Traveling to Thailand- Tips to Avoid Scams

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Travel Light for your International holiday to
Thailand-Scams to Avoid
Agreed that vacations are a great place to dress
up! Clicking your pics in smart outfits will make
up for those lovely Facebook uploads for friends
to admire!! So you need to carry a lot of
outfits, matching accessories and the like when
you travel. Oh, the kids need to have their
cuddly toys, some gadgets and a maybe few games
for their travel, so you pack those in as well.
Then when all is stacked, you throw in a couple
of extra outfits for each family member, just in
case you need them! Right? ..Absolutely wrong!
TIP TO BE NOTED
Which currency should you take when traveling to
Thailand? The best option for you would be to
Convert INR to THB here in India. It will be
cheaper for you. Converting INR to Thai Baht in
India, if Baht is available, will be very
expensive.But with BookMyForex.com you can obtain
BookMyForex offer best currency
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• exchange rates in India with zero margins and
  zero hidden charges. They provide best and live
  rates. They give you the option to freeze rates
  you see on charges.
• A list of Thailand Scams
• Cheap Massage Scam What it is
• Massages and Bangkok are synonymous. You will see
  people roaming the streets advertising cheap
  massages on the pretext that business has been
  awful of late. They will then escort you to the
  shop and ask you to pay upfront as they have to
  return to look for more customers. Once the
  Massage is over, the masseuse will ask for
  payment. You will probably reply that you have
  already paid to the manager. They often reply
  with What or who manager? It will then dawn on
  you that you have been duped.
• How to Avoid it
• Simple, just do your research and go to reputable
  massage parlors. And if anyone asks for upfront
  payment, politely decline that.
• Bird Food Scam What it is
• Bird Scam? Really? Does a scam like this exist?
  It does in Thailand. You will see people with
  Bags
• of Bird food outside the Grand Palace feeding
  birds. Or they appear to be feeding birds. They
  look for unsuspecting foreign tourists and hand
  out the bird food to feed birds. If you fell for
  this and end up feeding birds, they will ask for
  the price of the food. And the amount is not
  small, they ask for exorbitant prices like a 100
  Thai Baht.
• How to Avoid it
• These scammers walk around stuffing bird food
  into random tourists hands. Stay alert and guard
  your Precious hands!
• The Grand Palace is CLOSED- Most Infamous
  Thailand Scam What it is
• The biggest and most infamous scam and yet
  tourists fall for it. Grand Palace is one of the
• most exciting pieces of architecture in Bangkok
  and youre bound to be excited to see it. A
  well-dressed person will approach you and say
  that the palace is closed today. And they will
  prove it to you as well. As there are two
  separate entrances for entry to Grand Palace. For
  locals and for foreigners. They will take you
  through the local entrance where the guard will

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• stop you and they will mistranslate what the
  guard said. Then they will direct you to a
  different place which is open only once a
  yearapparently and surprise, it is open today.
  Rather than taking you to the place, they will
  take you to a shop(part of this scam) or on a
  Tuk Tuk ride and youre scammed into buying
  something or paying a higher price for the ride.
• How to Avoid it
• The Grand Palace is open from 830 AM to 330 PM.
  And you should research and take note of the
  official operating hours of all tourists
  attractions. Dont trust a random stranger even
  if they look like an angel. Clarify from the
  official counter because some days it may be
  closed. And when it is, just visit some other day
  rather than go to a place that these scammers
  direct you to.
• The Gem Scam What it is
• An extension of the previous scam. The same Tuk
  Tuk Drivers or a random kind stranger will come
• over to get you the deal of your life. The
  drivers/random stranger will take you to another
  temple because you fell for the Grand Palace is
  closed. The deal to buy exquisite and rare gems
  at wholesale rates. They will claim that you
  can sell them for higher profit in your country.
  But guess what? This is an elaborate plan of the
  Tuk Tuk driver and this kind stranger. They have
  made this up and to prove their point, they will
  point to other tourists like you (all part of
  this trick). You end up buying worthless stones
  which you realize later when the shipment reaches
  you.
• How to Avoid it
• There is no such deal. it is just another way to
  extort money from you. If there would be such a
  deal then why is this kind stranger sharing that
  with you? And there are no government-approved
  gem stores in Bangkok. JUST DONT GO WITH THEM
• The Tuk Tuk Scam What it is
• The Tuk Tuk drivers will either use a long route
  to extract higher fare or they will just charge
  you a
• higher fare. They also rig the meter so that it
  works faster and hence extra charges. They also
  collaborate with other fraudsters like restaurant
  owners etc. So if you ask them to take you to an
  exquisite restaurant that has glorious reviews on
  some reputed sites, they will take you to a
  different one with a similar name. This will be
  a terrible place. These drivers get a commission
  for every customer.
• How to Avoid it

