More from Thailand…
Here’s a few more scams that are common in Thailand…
The Silk Shop Scam – Not such a big deal, but still a scam. The same Tuk-Tuks that take you to the Jewelry shop for free petrol also take you to Silk shops to “look, but not buy”
You go in and try to kill some time so the tuk-tuk drive will get free petrole and you get a free tour of Bangkok. The employee asks if you would like a custom made silk suit or shirts or both. You tell them you’re just looking, but they’re good and they pressure you to at least let them take your measurements. You’re NOT going to buy anything no matter what (they know that, they see the Tuk-Tuk outside), so you agree to kill some time like the driver told you.
After that, they’ll listen to whatever BS you tell them with out pressure. Before you leave though, they WILL make you sign a receipt. They’ll play stupid and act like they believe you’ll come back to buy something just because they took your measurements, even though you never said anything about buying. You sign just so you can get the hell out of there, but before you leave they tell you that you owe them $20 for a deposit. You say hell no and that you don’t want to buy anything! They get aggressive and tell you that all the receipts are numbered and they MUST turn them all in to the government (weather you buy something or not), so they’ll have to pay a minimum of $20 out of their pockets and that’s not gonna happen!
You’re kinda stuck there and you have a choice to either pay the $20 (it’s not that big of a deal you might tell yourself), or see what happens if you tell them to screw and walk out. I chose the second option and the guy pretty much wanted to fight. I bit my tounge and walked out, even though he tried to stop me. I made sure to remind him not to touch me and told him “Just because I’m nice, doesn’t mean I’m afraid, don’t confuse the two.”
This one really wasn’t a big deal, because the worst that would happen would be that you loose twenty dollaaa! Still it’s a common scam that you can avoid if you’ve heard about it ahead of time.
Then there is the “Woman coming up to you in the bar and poisoning you” scam!
I met a German guy that had this happen to him. He told me it went down something like this – You’re chillin in a bar, but solo and an attractive lady starts talking to you. If you’re quick, you buy her a drink, but to your surprise the next round is on her.
Half an hour later she invites you to her room, most guys run out the door with out waiting for the change from their bill. Anyway, as this guy was walking up the stairs to her apartment, he was very dizzy and started blacking out! He said “by the time he got into her room, he couldn’t even see.” She sat him down on her bed and the next thing he knew, it was a day later and he was on the side walk, with no wallet!
Traveling isn’t as easy as everyone thinks!
Tags: Scams
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