Pattaya Jet Ski Scam in Action

Even though Pattaya is in the full grips of low season there are still plenty of tourists around to be taken advantage of at the beach, and they are still being taken by the same jet ski operators that continue to ply their scams on Pattaya beach.

Since I first wrote about the Pattaya jet ski scam in The Pattaya Jet Ski Scam in Pictures there has been a lot of activity from expats and tourists alike telling their stories here and more importantly on the Mayor of Pattaya, Tik Kunplome’s, Facebook page, Pattaya Furure. The Mayor for his part let everyone know that he was on top of the Pattaya Jet ski scam problem and that investigations were already in place, he also took the opportunity to go to Pattaya beach and to the Soi 9 police station for a photo opportunity showing himself in action.

Unfortunately that has been the only action taken in the Pattaya jet ski scam problem. For a few weeks after my initial post about the jet ski scams the Mayors Facebook page was full of activity with people from Pattaya and around the world telling of their experiences being scammed or threatened on Pattaya beach by the jet ski operators. The Mayor seemed to be taking it all in and responded to the majority of comments, and then it all went silent.

At one point the Mayor was asking if someone could put together a power point presentation he could show to Pattaya City Hall with the multitude of pictures and video of the Pattaya jet ski scams that had been posted as well as pictures of the people aiding in the scams. I found this an odd request especially when there was a supposed ongoing investigation into the scams by City Hall. We were told we would hear news of this investigation within weeks of the initial fanfare and here we are 2 months later and still no news of the investigation into the Pattaya jet ski scams.

Back on April 12th there was apparently a meeting between Jet ski operators, City hall and the Mayor where the jet ski operators were told that City Hall is considering banning all jet skis from Pattaya beach. If this was actually stated during the meeting it did absolutely nothing to scare the jet ski operators as they have thumbed their noses at Pattaya City Hall and the Mayor since then by continuing with the jet ski scams openly.

In a more recent development brought to my attention by Camille over at PADI, diving and Instructor Development (IDC) around Thailand , the Pattaya Mail ran an article entitled Justice Ministry, Chonburi governor join fray over Pattaya jet skis which not only talked about the Pattaya jet ski scam problem but also got reactions from Chonburi’s Governor and the Ministry of Justice. Of course,  they are all outraged by the scams being perpetrated on tourists, expats and Thai’s alike and it all makes for great copy but no one has lifted a finger to stop the scams from taking place.

Not to be outdone even Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister in charge of national security, Suthep Thaugsuban, has made headlines in the media by stating  after attending meetings with the Tourist Fraud Prevention Committee that the problem needs to be eliminated.

There are many forms of cheating, starting with Thais cheating foreign tourists, foreign tourists teaming up to cheat other foreigners, and Thais and foreigners working together to cheat other foreign tourists.

From the year 2007 to 2010, around 6,000 Thais were arrested for cheating tourists, and 517 groups of foreign gangs were arrested.

Suthep has assigned the Tourism and Sports Permanent Secretary Sombat Kuruphan the responsibility of preventing tourist fraud in Bangkok and at Suvarnabhumi Airport. At the same time, Interior Permanent Secretary Deputy Pranai Suwannarat will be in charge of towns frequented by tourists such as Phuket, Pattaya, and Chaing Mai.

From the top down there seems to be a lot of Thai politicians talking about fraud prevention in Thailand, they have even gone as far as using stern words towards those committing the fraud on the Thailand tourist community, unfortunately they haven’t gone as far as actually preventing these frauds and in the case of the Pattaya jet ski scam I think we all know who is running the show and it surely isn’t the elected officials.

For now the Pattaya jet ski scam continues daily on Pattaya beach just as it has for the past 2 decades or so and the Mayor for his part still talks openly about making Pattaya a top tourism destination, well Mr. Mayor if you can’t protect the tourists and and citizens of Pattaya from the crimes perpetrated by the jet ski operators on Pattaya beach then it’s highly unlikely that your plans for Pattaya will ever be taken seriously by the much needed tourists you are courting.

I can’t say this strongly enough:

Beware the Pattaya Jet Ski Scam

DO NOT RENT JET SKIS IN PATTAYA