Thai Customs to crack down online shops that sell smuggled designer items

[webfact]

Customs to crack down online shops that sell smuggled designer items
By Coconuts Bangkok



BANGKOK: -- Customs officials declared today they will crack down smuggled, high-end goods by cyberstalking sellers and welcoming them at the airport with handcuffs.

Officials will reportedly monitor online shops where they’re commonly sold on Facebook and Instagram for those suspected of illegally smuggling high-end items into the country.

Many are sold through “pre-order stores” where customers request their desired items, transfer money and wait for the sellers to fly abroad and return with the goods.

As the sellers commonly share their flight information with customers to gain their trust, Customs hopes to use that information to arrange arrest on their arrival.

According to Morning News, the recent furore over duty taxes is an attempt to target high-end smugglers, such as those entering the country with 10 identical bags, packaging, price tags and all. [read more...]

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2014/07/03/customs-crack-down-online-shops-sell-smuggled-designer-items

-- Coconuts Bangkok 2014-07-04

[ezzra]

And how they propose to that? they can't even stop the stuff that passes under they noses

every minute of the day at the green line, and if it wasn't for prior info/intel, even those drug

curriers that they boast about wouldn't be caught....

[rkidlad]

Great news!

Now what about all the road fatalities?

[chatette]

What a waste of resources. Better to crack down on something that kills, maims or poses a safety risk to people, like dodgy imported electrical equipment for example.

[noitom]

Announcing a plan to make some Thai petty busts. Where are the busts of Thai Mr. Bigs? The funders, the operations folks, the warehouse property owners, and last but not least, the Thai bankers? This Thai effort to "crackdown" is merely show and tell and not a serious effort to root out organized crime in Thailand.

[jacky54]

what about the mountains of this stuff on sale in markets here? then there is all the software piracy, film and music copies, the fake watches, fake football shirts, fake pens, fake headphones etc, the list is endless and the amounts enormous. The online stuff is the tip of the ice berg.

[jaltsc]

"Customs officials declared today they will crack down smuggled, high-end goods by cyberstalking sellers and welcoming them at the airport with handcuffs."

How dare those online shops attempt to cut out the middle men! I don't think customs officials can talk PayPal into charging online customers for tea money.

[deepcell]

huh? crackdown on corruption?

[JohnThailandJohn]

Great news!

Now what about all the road fatalities?

What do you suggest custom officials do to address this?

[bangkokheat]

what a crack up

[harrycallahan]

Farangs come in and out of Thailand a lot. Just sayin!

[sanuk711]

Wow this is a bit over the top guys...... if it's a choice between losing my new platinum... $12 Rolex every year & all the Mrs Chanel bags, -- or having the having Yingluck's Corruption --

The madness of the Red shirts,---Slave labor in the Thai industries ---open graft in the Police...mountains or rice that no one wants to pay the farmers for, buildings erected on prime beachfront land with no permits...and ......................

Duno....give me time to think about this,............................................. ...............

...........just saying....its a bit of a come down to go back to a Timex again.

[SoFarAndNear]

It is cheaper to order stuff and then let someone fly abroad buy the stuff and smuggle it into the country?

Maybe it's time to re-think the tax system?! Best example is the car market of foreign (most western cars). Why not just lower the taxes and then more people would buy their BMW the legal way instead of a tricky import company which knows how to avoid taxes.

[sanuk711]

Well I read that all wrong--------------- its not my upmarket Chatuchak stuff they are after..................................

READ BEFORE POSTING IDIOT..................................

[SoFarAndNear]

what about the mountains of this stuff on sale in markets here? then there is all the software piracy, film and music copies, the fake watches, fake football shirts, fake pens, fake headphones etc, the list is endless and the amounts enormous. The online stuff is the tip of the ice berg.

I think this is not about fake products. This is about original stuff. Like handbags for 40.000 THB which costs some significant % lesser in China and Hong Kong.

[JoePai]

Ok chaps that it sorry, I cannot bring any more teabags in for you.

[SoFarAndNear]

"Cyberstalking" ... good bye freedom

[klauskunkel]

As the sellers commonly share their flight information with customers to gain their trust, Customs hopes to use that information to arrange arrest on their arrival.

