Many people travel to Thailand every year for the beaches and the temples. But check out our top 5 scams happening to Thailand visitors in 2015
The TUK TUK SCAM
You’re taking a walk trying to find something different than what you’ve been seeing in khaossan road, a few blocks away, some local person spots you and approaches you or gestures you to ask you a question, you’re here for the experience and you don’t want to close yourself off and miss every interaction with a seemingly friendly looking Thai so you answer their common questions, they ask you where are you going and they ask you how long have you been in Thailand to see if they can get you in their net, later they would call a tuk tuk to show you three or four different attractions, sounds all good until now and for the few cents you give the driver, you think you’re lucky but that will soon change if you plan all your trip with the travel agency you will have to go in,and even when you don’t, you’ll be forced to check out some stupid suit store where you have to act interested for nothing.
How to avoid it: As soon as some tuk tuk driver offers you a ride for as cheap as 20 baht or less 1/10 the real price, just ignore him.
The Cheap Restaurant Scam
Naturally, most of the scams happen around famous attractions, this one is quite rare but very dangerous, here is the scenario, a young guy would be trying to enter the Grand palace in Bangkok, around noon a local would approach him and ask him if he wants to try some local food, the traveler declines but the Thai person insists and adds that if he accompanied him to his favorite restaurant he could eat for a cheaper price, with sympathy the traveler approves and later find himself drugged with the worst consequences imaginable, losing all his money, not only what he had on him but also what he has in his bank account. In Malaysia, you might be offered cookies and have the same outcome happen to you.
How to avoid it: this is when a very old advice from you mom is good to listen to, don’t accept food from strangers, strangers who approach you and not the other way around.
GO GO BAR Scam
If you want to explore Bangkok deeper and go out at night in places likeSilom, the red district of the city, you will have countless people showing you their crazy menus, they would throw words like, ping pong show, no cover.. if you ask any question they would add that you will only pay a beer and enjoy the different shows, once inside and after you’ve seen enough disgusting stuff, though you might lie to yourself that it was worth the beer, you will get up to pay your tab at the counter but only to discover your 60 baht beer turned into a 2000 baht bill, when you shout that it wasn’t what you agreed on with the first guy, they say that watching the show is not included, they may get violent if you show fear or hesitance to leave the place.
How to avoid it: Act that you’re giving them all the money you got plus what you agreed on of course, then leave immediately.
Motor Parking Scam
When you go to the islands you will rent bikes since it is a very convenient way to travel around, however, even experienced drivers out there have had problems when they would return the bike, either the owner would point out some scratches, new or old, and would charge you for the replacement of damaged parts which cost a fortune sometimes. Your best option if he already got you real passport and having signed some contract is to lower down the price as much as possible.
How to avoid it: If you wanna avoid this from the start, go to places where the bikes don’t look brand new , preferably a place where they can fix the scratched with no additional fees. if you can’t find it then give them an expired passport or at least a copy of your passport but never the real one so you won’t be trapped in such a messy case.
International Driving Licence scam
In southeast Asia, you might get pulled over driving your bike even if you have your helmet on and driving safely, if this happens you’re looking into some police looking for bribes. they would try to give you a fine if you don’t carry an international driver licence. and would ask you to pay a bribe labeled as a fine.
How to avoid it: You need to insist that your driver licence is indeed an international, just repeat that until they let you go. However, That won’t work in Bali,Indonesia, because policemen there have pictures of the real international licences from every country, therefore, you should pretend to be an expat studying or working there, so they know you’re not just passing by and can cause them problems.
Hope this helps please comment
Ive have just come back from Thailand. And yes there are people that try to rip you off or scam you. But we are grown up people we should use our brain matter. Take time and think it through first.