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

[Roomuck]

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.

Yeah like jetski operators, taxi drivers just can't help themselveslves, it is part of their business plan and it is in their DNA to try it on. Naughty buggers.

Taxi drivers are not at all racist though, they try it on Thais also.

Best thing to do, is when you get a good one, get his or her number. I have one in Pattaya, one in chonburi and one in Bangkok that I use.

[Henryford]

I got caught once with a watch repair. The watch had stopped which i assumed was just a dead battery. I took it to a watch repairer who after a while said the battery is OK but a part has failed in the watch. Only cost 3,000 baht to fix. I was a bit suspicious so took the watch for a second opinion. The "honest" guy there said the watch had been broken deliberately to create the need for a fix. Not much i could do but pay for the repair.

[tomyumchai]

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

i know at least 1 guy who did the first part and threattened to knock me out when i tried to warn him he was being properly ripped off. 5 years on i hear through the grapevine that his retirement is spent, he cant stay in the house as its full of her family and he wishes he'd never set foot in thailand....... oh hum.....

[1BADDAT]

Not really a scam per say, but the whole VIP thing is way over rated. Went to a few different concerts where there are VIP sections, and they seem more boring than the regular area.

Went to one and was VIP. This included two free drinks. They took a Smirnoff Ice and poured it into two separate glasses.

[shirtless]

There are so many scams its a wonder to me why people choose to settle here.

[BaldPlumber]

...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...

Too ........ true ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, whatever it is ..................... you're ,,,,,,,,,,,,, saying ___ ### ........

[Don Mega]

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 scam is the mansion only cost 4 million...... or is it not actually a mansion ?

[csabo]

There is a guy posting motorbikes on Kaidee.com he doesn't own. Lines up a dozen or more buyers for the same underpriced bike, gets money transferred to his account and never ships to anyone. Next day, new bike, same scam. The banks and the police could care less. Seems to me he could easily be pulling in 100000 per day but with only single victims walking into any number of police stations no one is doing the math that this guy is stealing quite a lot of money from a vast group of victims.

[csabo]

Another great one the fruit stands. The owner goes to Makro and loads up on fruit in the morning then lays it all out on some feeble tables and doubles the price to sell to tourists who think everything on a feeble table must be a bargain.

[Suradit69]

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.

If the gold used was 18 or 21 karat, most Thais would regard it as fake or at least "not real."

[Suradit69]

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 ..... !!

They probably believe most farang are too simple to deal with a more detailed analysis. We all tend to dumb-down what we say when addressing children or the child-like ... which is why so many farang assume anything they can't understand is a scam.

Edited February 18, 2016 by Suradit69

[nikmar]

"I will return happiness to the people."

[exppenang]

The best scam is getting falangs to believe they can 'buy' real estate (Land) here, and then 'selling' them that land, with or without a house.

Anyone who has done even the most cursory amount of due diligence on buying property here (available on the internet in English) will find that foreigners may not own land here, except under a few special circumstances that 99.9% of buyers don't meet. Instead, these 'land owners' will actually own shares of shady stock not under their own majority control. There are very few protections for those that have done so and have a subsequent problem. The stock owner (who is not the actual land owner) has zero legal protection in the event of anything bad happening.

Of course the other half of this scam is the falang husband who 'buys land' with his wife. The 'land ownership' only lasts as long as the marriage, and many are surprisingly short once the purchase is made.

Those falangs that move here and think they are going to buy or build a dream house are in for a shock when reality returns. Many of us come here believing we are starting a new life, and many of us do hand our life savings, or significant portion thereof, over for land or a house. I don't fault or judge anybody who wants to or actually does this.

If you do decide to do it, do it with your eyes wide open, and keep your scam-o-mometer turned up high. Do your OWN research first, don't rely on what lawyers and real estate agents/developers tell you. It could save a lot of heartache and financial ruin.

[thaiduncankk]

Another great one the fruit stands. The owner goes to Makro and loads up on fruit in the morning then lays it all out on some feeble tables and doubles the price to sell to tourists who think everything on a feeble table must be a bargain.

Hardly a scam, more like a good business idea.

