Could be anything from Time Share to "special tax-free sale"-what ever it was, rest assured, it would have cost you money!

The scam is actually getting you to fill in a comprehensive form full of personal information which include credit card details and which would then lead to your card getting maxed out. As a general rule avoid anyone who approaches you in the street and especially this kind German gentleman.

"Barn yut ti nee, ma teo, ma do!" Roughly, "I'm not a tourist, I live here myself." Sends them running for cover every time!

There are Farangs in Thailand who are penniless and will do anything, ANYTHING to get money to stay here including stealing and conning their fellow Westerners. they are scum.

I have been approached with this scam several times in Pattaya and Kho Samui

Holidaying in Kho Samui recently, we were repeatedly accosted by an Englishman giving us scratchcards, after the first one he said we had won a prize and had to scratch another one, my wife and I then realised it was some sort of holiday club (as we have read your web site prior to traveling,) we then said no and attempted to leave, the man said he would get 50 USD if we went with him, and he said he needed the money. We walked away and he became quite abusive.

If this happens so often why do the police allow this? we will never return to the island.

The scratch and win is fast becoming a nuisance in Pattaya, I have been stopped by Frenchmen, Englishmen , Americans and even Indians trying to get me to fill out the scratchcards. There is an Englishman on a motorbike who stands on beach Rd near Soi 10 outside subway who is always harrasing people. Walking along beach beach road all the way to walking street you are accosted by scratch and win scammers.

learn a russian phrase, tell them you are russian and they will shake in their boots

I doubt it Mickey their Boss is russian lol...

I have walked around many sois in Thailands and all the time I have been beckoned into Bars by ladies, also many suspicious looking Men who I think are Farangs pretending to be Tuk Tuk drivers ask me if I want a Tuk Tuk!!!!
I think they are all part of the same scratch card gang. I think the scam is when you use 1 baht to scratch the card they keep it during the commotion!! Your mind is so aprehensive as to what will happen next you don't realise you have lost 1 baht... Come on guys add it up they must earn millions.
My advice is never go anywhere or do anything - JUST IN CASE! Oh my god Im probably being traced on my laptop Im out of here..........

A good phrase to get rid of scammers is " Chawp smoke banana aroi maak" roughly translated means "I didnt arrive on a banana boat, do you have a cigarrette? If you wink and hold out your hand at the same time it works better.

Tony you twat, it is Timeshare! It is legal and not a scam. If you had hung around long enough you would have got your prize, and maybe even bought a timeshare. Do you really think something sinister was going to happen?

Mr S Cammer
What planet are you living on? These scratch and win scams are usually holiday clubs set up to avoid timeshare rules that protect people. They are usually aggressive companies that want to make money out of people. Making money is ok, but not when it is misrepresentation of a product that does not deliver what it is marketed to people.

Paul
Holiday Club IS Timeshare, it is covered by the same legislation. It is has Trustee protection and is legal.
The discussion point here is not whether Holiday Clubs deliver what they say (I dont see any complaints of that issue)
The point is Tony believed that some fate worse than death was awaiting him if he had gone along.
We had to refuse a couple a presentation on Thursday because they had been on one with us the day before!! They just wanted the prize again. It couldn't have been too much of an ordeal for them if they came back the next day.
I do not agree at all that people should be abusive, if they are then of course report it - the best place is the company they work at, trust me they wont last long in the job.

Scumbuster
Aggressive accusations for someone sat behind a keyboard.
Let me tell you we are far from penniless but if I was I'd sooner con a farang than a Thai especially an Aussie one! I think you are judging farangs by the company you keep. Pattaya is hardly in the running for the "Thailand City of Culture" award.

I think that there is some understanding. Timeshare you buy into an established property for a holiday week each year. Holiday Club you buy a week somewhere maybe in Thailand or elsewhere where the club has purchased some accommodation but really does not have first rights over. Even though they say is covered by a Trustee it can fold anytime and your investment in Holiday Club is gone. The contract usually does not have a registered address only a Postcode address and it is governed by another countries law that is a tax free haven and not set-up for the interests of people.

Time share? give me a break, I had it done to me and my girlfriend 3 times in one day!! funny how my girlfrined the biggest winners everytime!!! And past comments are correct, when they start asking for Credit card providers and personal details, computer cand credit hackers and use LES infor to gain access to your cards, walk away some are really good that what they do, and in my case, the smiles turned to agression when they learned we dont own credit cards, like we have wasted there time

Of course its timeshare you nunce. If they wanted your credit card details there are alot easier methods of obtaining them. If you were smart you would have gone on the "90 min" presentation got your free weeks accommodation. Not bad for a couple of hours of your time.

And to Paul you have no idea as to what your talking about.
Holiday clubs are timeshare... Just with more benefits

Query? Stoney Monday vs "prizes" for listening to a presenation on their holiday concept?

