Foreigner repeatedly scams petrol stations in central Thailand

A fearless foreigner of unidentified nationality is touring the small province of Nakhon Nayok in central Thailand and scamming staff at petrol stations over and over again.

Yesterday, staff at a PT Station in the Mueang district opposite a Toyota shop complained that a foreigner deceived them into giving him money.

At around 9pm, an English-speaking man wearing a red shirt walked into the gas station after getting out of a white sedan parked around 200 metres away.

When he arrived, he held up a 1000 baht banknote. The staff thought he wanted to exchange it for smaller banknotes and placed ten 100 baht banknotes on the table.

The man said “no, no” but still held the 100 baht banknotes. Then, he got a stash of 20 baht notes amounting to 200 baht out of a bag, placed them on the table, and returned two 100 baht banknotes, confusing the staff in the shop.

By the time the staff counted the notes and realised that he had scammed them out of 600 baht, the foreigner had already hurried out of the shop.

Staff chased him down the road but didn’t catch him before he got back into the white Sedan waiting for him 200 metres down the road.

The staff rang other PT stations in the area to warn them to find that they were not the first to fall victim to the scam.

Employees at two more PT stations in the province said the same man had scammed them out of 1,000 baht cash. Staff at a third PT station said the same foreigner had unsuccessfully tried the money exchange scam on them but did manage to steal a mobile phone in the process.

Police believe the scammer strategically chose to target small PT stations in Nakhon Nayok because they mostly do not have CCTV cameras. Two out of the three stations he entered did not have security cameras.

The scammer also avoided big PT and PTT stations in the area, probably because he thinks they have CCTV, added police.

The victims asked the police to hurry up and catch him to prevent any more petrol station employees from falling victim to the scam. The staff explained that they had to take financial responsibility for the incidents themselves.

Police from Nakhon Nayok Police Station are using the little CCTV footage available to track down the scamming foreigner.

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