A few common Scams in Thailand to Avoid
Thailand is like any tourist rich destination; there are locals or ex-pats trying to scam tourists. Now don’t get too worried you can still have a good time, we will take you through the most common scams in Thailand so that you can keep your eyes and ears open and avoid wasting your time and money. We had a few encounters in Bangkok and were glad we were prepared!
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Our #1 rule – Always be polite! Getting angry won’t help.
Our #2 rule – If it seems too good to be true it usually is.
“The Gem and Tailor scam”
You will be approached by a taxi driver or Tuk Tuk driver and offered to be taken somewhere for a ridiculously cheap price such as 50 – 100 baht. eg: a tourist hot spot or back to your hotel or somewhere to shop.
They conveniently make a few stops at a gem store or a tailor where the owner or sales person put the heavy sales “tactics” on you, next minute you are giving over your hard earned cash for shiny plastic or glass worth mere pennies out of pure guilt or because they are fantastic sales people.
The driver then picks up a commission. You could end up purchasing $2,000 (AUD) worth of gems but in reality they are worth $0.20 (AUD)
“It’s Closed”
“It’s closed for a private viewing for the King or closed for a public holiday”, which is what the taxi driver will tell you when you jump in their cab after asking to go to the Grand Palace in Bangkok or another popular tourist sight.
You will then end up at a gem or tailor store or even better they can take you to a better tourist attraction or a beautiful attraction not known by too many tourists. Sounds fishy hey!
“Jetski scam”
Most people on a beach holiday to Phuket want to go on jet skis! We were thinking it would be good fun but after a bit of research we found out that there is a large problem with jet ski scams in Thailand.
It goes a little something like this: You hire a jet ski, you have a fantastic time racing around, you return the jet ski and the owner comes up to you and says that you have damaged the jet ski, whether it is a small scratch for a large dent that you didn’t previously notice, you immediately feel awful, thinking you have damaged their jet ski and as you didn’t check before hand you can’t argue.
Make sure if you do hire a jet ski, you take photos of all sides of it. If you are smart and plan this far, it may not always work as the owner will call over the “local police” who are likely to be fake police or “dirty cops”, the police insist you pay and then they end up with half. Best way to avoid it is just don’t hire a jet ski or hire one at your own peril.
“Timeshare scams“
This scam will usually start with someone very friendly (more than often a foreigner) coming up to you and asking if you would be willing to come to a 3 hour presentation on timeshare and as a reward you will be provided with free accommodation at a well-known hotel..
Or they will give you a scratchy card where you will scratch and win a t-shirt then try a new card and win a major prize which is free accommodation, you will then be asked to participate in a presentation in order to claim your “prize”.
You will be offered to buy into a lifetime membership timeshare where you get a week’s stay at various resorts in Thailand, most of the time these resorts don’t actually exist sadly people tend find out the hard way.
Thanks so much!
yikes! Looks like you find yourself in some interested situations!
Glad you got out okay
No need to explain the scam, but the tailor “Dusit Collections” used tuk tuk driver to trick you into their store! They make you pay up front and the. Give you crap. I hope this prevents others from being tricked like I was!
I’ve had similar ones in Thailand, Morocco etc.
A certain attraction is closed because it’s a religious festival, it’s only locals allowed in etc. For this, I’d normally just suggest a “”no thanks”” and walk on towards the entrance anyway.
The guy in Marrakesh got really annoyed though, he said he wasn’t a tour guide and didn’t want money so I didn’t give him any money after he walked about talking to us and pointing lots of stuff out.
Hey Steven,
Thanks for stopping by.
wow, they really do try anything dont they!
Tuktuk drivers even charge you a multiple of what was originally agreed. Never use them ! Fraudsters !
The tuk tuk scam. So me and my boyfriend are travelling Thailand. Our first two nights being in Bangkok, although we weren’t central Bangkok we were more in the suburbs so we decided on our second day to venture in to the city centre. We got a taxi wich cost 49 baht. Then a sky train which cost 40 baht. When we got to paya Thai we decided to do the typical tourist thing and get in a tuk tuk. Big mistake. The driver was really nice and chatty at first asking us if it was our first time in Thailand ect (In future if anyone asks this lie and don’t say yes) anyway he kept on going on to us about ‘free gasoline’… Not speaking very good English basically saying if he takes us to one of his partnership shops and we look around we don’t have to buy anything but he’ll then get a free token for gasoline. We kept on saying no temple. But anyway he pulls up outside this tailors shop and showed us in we immediately left. (Now I’ve been looking up about it its a very common scam where the driver will convince you he gets a free gasoline coupon so you want to help him out he seems nice. But once you get to these shops they can be known to lock the door on you until you buy something (very expensive) and then when you go to pay they say they can deliver to your home address and when it eventually gets to you its crappy material/goods and the tuk tuk driver obviously gets his share in the money. Anyway so we left the shop and naively got back in the tuk tuk he started driving his face changed completely ‘why you no look??’ We explained we didn’t want a suit we wanted to go to the temple. Two minutes later he pulls up outside the ‘temple’ wasn’t a temple at all. We ask how much he pulls a 1000 thb note out (£20) should have been a 100 thb journey if that. My boyfriend straight up said no we can get to the other side of Thailand for less than that. The guy starts screaming at me – not my boyfriend me – (YOU PAY YOU PAY) at one point I even thought he was going to grab my purse from me. After much arguing we managed to get it down to 500thb. He sped off. As we were going back to the station later on that evening still shook up and upset we saw him sat outside the station probably waiting for the next easy target/ backpackers go prey on. My advice is to just avoid tuk tuks. The green and yellow taxis are much safer – just make sure you tell them to turn the meter on or you’re not getting in.
Oh Geez Mia! Sounds like you had a terrible experience!!!!!
Me and my fiance almost got suckered into a “90” minute presentation. It was a really hot day at Karon beach in phuket and an older English-speaking man claiming to be from Wales drove a bike with a blonde finnish girl .
Claiming it was a hotel promotion and in any case it’s all right if we don’t buy anything but making sure we would spread the word. We never got their names or what company they represented and when we arrived at the hotel they stated that the prize had already been given for the day? But we were welcome the next day for a free breakfast and the presentation.
Of course i started googling the m.o and started to feel really stupid. Well we decided not to go and to skip the pickup from the hotel (making sure they dropped us off at a different location) The taxidriver was on time and caused quite a scene, I know this because I had a friend at that location who was keeping a lookout at the time. Short story; avoid at all costs
Thats terrible Per!
Sadly they seem to target people who haven’t travelled often or to that destination – its like we all have this shiny new look! haha