We were recently stopped and asked to scratch a card in order to win a prize. Then in order to earn the prize we had to sit in on one of these presentations. (Patong Beach)

My husband won thai massages worth 1000baht, which I used, but my prize was the big one and would only be revealed after listening to the 90 min presenation. this went on for much longer (about 2 hrs) after which they tried to sell us their plan, which we listened to, but didn't buy.However, I must have been suffereing from holiday fever and I wanted to see what this fantastic must win prize was all about.

In the end another symbol was revealed by scratching on a different part of the card and as it turned out, it was one free week accom in Phuket. All I needed to do was contact them at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to claim it.

Nearly a week later and have had no reply.

Is this a scam???

I was recently in Phuket / Patong beach, My girlfriend and I was apprached by two men, who looked offical wearing tourisim t shirts and caps, they explained that they were apart of a promotion company to increase travellers to Phuket. There was a chance to win prizes and we were handed a scratchy ticket each. I won a tshirt and my girlfriend had "3 Stars" which mean a great prize, we were promised that we could get a lap top, a camera or cash. And that the men who gave us the scratchy said they get a cash bonus because my girlfriend got the 3 stars!!! Strait way I knew something was suspect, but I went along with it to see what the scam was, we were taxied back to a central office where we has to fill out a form. The form included basic information name, where we live and our income estimate and what our credit card company was, ie visa / master card. It was all smiles and that we were winners, but once I told them that I had no credit card the deal was off, and thank you but you do not get anything, and tried to usher us into a taxi back to our hotel, I am guessing for them to get out for paying the fare.

3 more times that day we played dumb that we had not been approached and everytime, my girlfriend was a WINNER 3 STARS!! and promised all the same prizes.

If I had to guess what the scam was I would possilby say credit card, on the legitimate looking scratchy cards they had credit card company as sponsors, in the taxi we were questioned extensively about what we do for work, possibly to gauge our income estimate, on the form, again questions on income estimate, whilst we were never asked for credit card numbers, we were asked what credit cards we owned, with basic information, ie name, country of origin and city we lived.

Once I made clear that we dont have a credit card, the smiles turned to sorry but our sponsors require that you must have a credit card to claim the prize and then scamed again to try to get us in a taxi to pay for it, I politely said no thank you for the ride as they had actually done us a favour by getting us closer to where we wanted to be. Quickly word went around to travellers and I dont think anyone went through with it so the extent of what the scam is I dont know. There were scamers all over Patong even using guys from, india, and the UK to intecept and trap tourists

Mark, smart thinking for playing dumb and exposing the scam by saying you had no credit card thats good advice for anyone now pestered by these scratchcard peddlers and a good way of sending them on their way.

..........Promotors in official tourism t-shirts and caps to supposedly attract more tourists to Patong.

One reason why Patong is the shameful shadow of what it once was. Now its hassle beach.

This is the kind of stuff that makes people say sod it Im going to Hua Hin instead!

we've just returned from Koh Samui and just had the same experience = two guys on a motor bike say they're glad they've found somebody who speaks English, as if they want directions.
But then they pull out the scratchcards, with a laptop computer, flat screen TV, cash and a holiday as prizes. Same deal = one of us won, but we had to go immediately to their office to claim it, only have the final bit scratched off by their staff after we sat through a 90 minute presentation.
The whole thing stank, and the guys were super persuasive.
I hear you do get the holiday (that's the only one of the big prizes you win) and if you manage to go you get a week of hard sell.
They also want you to be a tourist, travelling for less than six weeks (to avoid backpackers) and have a major credit card (their 'sponsors'!!)
At best it's a serious annoyance and unpleasant experience dealing with these people, and I feel sorry for people who get pressured into signing up for their schemes and find themselves out of their depth.

why go there

My g/f and I were in Patong early last year when approached by said professional looking tourist scammers. They kind of looked a bit like tour guides speaking in strong brittish accents, the usual scratch the card win the big prize etc. when we were supprised to be ushered away by locals, thinking they were protecting themselves and their businesses, we were a little dazed and confused as to what had just happened. We then grabbed a seat in a cafe and watched for a while. It turns out the locals were protecting the tourists and the scammers were not too happy about it with huge confrontations errupting on the streets. As i don't speak Thai i couldn't understand what the locals were saying but the british guy's didn't hold back which gave us an indication of what the altercation was about. I will be returning to Thailand and the end of the month and I'll look forward to observing the latest/current scams for interest's sake.

I fell for a scam similiar to this in Singapore. I of course won the "grand prize" and was led across the street to an office building conference room by a pretty young lady to collect it. According to her, all I had to do was sit through a time-share holiday presentation first. I didn't have anything else going on so I went along to see what happened. Turned out to be a VERY high pressured sales. Two hours later I finally escaped and have never touched a scratch off again.

I was approched by a fat englishman arriving by a motorcycle at the road that goes around the hill between pattaya and jomtien. He claimed i could win fine prizes if i scratched the card. He first gave me a card which turned out to be a t-shirt-win. But he said he was going to give me another one (this card was actually different size). Guess what, i was star prize winner. He said ive just cost him 200 bucks. Then i stopped smiling and said. Why am i not surprized!. I bet if you give me another card its a sure star prize as well. I asked him for his name, he answered :John (which i dont know was hes real name. I said" John...you are a waste of space" (quoted from fawlty towers), then he took of on his bike. I was smiling all the way back to jomtien :)

@Bob, well done for sussing out non other then... Drum roll please, drrrrrrrrrr... Bulldog, come on down, ha, ha, ha, ho, ho, ho...

