Scam from Thailand? - my experience

A friend of mine, and his Thai girlfriend were caught today in a nasty and mean scam being operated by Nong Khai customs at the Laos border crossing. This is very similar to other reports from tourusts experiences at Bangkok airport. My friend informed me that he and his girlfriend were in Thailand, returning from a visa run to Laos. They had been informed by the duty free shops at Laos that they could bring back 400 cigarettes each into Thailand with no problem. This was incorrect as the allowance is 200 per person. My friend was confronted by customs in the car park, and he suspects that the customs officers already knew that the limit for cigarettes had been over exceeded since only he was pounced on. He and his Thai girlfriend were taken to the Nong Khai customs office where he was threatened with jail unless he paid 20,000 baht on the spot. This was calculated at approx 484 baht per packet of 20 cigarettes and he was told that this was on the full amount being carried, 4 cartons, not on the 2 cartons over the limit. They said that all of the cigarettes were his, ferrangs and none of them could be his girlfriends or her allowance. This is because the financial penalty for excess cigarettes is much higher for ferrangs than for Thai, and so the amount of the fine would be higher if all blame was attributed to him. After hours of painful negotiation the amount was reduced to 12,,000 baht which he had to pay or face going to court, and they confiscated three of the four cartons, not even leaving them with 2 cartons, one for each as per their allowance. Please be warned that this is a well rehearsed and well practiced scam designed to extract huge amounts of baht from ferrang and applies even if you only slightly exceed the customs allowance. You will not be told of your rights, or given any translation of what is going on in your own language, and my friend was taken away without being cautioned or read any rights. My friend was also threatened with police arrest, being held in custody, and a Court trial and possibly not being able to enter Thailand again.

This is a scam in my opinion because:

1. The amount of fine at 484 baht per packet over 200 cigarettes is ridiculously high, and it is unfair that the fine is four times higher for foreign visitors than they are for Thai people.(dual pricing is fairly common in Thailand)
2. The duty free shops are misleading foreign visitors about their allowances, and then I summise mabe even tipping off the customs.
3. In this case claiming that all the cigarettes were the foreign visitors and none of them his Thai girlfriends is deliberate manipulation to maximise the amount the ferrang is forced to pay in this trap.
4. Too many cigarettes were confiscated, even the duty free allowance of 200 per person could not be retained.
5. Initially they tried to extort an amount based on the entire quantity in his possession and not just the amount above the limit.


My advice to any ferrang contemplating a visit to Thailand or in particular a Laos Visa run, or returning from Laos to Nong Khai would be to ensure that you do not cross into Thailand with one cigarette more than the 200 cigarette limit !!!!!