It looks like tourists and expats in Pattaya are wising up to some traditional
scams. A recent survey by this newspaper, involving visitors and law
enforcement agencies, has revealed that some traditional money traps have all
but evaporated, at least for now!
The renting of Jet Skis plagued the tourist industry for years. Typically, naive
renters were charged large sums of money for damage to the Jet Ski – usually
dents and crashes – which were there before the most recent transaction. City
Hall, after ignoring the problem for years, has at last got its act together. The
licensing system for Jet Skis has been modernized and the operators obliged to
participate in a collective insurance arrangement.
Our survey located only one example of the Jet Ski scam in operation. A British
man rented a Jet Ski in Jomtien but failed to take a photo of the side of the craft
before setting off. He admitted he was not sure whether or not the damage was
his fault and he agreed to settle the dispute for 5,000 baht. This is a
considerable improvement on the 100,000 baht which a luckless Ukrainian paid
barely two years ago.
A regular Jet Ski
operator told us, “The
rogue companies can
no longer rely on police
participating in these
scams or refusing to
get involved. These
days the police will
often take the tourist’s side or suggest that a complaint be made at the Pattaya
Tourist Court which can handle arbitration.” He added that visitors now have
almost universal access to a smart phone with a camera. “I always advise them
to take several snapshots,” he claimed.
Other scams which also seem to be in heavy decline include touts wanting
passers-by to rent timeshare apartments. The fraud included asking people to
pay deposits on non-existent properties or to mislead customers into thinking
they had exclusive use of the property whenever they came to Thailand.
Reasons for the decline probably include greater checks by the Immigration
Bureau on foreigners working in Pattaya illegally without work permits and the