Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [631]
The Thai police are usually no help whatsoever, believing that merchants are entitled to whatever price they can get.
Card games are another way to separate travellers from their money. A friendly stranger approaches the lone traveller on the street, strikes up a conversation and then invites them to their house or apartment for a drink or meal. After a bit of socialising a friend or relative of the con arrives on the scene; it just so happens a little high-stakes card game is planned for later that day. Like the gem scam, the card game has many variations, but eventually the victim is shown some cheating tactics to use with help from the ‘dealer’, some practise sessions take place and finally the game gets under way with several high rollers at the table. And if you don’t know how this ends, we suggest you watch the movie The Hustler. Again, the police won’t take any action because gambling is illegal in Thailand and you’ve actually broken the law.
Other minor scams involve túk-túk drivers, hotel employees and bar girls who take new arrivals on city tours; these almost always end up in high-pressure sales situations at silk, jewellery or handicraft shops. In this case the victim’s greed isn’t the ruling motivation – it’s simply a matter of weak sales resistance.
Follow TAT’s number-one suggestion to tourists: Disregard all offers of free shopping or sightseeing help from strangers. These invariably take a commission from your purchases.
Contact the tourist police (1155) if you have any problems with consumer fraud.
Theft & Fraud
Exercise diligence when it comes to your personal belongings. Ensure that your room is securely locked and carry your most important effects (passport, money, credit cards) on your person. Take care when leaving valuables in hotel safes.
Follow the same practise when you’re travelling. A locked bag will not prevent theft on a long-haul bus when you’re snoozing and the practised thief has hours alone with your luggage. This is a common occurrence on the tourist buses from Khao San Rd to the southern beaches or north to Chiang Mai.
When using a credit card, don’t let vendors take your credit card out of your sight to run it through the machine. Unscrupulous merchants have been known to rub off three or four or more receipts with one purchase. Sometimes they wait several weeks – even months – between submitting each charge receipt to the bank, so that you can’t remember whether you’d been billed by the same vendor more than once.
To avoid losing all of your travel money in an instant, always use a credit card that is not directly linked to your bank account back home so that the operator doesn’t have access to immediate funds.
Touts
Touting is a long-time tradition in Asia, and while Thailand doesn’t have as many touts as, say, India, it has its share.
In the popular tourist spots you’ll be approached, sometimes surrounded, by guesthouse touts who get a commission for bringing in potential guests. While it is annoying for the traveller, it is an acceptable form of advertising among small-scale businesses. Take anything a tout says with scepticism. Since touts get paid for delivering you to a guesthouse or hotel (whether you check in or not), they’ll say anything to get you in the door. Some places refuse to pay commissions so in return the touts will steer customers to places that do pay. This type of commission work is not limited to low-budget guesthouses. Travel agencies are notorious for talking newly arrived tourists into staying at badly located, overpriced hotels.
Travel agencies often masquerade as TAT, the government-funded tourist information office. They might put up agents wearing fake TAT badges or have signs that read TAT in big letters to entice travellers into their offices where they can sell them overpriced bus and train tickets. Be aware that the official TAT offices