Bangkok: Crackdown on Grand Palace scammers

Another crackdown. This time, on one the oldest tourist scams on the books.

Bangkok Post reported that 87 people were rounded up in an operation around the Grand Palace in Bangkok following complaints of foreign visitors being pressured into purchasing unwanted services.

“A total of 87 people were arrested in the operation of which 68 were booked for violating traffic regulations and 19 others were charged with creating a nuisance in public areas.”

Led by the Tourism Police Bureau, the blitz targeted street vendors, and tuk-tuk and taxi drivers trying to pressure foreign tourist to visit souvenir or tailor shops or take river cruises – some of the services they were selling didn’t even exist or led the unsuspecting tourists to gem stores of real-estate sales.

52 people were detained, on top of the 87 arrested, and were warned against fraudulent activities that could harm the country’s tourism industry.

For decades, the Grand Palace in Bangkok’s historic Rattanakosin district has been a happy hunting ground for scammers, with tourists long accusing vendors, drivers and “guides” of lying about the landmarks’s opening hours and selling substandard goods and services.

Full article HERE.