Thailand scamerino

Diceicle

Just back from Thailand which was awesome. Just a heads up for anyone heading over, the thailand gem scams are still going strong. Details of the scam are below, its an old con in Thailand so I hope this stops someones holiday there being ruined. I got approached by these "students" and "business people" about 6 times in 3 weeks. Anyway here it is:

The Scam
One of the most pervasive scams in Thailand is the Thai gem scam. Typically, a tourist meets a friendly Thai at a tourist attraction who eventually offers to take them to a "government" gem stone shop where the tourist is told about how they can sell Thai "blue sapphires" or other gems back home and make a 100% profit. It is all lies, of course, and the tourist ends up with a pocket full of overpriced gems. Like Thais themselves, the scam is low-key and the touts are friendly rather than pushy. A rule of thumb for Thais is that "real" Thais do not just walk up to strangers and strike up a friendly conversation. Thais typically "speak when spoken to." If you are approached at a tourist attraction by a friendly fellow who just walks up and starts speaking to you, watch out!

Too many otherwise wonderful vacations have been ruined by this scam, so watch out. 2B has followed this scam online for nearly 5 five years and make no mistake--the authorities have done little to stop it. No official ever dares mention the "protected" gold shops that actually run the scams (UPDATE: Gold stores were finally mentioned in a Tourist Police brochure circa January, 2004). One of the tuk tuk drivers who takes victims to be scammed operates in front of the Tourist Information Centre and the local Police Station on Khao Sarn Road.

The funny thing is that over the years the reports are from the same locations--only the names of the stores change. Officials claim that just changing the name of the shop prevents them from doing anything to stop the scam. See our Family Tree of Corrupt Shops. As one shop owner bragged to some cheated tourists: "I'll reopen again, just like I have for 20 years!"

How it is done

This is a by-the-numbers scam. Most people have the exact same experience. It usually goes something like this:
1. You are riding in a tuk-tuk
2. The driver tells you that wherever you are going is closed for some reason.
3. The driver tells you he is specially trained to be helpful to tourists.
4. You are told the government has launched a promotion to sell gems to tourists.
5. In the course of riding around with the "friendly" tuk-tuk driver, you "accidentally" meet a well-dressed young man or an older, distinguished man.
6. The younger man claims he is a student. The older will claim he works for the government and shows you his government ID. (Thai IDs mean nothing. They are readily available for a small fee to anyone.)
7. The person you meet independently confirms the story the tuk-tuk driver told. (This is a nice touch.)
8. Eventually you ask to be taken to the "government" jewelry house and are told that you can make 100-150% profit by reselling the gems back home. It seems okay since the seller writes something like "if everything is not ok we will offer a full refund" and puts an official looking stamp on it.
9. You've now been cheated by one of the oldest and most openly practiced scams in Thailand.


Some people have been conned out of thousands.

Bluetonic

Diceicle wrote:

Some people have been conned out of thousands.

Some people are obviously quite stupid so.

Spud83

They try the same with Thai Silk. But to be honest anyone who is going to Thailand and not expecting a scam to be tried on them is stupid. Once you are polite and not agrressive these people are actually nicer than the numerous people trying to get money off you on the streets of Dublin. Plus most of the time they actually do know something about the tourist attractions they hang around.

How Strange

Diceicle... Some people have been conned out of thousands.

The scams in Thailand are well publicised. Any travel book warns you to be vigilant. I had a similar experience, I was extremely jet lagged and didn't see it coming until I was in the middle of it. They didn't take any money, I didn't buy anything and told them very politely but forcefully to f*ck off once I twigged what was happening.

As for the gem scam, it is the same scam across the world and if people are stupid enough to think that you can buy gems in a country for x value and make 100% profit then they deserve to be scammed.

The old adage of if it seems too good to be true then it is should be remembered by anyone travelling in South America/Asia.

Diceicle

Unfortunately some people are pretty naive when travelling around it seems. The site where I got the details of the gem scam has an email on there from a German couple wrote in 2002 who spent 80000 thai baht on some earrings and jewellry. They posted their purchases back to Germany and had to fork out another 300 euro in customs duty so in all they spent 2300 on junk. When they got the pieces valued they were worth €77. http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/Scams/sapp19.shtml .Bummer. I realise alot of people will be aware of this scam from the various guide books......but it'd be a pity for someones trip to be crapified through a scam like this.