Pattaya Jet Ski Scam

And an Open Letter to the Mayor of Pattaya

I have to be honest, I never thought my recent post about the Pattaya Jet Ski Scam would garner anywhere near as much attention as it did. In less than 24 hours there were over 8000 page views, 61 comments, 36 tweets, 200 Facebook shares and it even got posted to the Mayor of Pattaya’s Facebook page.

Seems this is a little more important than even I realized and many people are up in arms about the jet ski scam taking place on Pattaya beach.

The Mayor commented to many people that he was looking into the Pattaya jet ski scam and that Pattaya City Hall was looking for a solution. While this is all well and good I made the comment on his Facebook page that he should ban jet ski operators from the beach period and that would take care of everyone’s problem.

Well, today I did what I said I wasn’t going to do for a while, I headed back to the beach with my camera. I didn’t think I would see much action in the Pattaya jest ski scam today as it was overcast and had rained. Indeed most of the jet skis were moored and not many were out on the water unless the operators themselves were riding them.

Then about 100 yards down the beach from Pattaya Beer Garden I spotted 7 Indian tourists just taking 4 jet skis out for an hour spin. So, I sat down and ordered a coke and watched these Indian tourists have a ball for an hour. Not once did I see any of the 4 jet skis come close enough to each other to hit nor did I see any of the 4 jet skis come into contact with anything else. I watched nothing but these four jet skis for an hour, I knew the Jet Ski scam would be in play.

As they came in one by one they were brought onto the beach where as you can see in the above picture damage was found. They didn’t find damage on one jet ski, nor did they find damage on 2 jet skis…they found damage on all four jet skis!

The Pattaya Jet Ski Scam in Action…Again

Before the Indian tourists could get dried off one of the Thai girls involved with the jet ski scam called in the big boss and within minutes he arrived and was surveying the supposed damage. Then more phone calls were made and the estimator showed up to give an estimate on the damage costs.

You’ll love this one Mr. Mayor. Withing 20 minutes another phone call was made to the police and can you guess which officer showed up? You won’t have to his picture is above. Does he look familiar? He should, here he is the other day helping out with the exact same jet ski scam but at a different jet ski operator. Helpful isn’t he.

This police officer shows up at 80% of the jet ski scams and helps to negotiate the price. Apparently he always thinks the estimate is too large and the price should be reduced.

Mr. Mayor why is it that Beach road can be cleared of freelance prostitutes at the drop of a dime but you can’t seem to remove the Pattaya jet ski scam operators for even 2 minutes?  Why can’t you just ban the jet ski operators from Pattaya beach period? Today, again, I witnessed and photographed criminals facilitaing a scam on tourists on Pattaya’s beach. I watched as the police were called in and instead of arresting the Thai thugs running the scam the police officer again negotiated a “Fair Price” for the damage that these tourists didn’t do to the jet skis..

Why are the police interfering in a civil matter Mr. Mayor? Why are they doing the job of the Thai court system, this is a civil matter. We all know why, don’t we?

If I were Mayor of Pattaya City and I had numerous complaints on my Facebook page regarding the Pattaya jet ski scam I would immediately have all the jet ski operators on Pattaya beach shut down while I investigated. Why haven’t you done this? Why do tourists and expats have to reveal this problem to everyone?

Are you embarrassed yet Mr. Mayor? You should be. While you and Pattaya city hall look into the jet ski scams to find a solution this scam continues to hurt tourists, Pattaya tourism and Thailand tourism. 7 More tourists today were robbed while in your city on vacation. They were robbed in broad daylight with the assistance of police. They were robbed on Pattaya beach where the tourists are robbed every day by the same jet ski scams. Will more tourists be robbed on Pattaya’s Beach tomorrow Mr. Mayor?

I’m putting myself in danger by writing about these jet ski scams and taking the pictures I have, I’m stupid, but at least I can say I care enough about Pattaya and Thailand to make a stand and put the information out there about the jet ski scam. What are you doing Mr. Mayor?

I’ll make you a deal Mr. Mayor, I’ll keep taking pictures and writing about the ongoing Pattaya jet ski scams and posting them here, to your Facebook page and anywhere else that will accept them until you stand up and rid your town of this criminal activity known as the Pattaya jet ski scam.