I recently arrived in Bangkok by myself and was oblivous to a lot of the scam type thing apart from what I read in lonely planet....here's one I fell for...

 Having just come out of the grand palace in Bangkok I proceeded down towards the reclining budda wat pho.......As I was walking I resisted a number of tuk tuk invitations for 10 baht to take me to other places....and most probably to gem stores...I eventually was approached by some older thail man who seemed really genuine.  He told me that the wot pho was only open to thai people at the moment and that it'd be better to come back later - he proceeded to show me other places that may be off the beaten track (including a new tailor shop that had only just been opened to the public for exporting - 'have you not read the news today - this is best place for suit for tourist'  naievely I believed him.I agreed to go and for 20 baht I had my own 65 year old toothless tuk tuk driver who looked like something straight off the set of deliverance. He took me to some really shady places with local temples..  he parked the tuk tuk and showed me into some temples....he pointed some places for me to stop off at and take pictures...he had the tuk tuk parked up and took me on a lap of the place where I needed to pay 20baht to visit a local temple.  When i came out the tuk tuk was parked in a different spot....I kinda got a bit worried at this point but went with the flow....then he had to use the toilet and was gone for  about 10 mins...during which I had some other guy come over and light up a smoke beside me...he told me he was a lawyer over in the US and had been back to visit his 85 year old father blah blah..he asked me how much I paid for the tuk tuk and where he was taking me....When I told him he said "oh how do you know about this tailor place - this very good and normally only for thail people'...I felt priviliged to know about it...he kept talking about armani suits etc and how cheap it was to buy suits over here and how he wears them for work all the time...tuk tuk man came back after probably the longest toilet break ever....he stopped off at the tailor shop that the original guy had recommended...it was a lovely shop and the guy was all over me telling me about the cashmere suits he would make...I ended up buying 2 suits and he will deliver (for an extra price) to my australian address....I left the shop feeling a bit subdued and that I'd been taking for a massive ride...the tuk tuk driver couldn't find the place where I was staying and stopped off to ask about 10 people where it was - I was starting to get really frustrated by the whole thing and after eventually getting back to my motel it slowly started to sink in that I'd be had...I'm half tempted to go back and try to find the original guy and give him a piece of my mind but figured warning other people about it might be a better strategy....to be quite honest I think the whole of thailand (especially the tourist thing) is one complete scam - you just can't trust anyone.....My advice is say no to everything and everyone who offers you a good deal and go with your gut instincts...

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