb this stage I was not at risk, I pull out a 20 Baht note and hand it over for him to see. "Is this big currency", he asked? "No", I replied. "Can I see some big currency notes?" he asks, "No" I replied. But if you want some Thai currency now I told him to use the ATM in the nearby Family Mart. We parted, still in very pleasant terms and with my 20 Baht fortune back in my wallet.

This second scam is a new one for me, but obviously he was planning to get me to act as the money changer to swap his fake USD for my Thai Baht.

Be careful out there...

[PiPiFFS]

The mind truly boggles at times here on TV

[tinhead]

Quality tourists of LOS all around. We should be photographing these scammers and distributing widely.

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

Quality tourists of LOS all around. We should be photographing these scammers and distributing widely.

You can not name and shame anyone in Thailand due to libel and slander laws. Truth is no defence. Point blank.

[Cypress Hill]

Quality tourists of LOS all around. We should be photographing these scammers and distributing widely.

Do they do that in YOUR home country?

[Sandman77]

Simple buy a infrared money scanner and good is..

[snottgoblin]

But the OP wasn't scammed.

[inzman]

Simple, don't talk to strangers, I would have kept walking. I don't have time to talk to scammers or strangers.

[balo]

Before you start the conversation take a picture of them with your phone and see how they react to it.

[PiPiFFS]

Today I have missed being scammed at least 50 times. Those Mafia taxi people you are always reading about have asked me at least 50 times today if I want a taxi. I have read all the warnings on the internet so be careful out there folks !

Edited June 22, 2014 by PiPiFFS

[snottgoblin]

I stayed in my house, put on my tinfoil hat and hopped for the best. So far, not come into contact with any of those pesky natives, who are always trying pull a scam on a whitey like me

[Badbanker]

The first scam is the Indian fortune teller scam. You will have to give him money and he will tell you that you are shortly going to make a million dollars!

The second is the "show money scam" that is perpetrated by an Iranian couple on Soi 11 who ask where you are from then ask to see some of your currency. If you are stupid and showed them the money, due to slight of hand 50% will end up in his pocket.

The rules don't change people!

Just because you are in Thailand nothing has changed!

Would you show your wallet to a complete and utter stranger in the US or the UK?

No! So don't do it here!

PS The OP did well!

Edited June 22, 2014 by Badbanker

[Loptr]

Quality tourists of LOS all around. We should be photographing these scammers and distributing widely.

You can not name and shame anyone in Thailand due to libel and slander laws. Truth is no defence. Point blank.

Sure there is, but it's a defense that most are no longer prepared for... It' called 'common sense'...

[alfalfa19]

Only 2? What's the point of posting. I can't walk down Sukumvit for half a mile without being exposed to at least a half dozen, in varying degrees of clumsiness. I won't bother listing them here, I'm sure everybody on this board knows about them.

[masuk]

Simple buy a infrared money scanner and good is..

You sure it's not UV?

[Thakkar]

Simple buy a infrared money scanner and good is..

Walking down the road with that would be delightful; I'd be able change everyone's tv channels!

T

[Bpuumike]

Simple buy a infrared money scanner and good is..

You sure it's not UV?

The IR was just another attempted scam. Surprised he didn't quote a price.

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

Only 2? What's the point of posting. I can't walk down Sukumvit for half a mile without being exposed to at least a half dozen, in varying degrees of clumsiness. I won't bother listing them here, I'm sure everybody on this board knows about them.

I haven't been hit on in years, except by Indian tailors. I guess I don't look worth the effort.

[bkkjames]

I had that guy say I had a lucky face.

I told him he didn't.

[Chao Lao Beach]

Simple buy a infrared money scanner and good is..

Can you give more info please

[chiang mai]

When you see the Indian guy coming towards you in lower Sucky, it's sometimes fun to beat him to the punch, point at him when he gets close and tell him he has a lucky face. Your other option of course is to start talking to yourself, quite loudly and he'll be certain to just keep walking - they're harmless, the Filipino card players and the middle eastern money scammers less so.

[longstebe]

Think I've had 2 attempted scams in 14 years. One was the Indian guy in pattaya a year or so back with the lucky face business and one was the usual " I need money to get home my passport has been stolen blah blah".

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[pitchag]

would have been a good idea to try the reverse scam when he asked you if the 20 bt was a large note, by asking him to give you $20 for it

[MMarlow]

Only 2? What's the point of posting. I can't walk down Sukumvit for half a mile without being exposed to at least a half dozen, in varying degrees of clumsiness. I won't bother listing them here, I'm sure everybody on this board knows about them.

Go on, if you really do have 6 people every half mile trying to scam you, give just one example, not everybody knows about them.

[cobra]

Only 2? What's the point of posting. I can't walk down Sukumvit for half a mile without being exposed to at least a half dozen, in varying degrees of clumsiness. I won't bother listing them here, I'm sure everybody on this board knows about them.

Now I feel a little offended, all these scammers fail to interact with me.

then again:

1. I never make eye contact,

2. I never shake an extended hand,

3. Sorry, I don't speak English, spoken in perfect English,

4. Good sir, where are from? ... Dumbledorf, near Hogwarts, hard to keep a straight face when saying this,

and I guess looking a little like Charles Manson, and wearing a Please Fuc With Me tee shirt probably doesn't help.

Very quickly they realize they're now there for my entertainment as I mess with them unmercifully.

[Suradit69]

The mind truly boggles at times here on TV

Someone would have to be pretty simple-minded to think some of these things qualify as scams. I suppose you could say that 90% of the ads on TV or in magazines are scams because they almost all over-promise and under-deliver whatever they claim about what they're selling. Generally adults who are allowed to cross streets unaccompanied manage to take such promises/offers with a grain of salt.

If you pause to listen to these guys it implies they correctly spotted you as an easy target, possibly noticing some cow dung still clinging to your shoes after you jumped off the moving turnip truck that you rode in on.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Suradit69