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• Never get on an unmetered taxi and dont tell the
  driver your destination. Open Google maps and
  follow that. Observe what the fellow passengers
  are paying or ask them. Once you reach your
  destination, hand them that exact change
• The FAKE Tourism Authority of Thailand What it
  is
• The Tourism Authority of Thailand is the
  government agency thats in charge of promoting
  Thailand
• as a tourist destination. So scammers use this
  Authoritys name for their seedy crimes. You will
  meet people posing as TAT officials in and
  around railway stations, bus stations etc. This
  scam involves fake TAT officials lying to
  tourists that the train is fully booked. So you
  will have to look for another option. They will
  direct you to a Taxi/Cab which will charge you
  higher fare as soon as you reach your
  destination.
• Then there are tour operators who will claim to
  be government licensed or official. But they
  arent. This is all a scam to extort money from
  you
• How to Avoid it
• TAT is a government entity they do not operate
  any retail, tour, gem store, tailor shop or
  travel agencies. So if anyone claims to be
  operated by the government, they arent.
• Some well-known scam agencies are Unseen Travel
  and Blue Asia Travelseeker, but the general
  sentiment is that its better not to do business
  with agencies in the Khao San Road area.
• The FAKE Police What it is
• BE BRAVE. If you are not then all this will be
  scary. A policeman will approach you and check
  your
• passport and visa. Not a big deal. But wait,
  apparently the policeman is asking you to pay a
  fine on the spot because there is a problem with
  your visa. You may want to fight it out but there
  is that little thought what if all this is true
  and this Person of Authority will put me in
  jail or something. And thats exactly what they
  want. A lot of us will pay this fine to avoid any
  conflict.
• The worse thing is, a real policeman may attempt
  to scam you with this trick as well!
• How to Avoid it
• Refuse to pay and insist on settling the issue at
  a police station. Its important to stand your
  ground in these situations if youre timid
  like us, just imagine all the Shibuya toasts you
  could eat with that fine money!
• The Wrong Change What it is

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• Employees at stores like 7-11 and Family Mart in
  the major tourist hubs give you the wrong change
  on purpose. Sometimes they will slip in a fake
  note or two. This scam capitalizes on your lack
  of knowledge about Thai money.
• How to Avoid it
• PAY ATTENTION. Always count your change before
  leaving the counter. Make sure to note the
  serial numbers of large value notes. It is a pain
  but better to suffer this pain than being robbed
  of your cash.
• The laundry Scam What it is
• Bangkok companies will lose your
  clothesDELIBRATELY.
• And then they will make up stories and pretend
  like they nothing of it. And as a gesture of
  goodwill, they will take you to a shop where you
  can purchase a decent but cheap replacement. But
  here is the catchthe shop owner is part of this
  elaborate plan. A part of the price tag is going
  to their pockets.
• How to Avoid it
• Research and check reviews on sites like
  TripAdvisor etc. And prefer self-service laundry
  shops.
• The Litter Scam What it is
• If you litter around the Sukhumvit area, a
  policeman may stop you and even fine you for
  doing it.
• Then what is wrong with it, you may ask. Nothing
  to be honest except that the policeman is FAKE.
  But the fine amount will be big enough to
  warrant an ATM trip and there is where all the
  fraud happens. As soon as you access your bank
  account, these frauds will gain access to your
  account and start taking out the money.
• How to Avoid it
• JUST DONT LITTER IN ANY COUNTRY. It is
  disgusting.
• The Tailor Scam What it is
• One of the most common Thailand scams. And the
  architects of this scam areTuk Tuk Drivers.
• Who else did you think? Tuk Tuk driver will take
  you to a tailor shop that sells designer suits
  for a cheap price or a friendly random stranger
  will offer you this value-for-money deal. And no
  one else but locals know of this amazing deal.
  If you end up buying/ordering this suit, you will
  realize why no one else but the locals know of
  it. No FASHION DESIGNER on earth would design
  this suit that will

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have loose seams and barely any thread on it.
This suit will definitely be not worthy of the
price you paid. How to Avoid it Never pay in
cash when carrying out a big transaction, or
better, ask to see the finished product first
before you shell out Thai Bahts. But if they keep
on insisting pay via a credit card or wire
transfer because you will have the chance to get
a refund. Or best option would be to not buy at
all and not to take any stranger
recommendations. DO YOUR RESEARCH, IT IS THE
KEY. Note Two infamous scam tailor shops are
Glorious Tailors and Voglee Export Tailors.
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