Dear Hillary,
Did you know that Pattaya seems to be the scam capital of the world? And it’s not Nigerian scams either, but local home-grown ones. I know of one chap who lost eight million baht to “rescue” his wife from the stand-over gang because she had an outstanding gambling debt. They give the woman an unlimited credit line, when they see she is married to a farang. End result is the foreigner pays off the debt for his wife. No paper changes hands either, so there’s no bill and receipt as protection against further financial calls. They will squeeze you until there’s no more and the wife returns saying she’ll never gamble again (till next time). This is not foreigners taking advantage of Thais, but Thais taking advantage of Thais, and the foreigner is the one who pays in the end. The police don’t want to know about this ‘domestic’ problem either.
Pinkerton
Dear Pinkerton,
I hadn’t realized this scam was so widespread, nor did I know that the famous American PI’s were here as well. The answer is obviously not to get sucked into this cesspool in the first case, but if you have already been hit, get as far away as possible. To continue a gambling “habit” is a sickness and you should get the woman to ask for treatment. Even so, the success rate is not high. Get legal advice and get your running shoes ready.
