(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)

(Photo: Anthony Mak)

Since Thai Rak Thai came to power the government has ceased all action against the gem scam and simply announced that the problem was solved. The reality was that several key shops--Blue Dragon, SSS, and Piyamanee were allowed to remain scamming. Police no longer conducted raids or forced shops to close. Instead, the shops were required to operate under Department of Internal Trade rules that stipulates an 80% refund must be offered to a buyer. While we have heard statistics of the number of police reports of the scam per year, as far we know police no longer take reports, but send the cheated tourist back to the shop for a refund.

(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)

If you want a refund

While there have been announcements that various official organizations can help or be contacted, we have not found any of the groups in practice will actually respond to queries from cheated tourists.

UPDATE: New info on getting your money back here.

1. If you want a refund you have to be in Thailand. If you are not prepared to come in person back to the store, you will not be able to get your money back.

2. Read the FAQ. In brief, your gems are NOT fake. You only overpaid for them. In some cases tourists have even found that they did get a good deal on gems (but this is rarity).

3. Make sure you have all the documents and gems with you. If you sent them by post back home, the police cannot help. Contact the Bangkok mail center immediately and then ask for ext 195. The Bangkok mail center will then do everything that they can to assist you in tracking your package, they only require the date you posted the gems, date and your name. If it has not left the country they will put a hold on it for you to pick up. (Having tourist mail back gems used to be a feature of the scam, but it does not seem to be utilized anymore.)

4. Attempt to make a police report. Call the Tourism Authority of Thailand at 694-1222 or 1155 for the Tourist Police. They will tell you to return to the store for a refund, but you can still try to file a report to add to the statistics.
If your purchase involved a gold shop (either swiping your card or a gold purchase exchanged for gems), DEMAND that the police name this shop in the report. The scam is actually run from these gold shops--all the money flows back to them. If the police refuse, tell them you will complain to the Tourism Authority of Thailand that they will not take the report. Also tell them you are immediately going to the Police Inspector General to report them as well. If the gold shop helped you get money from your credit card, you must report the gold shop to the international wing of their credit card company. 2B suspects that the local branches of Visa are corrupt, as they seem unable or unwilling to ban certain gold shops from using Visa cards.

5. In most cases the refund will be made albeit grudgingly, but there are few older female managers that sometimes give tourists a hard time over the refund and you may have to bargain hard to get your 80%. Be sure to have the person's name you talked to from the police--if you get resistance while at the store you can bring the name up and say you are returning to the police station to make a report.

6. All scam victims should publicize and report their scam experience to relevant authorities and the media.

2Bangkok.com believes that if every victim followed the steps above, the scam would be history. Thais do care about bad publicity. Please follow through if you are a victim for the sake of Thailand.

Guerilla tactics against the gem scam

From the Thai Gem Scam Group:
* A scammed German tourist went back to the location of her now-closed store and picked up all the mail that had collected in front of their door.... We are going through it to find anything of interest, including phone calls to TP (tourist police) officers' mobile numbers.... she managed to smear the paint on the doors to write out “don’t buy” and then keyed “scam” for good measure.
* A couple of members have been attempting to go through the scam again, this time with hidden cameras or other attempts to take photos--but this is taking your life into your own hands. The police will not protect you.

Gem Scam FAQ

The gem shop had the word "Royal" in its name. Doesn't that mean it is legitimate?
No.

But the man had an official ID...
Thai IDs mean nothing. They are readily available for a small fee to anyone. Even if the gem factory looks official and is close to reputable government offices, it doesn't mean they won't cheat you.

Are the jewels fake?
No, almost always the jewels are correctly identified. The scam is that the uninformed customer pays a greatly inflated price.

How about the Tourism Authority of Thailand?
You will be told there is little that can be done. The attitude of "rich, greedy tourists deserve to be cheated" is common throughout Southeast Asia.
Many cheated tourists are puzzled by the vague warnings the TAT posts--like "be careful of buying jewelry from people that approach you on the street." Considering how many people know this and are still fooled by the professional way the scam is conducted, it seems that the TAT is not being very effective in dealing with this problem.

How long has the scam been going on?
We have found references to gem scams in Bangkok all the way back to the 1950s.

