What's the best scam you've come across in Thailand?

[Bangkok Barry]

Mine involved a ring my wife has. Gold, with a cluster of diamonds. It now has less diamonds than before, after we took it to a gold shop at Central Bang Na to have it made bigger. Fingers get fatter, same as the rest of us, as we get older. Went back a few days later and collected it, and no problem. Except, one evening sometime later we were in a bar that had UV lighting and we noticed some of the stones were a different colour. We got it checked, and many of the diamonds had been replaced with glass. Brilliant! How under normal circumstances would you ever know? No point in taking it up with the shop, of course.

[lopburi3]

But how do you know they were replaced and not originally sold that way? Or had you seen it before and after in the same light? I would suspect more likely was sold that way as replacing small diamonds probably would not be worth the effort involved.

[fey]

But how do you know they were replaced and not originally sold that way? Or had you seen it before and after in the same light? I would suspect more likely was sold that way as replacing small diamonds probably would not be worth the effort involved.

could also have been swapped by the place that checked it

most people can't determine authenticity by eyeballing

[Bangkok Barry]

But how do you know they were replaced and not originally sold that way? Or had you seen it before and after in the same light? I would suspect more likely was sold that way as replacing small diamonds probably would not be worth the effort involved.

could also have been swapped by the place that checked it

most people can't determine authenticity by eyeballing

1 - because we had seen the ring in UV lighting before. 2 - the ring was checked in front of us after we noticed the abnormality.

[steven100]

Are you implying that some jewelry shop owners in Thailand are not honest .... ?

I never would have guessed .....

[HenryB]

Could have been anybody not me because I never had the ring in my hands

[impulse]

Should have brought it to my first gem shop.

The Tuk tuk drivers all swear they'll give you a great deal.

[steven100]

best scam is when you first arrive in thailand and the first thai you meet which is usually the taxi driver and he says ' thailand no problem '

That's the best scam ..... !!

[Thian]

Last year my mother gave me a golden bracelet which she had heritaged from her mother. It was for my wife now and also had diamonds in it. It was bought in Thailand 30-40 years ago.

I gave it to my wife and she immediatly said that it was fake....

Oh well....that's good actually because i don't like to have jewelry like that inhouse or anywhere. It only gives problems to have that.

[lovelomsak]

My first wife pulled a great scam when we were preparing to get married.

We were talking about the marriage and she said she doesnot want much she is a good woman. I thought great. so I ask what do you want? She replied 20 baht. I thought she was joking about money to give for sin sot. So I joked back oh too much I only give you 10 baht. She said ok. Then she said how much money you give me. I said 10 baht like we agreed thinking we still joking, She then told me she was talking about bahts of gold at first and she was happy to get 10 baht of gold but wants cash too. I didnot know what to say because all of a sudden she seemed very serious. So she tricked me into paying 10 baht gold.( She also got a house)the house was already settled before the 10 baht fiasco.

[oxo1947]

When I first come to live in Thailand, an old hand told ---to be very careful & beware...of farangs.

If anyone was around 10 years or less ago before most of the "Boiler rooms" were closed down......... rows of farangs on phones to other farangs, with 29 carrot guarantees of how to increase your savings. Its still around ---just more sophisticated now. They left people who thought they could retire here in ruins, & resulted in more than a few suicides.

But never mind I will enjoy reading the other posts about how Thai's are just inherently greedy people and to prove it......................this the Greedy Thai taxi driver at the airport....well...he........etc.....etc.......

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/649317-boiler-room-work/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiler_room_%28business%29

[NoshowJones]

OP, what about the police? A brown envelope?

[NoshowJones]

When I first come to live in Thailand, an old hand told ---to be very careful & beware...of farangs.

If anyone was around 10 years or less ago before most of the "Boiler rooms" were closed down......... rows of farangs on phones to other farangs, with 29 carrot guarantees of how to increase your savings. Its still around ---just more sophisticated now. They left people who thought they could retire here in ruins, & resulted in more than a few suicides.

But never mind I will enjoy reading the other posts about how the Thais are just inherently greedy peopleThai and to prove it......................this the Greedy Thai taxi driver at the airport....well...he........etc.....etc.......

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/649317-boiler-room-work/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiler_room_%28business%29

It is unfair for anyone to start generalising about Thais because of taxi drivers. The majority of Thais are about the most helpful people you will meet.