If there is a market for it, and there obviously is, fair play to the vendor.

Edited February 18, 2016 by thaiduncankk

[AdamRich]

No problem. Diamonds are intrinsically worthless anyway. They are only rocks. Nothing like precious metals that are actually of some use. Compare the resale value of diamonds with that of gold.

The best scam I have come across though is a bar fine.

[AdamRich]

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 !!

I am agnostic, but it does not mean I go around cheating, deceiving, and stealing. Not being afraid of punishment has nothing to do with the other qualities you named.

[Stevemercer]

My Thai wife fell for a lottery scam where she brought 10,000 Baht of lottery tickets for someone else who subsequently disappeared.

I never could quite understand the scam, but many Thais seem susceptible to anything to do with lotteries and the possibility of easy money. I'd be wiling to say that Thais fall for scams just as often as falangs. My wife seems to believe everything she reads on the Internet. Her older brother is currently in Hong Kong expecting to get one billion Euros from a fallen Libyan dictator now that he has paid the one million Baht bank transfer fees.

[off road pat]

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

I never would have guessed .....

I guess, he may have learned a couple of things now !!! 55555

[off road pat]

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.

Heard so many variable similar stories.....it's one of the best scams, I know here...

[mercman24]

lend me money, i pay you back, THEY DON'T.

[thaiduncankk]

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.

Heard so many variable similar stories.....it's one of the best scams, I know here...

The first time I met someone who fell for this was a Yorkshire man back in................ 1991 !

So it must be one of the oldest in the book.

[off road pat]

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

Better than the usual ones....!!!! so good.!!! Who said bar girls are stupid ?

[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

[off road pat]

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

Yeah,...did the same deal with a tuk tuk in Chiang Mai. years ago, the sangkapeng road jewellers, lacquer-ware, silk and souvenir factories,....everywhere...

I just had to show i was interested into something, ....never bought anything... I had a couple of great interesting days.

A win, win situation for both of us.

Best Regards.

[off road pat]

There are so many scams its a wonder to me why people choose to settle here.

If you just live on, enjoy life, don't want to invest, make more money, or buy big or expensive things, and keep a low profile...you're quiet safe from scams....

Except the little ones,..restaurants with 2 different sets of menus....taxi drivers that don't put on the meters, and so on...

Always have a critical mind ...

Best regards.

[thaibeachlovers]

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

They always are "nice". Nobody is going to be amenable to an obvious scumbag. I was taken by a "nice" young man in Sri Lanka. He didn't scam me, but he set me up for someone else, and then he got his cut. Sri Lanka was definitely the worst for scams, to the point I won't go back there again.

Even "friends" can be scammers, and in the worst case I ever had, my partner of 5 years scammed me out of a house. Sometimes, life really is s***.

[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

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

Better than the usual ones....!!!! so good.!!! Who said bar girls are stupid ?

Sadly, western men are so beaten down now, that when they come to LOS, any friendly girl with good bone structure can make a killing, and they don't even have to try hard. So it's not even a scam with them, as men just want to give them money and stuff.

[thpon]

Coming through swampy airport and customs stopping me outside, taking me back in the customs hall searching my bags....finding nothing but damaging my suitcase in his eagerness to search it.

Then suggesting he should be given a gift for helping me repack

The answer could not be translated into thai so i politely but firmly told him he was lucky i did not make a claim for him causing damage to my suitcase, answer- Sawadee Krap and left

[carter1882]

I cant tell you the best scam I fell for. It is because i didnt know i was scammed.

[gjoo888]

A friend of mine was visiting and wanted to visit the Grand Palace. Since I could not go with him, I told him to watch out for the "Grand Palace is closed scam" where the tuk-tuk driver offers to take you to other temples and sights, and of course the obligatory gem shop and tailor. He came back and said he actually took the tuk-tuk driver up on his offer, visited other temples and sights, and didn't buy anything when he was taken to the gem shop and tailor. He ended up getting a half-day tour of the old part of Bangkok for 150 Baht, and didn't get scammed for a single satang. Pretty smart, especially for a first-time visitor.