Pattaya faces Indian boycott over failure to end jet ski scams

[Rimmer]

Pattaya faces Indian boycott over failure to end jet ski scams

PATTAYA:--Pattaya officials were warned the city faces being boycotted by Indian tourists if it doesn’t put an end to jet ski scams once and for all.

Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh chaired an emergency meeting called Aug. 7 after government ministries forwarded letters from India and other countries complaining of continued extortion and intimidation by jet ski vendors who Pattaya City Hall repeatedly has failed to regulate.

The Ministry of Interior in India has reported that their nationals have been ripped off and scammed by Thai jet ski operators. Officials there urged Pattaya to cooperate with a Thai-Indian bilateral committee and disclose which, if any, of the many promised regulations actually have been enacted or enforced.

City Councilman Sanit Boonmachai said tourists who encounter jet ski scams should file a report with police and then city hall officials will become involved to mediate a solution.

He said tourists should not pay any vendor on the spot, although he admitted some have threatened violence against those who try to take the issue to police.

But taking matters to Pattaya Police at the Soi 9 headquarters may not be help, said Pol. Maj. Piyapong Ensarn, head of the Tourist Police Division in Pattaya. He said victims that have come to the Tourist Police have complained they first went to Soi 9 and were ignored.

As far back as 2011, Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome said Pattaya’s police are part of the problem, with corrupt officers assisting scammers in extorting money from tourists and earning some of the profits.

Tourist police report the number of extortion incidents has risen sharply as the low season progressed. He said the division received two complaints in February, one in March, two each in April and May then eight in June and nine in July.

Sinchai Wattanasartsathorn, president of the Pattaya Business and Tourism Association, said the Ministry of Tourism and Sports sent a letter to Pattaya to immediately seriously tackle the problem, especially as it concerns Indian tourists, who are vital part of the city’s tourism industry.

He said that if city hall doesn’t finally get serious about eradicating jet ski problems, the city faces a mass boycott of tourists from India.

He said law enforcement needs to be stationed at the beach and any vendor found scamming tourists must be prosecuted and shut down.

This is not the first time India has warned Pattaya about the problem. In September last year, Indian Ambassador to Thailand HE Harsh Vardhan Shringla called on top Pattaya officials to brainstorm ideas on ways to improve tourism from India.

The city has spent years holding committee meetings, proposing regulations and promising to regulate the industry, limit the number of vendors and impose a mandatory insurance program.

Despite countless promises, nothing being done has actually ended the scams.

- See more at: http://www.pattayamail.com/news/pattaya-faces-indian-boycott-over-failure-to-end-jet-ski-scams-50208#sthash.DMJhABFS.dpuf

-- Pattaya Mail 2015-08-14

[lust]

Anybody willing to rent a jet ski in Thailand should be scammed. This is not new.

And besides, jet skis are annoying and loud.

[canopus1969]

Keep the jet skis - maybe the Chineese will also copy the Indians

[Pattaya28]

Will City Hall react here ?

Probably with "Hot-Air" and "No-Action".

Greed controls.

[amerasianex]

I agree with the Indians. These operators should be banned. They only hurting the country with their mafia business tactics. They have been doing this since jet skis were invented. Ban them all forever

[chuang]

Go away with jet skis all together...

[petercool]

An off topic flame post removed plus a defamatory post

[Andrew65]

Anybody willing to rent a jet ski in Thailand should be scammed. This is not new.

And besides, jet skis are annoying and loud.

I was first in Pattaya in July 1985, and was warned about this scam way back then. Nothing has changed in all that time.

[Pattaya28]

And it's recognised that Soi 9 Police are in on it.

Good 1.

Why don't the FB "complainers" get in on this and add exposure ??

[judokhruu]

Pattaya Police and vendors are partners. First hand knowledge.

[Brit_Doggie]

Ok boycott jet skis by all means lets boycott all you illegal tailors and you know who you are.

[Sviss Geez]

Pattaya Police and vendors are partners. First hand knowledge.