I was also on Pattaya Phuket. I went to the Stoney Monday presentation and signed up. Now I am questioning their validity after already paying $4000. I told them i wanted some sort of proof that they were legitimate and that i would not pay anymore until i was satisified.

Acouple days later they sent a fax to my6 bank with my CC# and other personal information trying to get money.

I have tried to contact them several times with no response.......
Does anyone have any ideas how to stop them or even get money back?

@Bulldog, can you help Josh?

My first question would be WHY have you suddenly questioned their validity as a company? You were confident enough to pay so much money and then changed your mind -WHY? You are not getting any money back!! what worries me more is the fact they are not contacting you for the balance-that says there is something wrong-

@ Bradley -firstly his name is BOLO ...NOT ... BOB....so try and get the easiest facts correct before you challenge those far more intelligent than yourself -and it wasnt me anywa because if it was he would have gone on a presentaion -and bought!

its actually scratch and sniff ( you will notice the bullshit smell later)

Bulldog, a typing error, gee whizz! We are being pedantic, by the way, do you know when to use capital letters Einstein?

it happens to me all the time when i go to phuket i just talk to them in welsh thay look at me look away look at me again shake of the head and off thay go result

I usually get stopped in Samui by some posh English idiot or a fat Englishman, they try everything from please help me I get 50 USD for this. And when you refuse the posh idiot usually gets stroppy and gives some verbal abuse whilst driving away(coward that he is)
Pattaya is ok, you dont get too many of the scratch and win scumbags, as the expat community are of a slightly rougher nature and mainly tell them to Fxxx off:)

@Bangkok Scams, why don't you just remove this thread and the Holiday Club Scams in Phuket one as well, actually, why don't you just close this site down?

@Bangkok Scams, apologies for being a little rude, I just can't seem to get my head around why you bent over for Absolute, you know that they are scamming tourists, so why have you helped them by removing comments? Especially, Lisa S and not forgetting Dave Spanglers, priceless lengthy story about going to an Absolute presentation.

Sorry to tell you unless you have already found out. STONEY MONDAY HOLIDAY CLUB no longer exists. Actually it never really existed. All they owned was plastic models and computer generated images on the office walls they didnt even have the exchange company they claimed to be part of Dial An Exchange.
You along with 400 other "members" were conned. Just like their employees who never got paid.
To top it off the sales director was a child molestor who could be googled on FBI Most Wanted. "James Ross Fischer FBI MOST WANTED" you will recognise his photo he is just a few years older and has dyed his hair blonde.
Digusting to say the least.
Sorry mate but your money is long gone. But correct me if im wrong but im quite sure im 100% correct.

Got approached by English male about 50yrs and Thai friend on their scooter in Pattong, Phuket. Said his name was Peter or something and had been on Phuket for 2 yrs as a English Teacher. We had a general conversation about the rain etc. Thai male was a student whom claimed at first he spoke little English but was suddenly able to explain the prizes and conditions of two scratch and win tickets hebought out and I was the lucky winner(?). Englishman sounded all surprised I had won and commented how lucky we were. Shop keeper from 7=11 came out of store and began to usher them away as he was annoying her customers. Both spoke in Thai so I had no idea what they were saying. Englishman then did the hard sell and started calling his moble to have someone come and collect us for 90 min presentation with free drinks. Threw the cards back at him and stormed off. Same think happned three times in one week. Couple staying in same resort got conned and received coffee only and wasted 2 hrs oftheir time.

@Jeff, Sounds like Brian Makai is back, probably bored upstairs and needs the thrill of the hard sell.

There are 2 clubs doing it holiday club and classic holiday club , classic escapes ,
you recieve a scratchie where the prize is $199( accomodation for 2 only ) holiday to the gold coast or bali where you have to sit through another presentation,If you want to take kids its an extra $300 odd.
It cost between $11000- 21,000 to join the clubs, They say they are the only club that can get you cheap cruises but that is not true.
If you win a prize there should be no money to pay out for it. Not a bad price for accomodation if your happy to sit through another 90 minutes while away .

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Thank god we have read this. We were approached by a British man today and apparently we have won one of the 'great' prizes but we can't claim it until the morning, at which point we will find out if it's a laptop, 20,000 Baht cash or a holiday for 4.

We are supposed to meet the guy in the morning but will be staying well clear of him!

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I just "won" $150,000 USD as a second prize on a Scratch & Win card mailed to me by a company called Emperial Travel Agency in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Not bad, seeing as how we didn't enter any competition nor have we had any dealings with them. I'm not even going to contact the company.

I think I'll just keep this card for a laugh. Makes me nearly want to buy a Trillion Zimbabwe Dollar note, just to make me feel good, haha!

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