[momtaz]

The people who do no fear God to be punished by cheating, deceiving and stealing from others, they can do anything to benefit themselves as long as no any tangible evidence,

Unfortunately, this is totally unethical, what a shame !!

[bermondburi]

Buddhism

[TingTawng]

Don't know about "best scam", but I remember back in 2003 meeting an Italian backpacker in Khao San Road who'd just arrived in Thailand. He told me "met a really friendly taxi driver at the airport. He switched off his meter and gave me a deal price from the airport to here". That old one.

[coulson]

The funniest scam in thailand is the fuel vouchers taxis or tuk tuks get from tailors for each foreigner they bring in. When i was between jobs and waiting for my chinese visa which required multiple visits to the embassy in the same day, so I agreed with a tuk tuk to go to as many tailors for fittings, in exchange for a free day chauffeur pretty much. We both got what we wanted and ended up having a beer after 6 hours commuting around bangkok, didn't spend a baht. There were a lot of p155ed off tailors

Edited February 17, 2016 by coulson

[namatjira]

The grand daddy of them all is this beauty......bargirl has husband, a kind man but much older....she takes him to her home town and says darling I want buy land here build house....and being a nice man he agrees...and builds a 4 million baht mansion...he buys the land off who would you believe , but the bar girls family....brillaint...he buys something they already own...everyone's a winner...

But the plot thickens...he dies of cancer.....sad so sad....she gets a new boyfriend....2 months later....takes new boyfriend to the town and says to new boyfriend....darling I want to buy this big mansion....he forks out 4 million baht and buys the mansion...

Brillaint...she already owned it......you have to give them credit.....just brilliant

Edited February 17, 2016 by namatjira

[thaibeachlovers]

The grand daddy of them all is this beauty......bargirl has husband, a kind man but much older....she takes him to her home town and says darling I want buy land here build house....and being a nice man he agrees...and builds a 4 million baht mansion...he buys the land off who would you believe , but the bar girls family....brillaint...he buys something they already own...everyone's a winner...

But the plot thickens...he dies of cancer.....sad so sad....she gets a new boyfriend....2 months later....takes new boyfriend to the town and says to new boyfriend....darling I want to buy this big mansion....he forks out 4 million baht and buys the mansion...

Brillaint...she already owned it......you have to give them credit.....just brilliant

The whole marriage thing is a scam anyway, but that's another story. It's always worth remembering the best scams are the ones that fool one so well that one never knows they were scammed.

If on the gems, I took a load of Saudi desert diamonds to get cut in Bkk and they replaced them with zirconiums. However, I was better pleased with the zirconiums than I would have been with the desert diamonds, LOL.

As one been scammed by many in different countries, hard to say what was the "best", but the "photographer" on Carnaby St was pretty good. In LOS, I first came on TV to warn about a scammer on Thong Nai Pan Yai selling 2nd class bus tickets to Bkk as VIP seats. When arrived in Thon Sala and realised, not much I could do about it.

Most willing victim to the slaughter I know was the friend I told to go on the meter with taxis in Bkk. He knew better and paid over a thousand baht to go to the Grand Palace.

Edited February 17, 2016 by thaibeachlovers

[Sealbash]

From the previous posts, it appears that at least two people are involved in scams. The scammers, and someone gullible enough to fall for it?

[alfalfa19]

I would not call it a scam, but I willingly fell for a clever hustle. I think it was at the beach in Jomtien. I was swimming, and enjoying the beach, when I was approached by a very polite, and friendly young Thai man. I told him I did not want to buy anything, he said of course, of course. He engaged me in interesting conversation for about 15 minutes, then produced his product. I was some kind of glass container containing sand and a beautiful floral arrangement. It was really quite nice, and weighed about 4 kg. I ended up buying it for 200 baht, just because the guy was so polite and friendly. I don't usually do such things, in fact I am very cynical and skeptical. After he departed, I put the product gently into one of the trash bins, as I had no interest in it, did not want to carry it back to my hotel in pattaya, and certainly was not going to take it home to the US on an airplane. I can't be sure, as I did not stick around to watch, but I feel the guy was probably watching me from afar, and went to retrieve the product after I left, knowing that no farang is going to take that heavy thing home with him. All in all, I think he was very clever, and I did not mind paying the 200 baht.