"First hand knowledge"

Really, first hand? So what you're saying is that you are either a jetski operator or a police officer. Can't see why you'd want that known.

[Lost in Thailand]

This series in Thailand never stops , is been so long that jet ski owner scam Tourists , damn this country never learns ,

Edited August 14, 2015 by petercool
taken out the underlining of whole post

[technologybytes]

I do not know if all jet-ski rental business are scams, I assume that some must be genuine people just trying to earn a living.

The problem with mandatory insurance is that no insurance company will provide insurance to these beach operators, so the answer is to either ban all jet skis or work out some solution that does not require the impossible insurance.

If you ban all jet-skis then that's not really fair on the honest vendors. Its never fair when the criminal minority mess things up for everyone.

Perhaps a system of licensed operators with instant removal and destruction of any jet-skis offered for rent by an unlicenced opearator would be ideal, but that opens the door for even more corruption.

[cekipa]

We are all indians right now

[marquis22]

Just get it in-da-ya do not to hire jet ski

[clip]

Pattaya Police and vendors are partners. First hand knowledge.

absolutely true , there are a few officers that own the jet skis and are the ones that appear first when an argument

Over damage happens , don't stand a chance against the mafia!!!

[recycler]

"Every disadvantage has its advantage." - Johan Cruyff

[Equalizer]

The solution is simple. If you get scammed. Pay the money and let the dust settle. We all look the same remember!! A week later with a pair of sun gasses and a bit of a disguise rent out the jet ski and bomb it down to the quiet part of the beach where you earlier stashed your canister of petrol. Burn the bitch to the ground, off with your bar wig and moushache and flee on your already parked motor bike near by. that would just about equal things up a bit.

[Pattaya28]

And to "Balance The Books" Thais will boycott all the Indian tailors

[Kees5555]

'"Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh chaired an emergency meeting called Aug. 7 after government ministries forwarded letters from India and other countries complaining of continued extortion and intimidation by jet ski vendors who Pattaya City Hall repeatedly has failed to regulate."

Failed to regulate ?!

In a normal country those jet ski scammers would have lost their license already after their first scam !!!

[ttthailand]

I think the police have no power to stop anything except a perhaps ladyboy walking on beach road. More powerful people are pulling the strings all we hear is lip service.

Boycott is a good idea but should be done by all countries including China. Two weeks of total shutdown would get their attention.

But it will never happen as talk to cheap on both sides.

[CWMcMurray]

Seems the problem is that difficult to enforce regulations or laws if those in charge of enforcing do not enforce them...

[Jim walker]

It needs someone to stand up to the jet ski mafia and police scammers and if its the Indian government then so be it they are possibly more concerned about their citizens than the Junta are about their ones, giving the whole country of Thailand a bad name because of a few rotten apples in the barrel they need to be weeded out and chucked on the rubbish heap along with their jet skis and the cooperating police moved to an inactive post in a scabby district full of honest cops.

[CWMcMurray]

Seems the problem is that difficult to enforce regulations or laws if those in charge of enforcing do not enforce them...

[SOTIRIOS]

......extortion warrants........... 'up to $10,000 fine..............and........15 years in jail'.............

.....that might 'do the trick'......

...but don't hold your breath......

Edited August 14, 2015 by SOTIRIOS

[kaiyaibob]

Yay finally some positives come out of the whole jet ski saga...perhaps too many Indian guys wanted to share a jet ski, water, coke, meal, women etc etc

[Nemesis7]

Some of us may not like the Indians as we see from the comments and some may really act silly in Thailand but so does so many tourists from different parts of the world, but I personally think it's a good step to try to stop this scammers, and wether we like it or not these Indians and Chinese are keeping the tourism industry alive at this time, if any one of us have serious problem in seeing them here I suggest he should move back or relocate himself else where. Racism hurts people

[Dublin]

Damed if you do, damed if you don't,,,Better of two evils,,, I don't ride Skis,mmmmmmnn

Edited August 14, 2015 by Dublin

[Rimmer]

Off topic post and reply removed also a Libellous post