Ahem, I'm not too sure, but did they just publicly give away the one strategy they have? There is kind of a sweet innocence behind such a behavior, inadvertently sabotaging a plan that took so much creativity, technical knowledge, and interdepartmental cooperation to conceive, and then one guy in the team, usually the main guy, blurbs it all out to the press in order to look like a creative, tech genius and team player...

Now those sellers will not share their flight info so easily...

[VocalNeal]

Maybe it's time to re-think the tax system?! Best example is the car market of foreign (most western cars). Why not just lower the taxes and then more people would buy their BMW the legal way instead of a tricky import company which knows how to avoid taxes.

That is exactly what the car market is. Tax.

People in general in Thailand pay very little tax. So if you can amass enough money to buy a luxury car you don't really need then the government takes its cut of the tax you didn't pay to amass the money in the first place. Simple.

You will notice that for pickup trucks for business or agricultural use don't attract much tax at all.

[SwimmingPoolsThailand]

This seems to have happened very quickly. The web site of one of our suppliers with whom we have traded successfully online for a year or so suddenly went offline yesterday immediately following a new order we placed. We paid by credit card and were not aware of it until we saw the full refund from the credit card company. Checking the supplier the next day we found the site was already down. Rest assured however that the supplies received from them were at least the genuine article (sample sent to the US manufacturer and checked for authenticity).

[NongKhaiKid]

Years back my daughter sent me a food hamper for my birthday but Customs held it up at Don Mueang because it contained Jacob's Club Biscuits orange flavour and i didn't have a licence to import fruit !

[MR COCONUT]

Oh,That's great news! Let's not worry about the people that can't feed there families! Just taken food from there mouths. You mean to tell me that this Coach bag and these Nike sneakers are FAKE! BASTARDS!

[spidermike007]

I am told these creeps at customs pay as much as 5 million baht, to secure a mid level position. That reflects the fortunes that are being made with those positions. So, if they are cracking down, it is a bit like the war on drugs in the US. The crackdown is simply a reflection of the frustration over their inability to make money on that industry. Get real. Be men. Do your jobs. Try being a service to the nation, instead of sucking it's blood. Customs is really nothing more than a vampire agency, the way it is currently set up. Not sure how much actual tax goes into the government coffers. Would be interesting to see a breakdown of how much is kept as personal fortune vs. how much is actually collected by the state.

[KonKorat]

This is so petty,and also arresting the people for football betting is a waste of time,the recources used on these would be better spent on improving roads and driver education.

[smileydude]

A lot of recent activity like this is about collecting more income via taxes.

They're going after people who bought cars valued at more then 3 million baht and houses > 40 million to see if their declared income matches their spending habits.

Next they're going after people buying stuff abroad worth more then 10,000 baht to make sure they cough up custom duties.

Now they're going after small-time luxury good import tax evaders.

Soon they'll being taxing us based on much we crap out in the toilets. The more you crap the more you consume perhaps?

Its a no-brainer that most of Thailand's tax income is lost to corrupt politicians and government officials. Customs is number 1 on the list.

God knows how much, 30%, 40% 50%?

Okay I know the government needs more money to pay off farmers but following Pareto's law you'd get 80% results just by targeting 20% of corrupt practices.

[rkidlad]

Great news!

Now what about all the road fatalities?

What do you suggest custom officials do to address this?

I don't expect custom officials to do anything.

I would; however, like to see a story about how 'someone' is doing something about all the deaths on the road.

A group of people sat around discussing how they can deter someone from buying a bag in Paris for someone else seems all too trivial. (It puts things into perspective)

If only a group of people could apply this same effort in a discussion into how they could lower the road fatalities, and stories like these wouldn't be mocked.

That's merely my point.

Feel free to ask what this has to do with custom officials again.

[Loles]

I hope this junta will take the steering wheel as long as it can ...

[NoshowJones]

Great news!

Now what about all the road fatalities?

What do you suggest custom officials do to address this?

What a stupid question.

[Bangmod]

So now the are getting after Yingluck.

bit late isn't it, she's not going on to many shopping trips lately

[Bangmod]

So now the problem are the high-end goods coming into the country, what about all the copy goods going out???