Kerryd

lol - had a Nigerian try to scam me a couple years ago. I was getting text messages saying I had won a Hungarian lottery and needed to send money (via Western Union) to their representative in Bangkok to pay the insurance fees on the wire transfer.
Googled the "contact" and found that he was also running a US "Green Card Lottery" scam. Emailed them from a generic email account and asked why I needed to pay insurance fees to do an electronic transaction, and told him I was in Pattaya and would drive up to Bangkok to their office to talk to them.

He responded that "when I got back to Thailand" they could meet me at the airport (not sure HTF he knew I wasn't in Thailand, as I was in Afghanistan when I got the text message - on my Thai telephone - and was using a generic email address). I tried a couple more times to get him to give me an address but he wouldn't do it and even though I told him I was in Pattaya, he knew I was out of the country (I figured he had a friend on the camp in Afghanistan that was feeding him information).

I finally gave up and told him that I knew it had been a scam all along, and that I had passed his name and email details (address and headers) along to the Thai Police, Thai Immigration and FBI (for the Visa scam). At the end of that email I suggested that the police would probably be coming for him very soon, and then said "wait, was that a knock I heard at your door ? Surely they haven't arrived already, or have they ?"

I was hoping that for the next couple of weeks, every time someone knocked on his door he'd crap his pants and try diving out a window or something. Never heard from him again so I guess he got the  hint (or hopefully left the country in a hurry though I doubt it).

Actually, both groups have been in Thailand for quite a few years now, especially the Bandidos. I thought they were a little more prominent in Bangkok than in Pattaya. (And from what I've seen/heard, most members are Thai, not foreigners.)

English Lager Louts ? Oh wait.....

a) PHUKET: -- The Phuket Gazette has received confirmed reports that police have launched a manhunt for three foreign men who carried out a smash-and-grab robbery of about 30 million baht in jewelry this morning.

The thieves, believed to be a male and two females, took this opportunity to break the car’s window and take the jewellery, police said.

c) CCTV footage from the scene revealed three foreigners – two male and one female – driving away from the area in a Toyota Vios.

d) UPDATE: Police have arrested three Canadian men suspected of stealing B30 million worth of jewellery this morning.

e) The four suspects currently being detained – a Russian, a Turk, a Spaniard and a Malaysian – were arrested in Trang province while allegedly preparing to flee the country.
The fifth suspect, a Malaysian woman, was also arrested but apparently escaped while making a toilet stop.
The suspects were incorrectly reported earlier as being three Canadians.

f) Police have arrested at least four people travelling inside the vehicle: one Russian man, two Malaysian women and one Thai man.


Wow. In that short space of time we've gone from:
"3 foreign men" to
"2 males and a female" to
"a male and 2 females" to
"3 Canadian men" to
"A Russian, a Turk, a Spaniard and 2 Malaysians" and finally (??)
"1 Russian, 1 Thai and 2 Malaysians"

Good thing they caught them within a day. Buddha only knows how many different nationalities may have been involved had this gone on for a couple more days !

No problem. Pesky law preventing you from doing something ? Just change the law ! After all, it worked for the PM's brother when he was PM. I'm sure the dam project will provide enough "incentives" to ensure the right people suddenly see how the benefits outweigh the damage and agree to "amend" a regulation here, a law there, etc.