Thailand is often known as LOS - The Land of Smiles but LOS can have another meaning - The Land of Scams. It's a long way from Bangkok or Bangkok Airport to Pattaya and foreign tourists are willing to pay a premium price to get here quickly and safely.
So OK the tourist often pay a little over the odds to travel in comfort. Taxi drivers are often the butt of complaints some legitimate some just made by weary travellers who object to paying the foreigner premier price that is the norm in any holiday destination around the world
This week a new scam came to light and this time it wasn't the passengers who suffered but the humble taxi driver just trying to make his daily bowl of rice.
Taxi driver Khun Pipop aged 35 had just dropped off his fare at the entrance to Walking Street when he was approached by a Thai man who claimed that he had a foreign customer wanting to visit several provinces and was willing to pay 12,000 Baht for the fare.
The man said that he wanted 3,500 Baht commission and he would inflate the foreigners fare by this amount. Khun Pipop agreed and the Thai man got into the taxi to take him to The Bella Express Hotel in Central Pattaya where he said he worked and where the foreign customer was waiting for a taxi.
On the journey the Thai guy was chatty telling the taxi driver that he was a relative of a famous Thai singer. At the hotel he asked for his 3,500 Baht commission which the driver handed over. He even gave him a receipt for the deposit.
Then the Thai man went into the hotel. After an hour or so he realised something was amiss. Khun Pipop went in to reception to ask about the Thai man and the foreigners waiting for a taxi. Whoops no one waiting and no one answering that description working there. Khun Pipop had just been scammed out of 3,500 Baht. He made his weary way to Pattaya Police Station to file a report.
The police were sympathetic but he was just one victim of many who had been scammed by a gang of prolific scam artists targeting Bangkok Taxi drivers looking for a return fare after dropping off passengers in Pattaya The capital of LOS - The Land of Scams