[ezzra]

A beautiful and feminine young lady who turned out to be a man....

[pauleddy]

Nice young taxi driver in a pink taxi (not his) who said his 3 year old daughter was in the Police Hospital gravely ill. Asked me for 1000b loan. Gave me his phone number and ID of some kind. Told me he would repay the next day. He even came in for coffee when I loaned the 1000.

I am not easily taken in, but he was a "kind" young guy + the daughter thing had me nearly crying. Needless to say, the phone was never answered. I also realised later that Thais can get a new ID card for 30b.

I could have gone to the police with what I knew, and the ID. However, it costs me more than 1000 to sit 4 hours in a cop shop. I also consulted my landlord (more like a friend really)---he said win some, lose some, let it go.

Eddy

[FidelityCheckOnline]

Best scam I heard of was the guy who married a Thai girls and as a wedding present was given a plot of land on the wife family's farm so he could build them both a house to live in..... which he did. Once the house was built he went away for a few weeks on business. When he came back a Thai guy had moved into the house and told him to clear off. When he tried to get his house he was told the ownership paperwork on the land the house had been built on had never been completed and it still belonged to his wife family. He didn't have any legal right to be either on the property or cross the family land to get to the house.

[AlQaholic]

Another thing that may happen, wife takes a ring to the shop to make it bigger, because she also have a huge gambling debt, she asks the shop to take off and replace some of the diamonds and refund her in cash, so she can pay off the debt.......

Edited February 18, 2016 by AlQaholic

[georgemandm]

Mine involved a ring my wife has. Gold, with a cluster of diamonds. It now has less diamonds than before, after we took it to a gold shop at Central Bang Na to have it made bigger. Fingers get fatter, same as the rest of us, as we get older. Went back a few days later and collected it, and no problem. Except, one evening sometime later we were in a bar that had UV lighting and we noticed some of the stones were a different colour. We got it checked, and many of the diamonds had been replaced with glass. Brilliant! How under normal circumstances would you ever know? No point in taking it up with the shop, of course.

Thai woman jokeing

[georgemandm]

The grand daddy of them all is this beauty......bargirl has husband, a kind man but much older....she takes him to her home town and says darling I want buy land here build house....and being a nice man he agrees...and builds a 4 million baht mansion...he buys the land off who would you believe , but the bar girls family....brillaint...he buys something they already own...everyone's a winner...

But the plot thickens...he dies of cancer.....sad so sad....she gets a new boyfriend....2 months later....takes new boyfriend to the town and says to new boyfriend....darling I want to buy this big mansion....he forks out 4 million baht and buys the mansion...

Brillaint...she already owned it......you have to give them credit.....just brilliant

Is it a true story or Bulls??t hahaha if true you made my day and I had great laugh

[SOTIRIOS]

...sadly...every day...at every turn....

...can never get the truth...or a straight answer...

...and if I venture to an unknown merchant or retailer....forget it....

...I know the prices of the things I buy....

...oh sorry...I am not supposed to know...or be aware...or understand what was just said about me...

...it is not Buddhism...it is not culture...it is just low, lying, sickening...tiring...

...and please do not call me hateful or racist because I tell the truth.....

...and please do not tell me to leave if I do not like it....

..all my bridges are burned...all my assets are gone....just hanging on for dear life...and my 2 daughters....

...hoping to find a way......

...any sincere suggestions are most welcome...but even 'jobs' and 'opportunities'...even 'teaching'...are usually tainted now...

[Colabamumbai]

Thailand is the best scam that I have come across in Thailand. It is all an illusion.

[HooHaa]

My first wife pulled a great scam when we were preparing to get married.

We were talking about the marriage and she said she doesnot want much she is a good woman. I thought great. so I ask what do you want? She replied 20 baht. I thought she was joking about money to give for sin sot. So I joked back oh too much I only give you 10 baht. She said ok. Then she said how much money you give me. I said 10 baht like we agreed thinking we still joking, She then told me she was talking about bahts of gold at first and she was happy to get 10 baht of gold but wants cash too. I didnot know what to say because all of a sudden she seemed very serious. So she tricked me into paying 10 baht gold.( She also got a house)the house was already settled before the 10 baht fiasco.

the victor kiam effect, you liked he so much you bought her company.