Scams and Touts
Naive provide popular prey for a number of time-aged scams in Thailand. This can range from Taxi drivers offering you cheap stays in good hotels, to the more sneaky ones who will offer you free trips is you just ‘stop’ and look at a tailors shops where you will be pressured into purchasing low quality clothing.

Another time-honored scam involved jewels and gems. You will be told that it is a special day where there gems have been hugely reduced in price for this day only. There you will find ‘experts’ who will fill your head with thoughts of huge money to be made by taking these gems and stones back to your own country and selling them there. The unscrupulous jeweler will take your money and give you little of value in return for your hard earned dollars, pounds or euros.

The TAT has a special department devoted to scams such as this. If you are taken in, you should immediately report to the Tourist Police, who will do their best to get you your money back.

You can reach the TAT Tourist Related Crimes division on – 02- 281 0 5051 between the hours of 8:30am and 4:30pm.

Other popular scams abound in more seedy areas like Soi Cowboy and Pat-Pong. Here, you will often be presented with astronomical bills as you try to leave. In most cases, unsuspecting visitors have little choice but to pay these bills in order to safely leave the dubious bars in question. Also, many tour operators in the South are infamous for the process of someone lying in the luggage department of your ‘VIP’ bus and rifling through luggage whilst you sit, completely unawares

Tele Eye Process
The Bangkok Police have recently launched a new directive aimed at reducing tourist related crimes in all areas of the city. Every single police station within the city must now ensure that the area around it is almost 100% crime-free.