Scams mar Thailand’s tourism

[craigt3365]

BANGKOK, 2 December 2015: Thailand’s tourism needs to tighten and enforce regulations to clamp down on tourist scams, a chronic problem that impacts on the country’s tourism industry.

Ministry of Tourism and Sport’s Department of Tourism’s Bureau of Tourism Business and Guide Registration director, Sutham Dechdi, told TTR Weekly that tourism scams continue to damage the country’s image… it requires the travel industry to work closely with government to resolve the issue.

TTR Weekly haad asked him for a comment on the increase in bogus hotel booking sites that take credit card payments in advance from tourists and then cancel the bookings with the hotels. There have been hundreds of complaints by tourists that they were unable to secure refunds or contact the booking sites once they realised their bookings had been cancelled.

http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2015/12/scams-mar-thailands-tourism/

[fritzzz25]

"Ministry of Tourism and Sport’s Department of Tourism’s Bureau of Tourism Business and Guide Registration director". One hell of a good name for this office!

[colinneil]

Yes good idea to try to stamp out scams.

While they go about it,let them stamp out government officials corruption.

[Digitalnomade]

you can pay cash at hotel. why pay on line in advance for bogus hotel.?

[donnybay]

No more scams here than other countries, tourists are fair game to scammers in London, New York and Paris

[ronnybill]

But normally the police are not the ones who are doing the scamming. London, scamming run by criminals, Thailand scamming run by the Police.

Oh, wait that’s what everyone likes about Thailand.

Edited December 3, 2015 by ronnybill

[bangon04]

If I pay be credit card for a service which is not honoured / provided as advertised, then I can claim back this payment from my credit card company.

The credit card companies need to be more careful about who is allowed to accept credit card payments. If a "Merchant" has more than one complaint made against his credit card licence, then surely he should lose it.

[SOTIRIOS]

......people that come here to marry and settle down are no better off....

...maybe worse...because they often put everything on the line....and lose it all..

.....with little or no recourse ......once they are no longer welcome...

[KimSamui]

I paid THB 1000 to a police man who stopped my car at a tollway entry Rama 2 Samut Sakorn on last Saturday.

Supposedly I crossed yellow lines further back.

Could not dispute it as he already had my license and wanted me to go to the Police Station, pay the fine and get it back.

Solution, pay him and get License back, No Ticket.

Really pssed.

[Deez]

No more scams here than other countries, tourists are fair game to scammers in London, New York and Paris

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[donnybay]

No more scams here than other countries, tourists are fair game to scammers in London, New York and Paris

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

If your tired get some sleep old chap, then when your rested you might be able to contribute something worthwhile to the discussion

[elgordo38]

Yes good idea to try to stamp out scams.

While they go about it,let them stamp out government officials corruption.

Its the land of scams your asking for to much. Sometimes I think one cannot work without the other.

[jesimps]

No more scams here than other countries, tourists are fair game to scammers in London, New York and Paris

This is a forum and thread concerning Thailand it's got naff-all to do with London, NY and Paris.

[donnybay]

No more scams here than other countries, tourists are fair game to scammers in London, New York and Paris

This is a forum and thread concerning Thailand it's got naff-all to do with London, NY and Paris.

See you have your head in the sand, of course it has to do with comparing with other countries, less scams here than most tourist destinations in the world, take a look at TripAdvisor Thailand is way down the list.

So why would it affect tourism here and not other counties? Its a battle everywhere

If this was a forum just about Thailand,then you could take out 1/2 the old posts.

Open your mind, more to the world than just LOS, and more scams, be careful out there

[puukao]

these scams are sooo small......games against the poor!!!

i just sold some exotic triple leveraged tranche floater 100 billion bond to China and made 2 million on skewed research

signed

wall street

[HomeinThailand]

The web site owners are probably in Africa some place. This seems to be the place where a good amount of internet scams originate. Scams will not hurt tourism to a huge extent. This has probably been happening for years. Thailand has just now started to listen and put this info out there.

[KittenKong]

If I pay be credit card for a service which is not honoured / provided as advertised, then I can claim back this payment from my credit card company.

Indeed.

This is the first I've heard of "hundreds of complaints by tourists" and I wonder if this isnt a Thai tourist thing? I can easily believe that Thai banks are unwilling to refund money to their card users in case of such scams, or indeed in case of any loss at all.