Why don't the police crack down?
Despite the pledges made at every international tourism convention to stop the crime, the way the laws are, there is really very little the authorities can do. The victims and gems have to be in the country for a complaint to be filed, an appraiser has to be hired, and fines for the perpetrators are so minuscule, it is not worth filling out all the paperwork. Cracking down is just not a worthwhile use of their time. (The Bangkok Post has a good article explaining this.)
Also, everyone from the TAT to the government interpreters who help tourist file police reports will openly admit (often in front of smirking police officers) that the police are part of the scam.
TAT officials have also told 2Bangkok.com that the stores are protected by local police. In particular, the Vandee scam shop, which operated just a few blocks from TAT headquarters, was considered particularly humiliating to TAT officials who were unable to close it for many months.
The Nation also reported (December 24, 2002) that officials admitted some shops remain open because "influential persons in uniform" protect them.

Who runs/is complicit in the gem scam?

Gold shops
We do not have a person's name, but Bang (or Hang) Thong Thong Bai/Ranghang Thong Thong Bai gold shop is one of linchpins of the gem scam. It is used to cover the money trail by giving cash advances on credit cards and selling gold to tourists which is exchanged for overpriced jewels. What this means is that all the money from many gem scam shops is flowing back into this gold shop, but why isn't this shop ever mentioned in any "official" discussions of the scam? With perseverance, scammed tourists can demand police file reports on the gem shops and eventually the gem shops will have to change their names, but police outright refuse to mention gold shop in their reports. (UPDATE: Gold stores were finally mentioned in a Tourist Police brochure circa January, 2004)

Banks in Banglamphu
Branches of banks that operate in the Banglamphu area (where most of the scam shops are located) also cooperate in the scam--particularly Thai Farmers Bank and Thai Military Bank. Thai Military Bank has been know to give credit card machines to the scam stores so they can allow scam customers to pay by Mastercard, however the charge made is a cash advance directly from Thai Military Bank (Banglaphu branch). Tourists who think their purchases are protected because they paid by credit card are surprised to find the transaction booked as a cash advance directly from Thai Military Bank.

Local Visa and Mastercard
Neither Visa nor the local Mastercard company seem concerned that known gem scam shops have credit card machines that say "Thai Military Bank" and are using them directly on their premises.

Thai Gem and Jewelry Traders Association
Even shops approved by the association are known to scam. We have tried to contact the association about this, but all those we have talked to seem unconcerned and say "someone else handles this."

Why do Thai people put up with the scam?
Most Thais have never heard of the gem scam. Here is an article in Thai explaining it.

For our Japanese readers (thank you to TORIchang):

Do I stand any chance of getting any compensation through legal action?
Probably not.

Here's a sample legal opinion:
Dear Mr. XXXX,

Reference is made to your e-mail dated XXXX with thanks.
We are of the opinion that you should report to the tourist police so that the police officer will assist you somehow, for instance, negotiating, proceeding the criminal case. They also have a good command in English.
If you decide to appoint a law firm in Bangkok, we are afraid that it will cost you quite a lot of money comparing to the value of the gem.

Why would the owner, who has already shut down his firm thus avoiding legal liability, even bother to show up, let alone comply with any ruling?
We have not heard of anyone getting the shop owners to court. The scams are not conducted by individual owners, but by an organized cartel that is protected at the highest levels.
What you will find is that at every turn people will try to discourage you--your paperwork will not be complete so everything is delayed, the police will give you a friendly warning that the gem owners will send people to beat you up, etc. If you had the time and money, it would be nice to try something like this just to bring attention to this problem. Thais are sometimes shamed by bad publicity.

Has anyone at 2Bangkok.com been a victim of the gem scam?
No. We have just been maintaining this page since 1999 as a public service.

Is 2Bangkok.com part of the "The Thai Gem Scam Group"?
No. That is a group formed in April, 2002 by cheated tourists. You can contact them at thaigemscamgroup@yahoo.com

Can 2Bangkok.com recommend a good gem shop?
There are reputable shops in town, but we have found that even those approved by the Thai Gem and Jewelry Traders Association will scam. The main indicator of a good gem shop is its location. The shops in and around the downtown Ratanakosin area (where the Grand Palace and other historical monuments are) should be avoided. Shops in the Silom/Sathorn gem district are known to be honest. However around the Subway Skytrain junction at the Silom Station friendly touts work under the protection of the nearby corrupt Lumpini Police Box to steer tourists to scam shops downtown.

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