TOURIST SCAMS: Govt gets tough on rip-off merchant

[elef]

TOURIST SCAMS: Govt gets tough on rip-off merchants

 

Published on Sep 20, 2004

 

 

OCPB plans crackdown after Belgian pays Bt40,000 for fake cashmere suit

 

The Office of the Consumer Protection Board (OCPB) is threatening to take action against gangsters who rip off foreign tourists following the latest complaint from the Belgian embassy that a Belgian tourist was duped into paying between Bt40,000 and Bt50,000 for fake cashmere suits.

 

It?s fraud, and it damages our country?s image. Offenders will face both civil and criminal action,? an OCPB official said yesterday.

 

The official revealed that many jewellery shops caught overcharging tourists have become tailor shops instead and continue their rip-off schemes. Some place advertisements in Kinnaree, the domestic in-flight magazine of Thai Airways, he added.

 

They pay a 5-per-cent commission to tuk tuk drivers who bring in tourists looking for suits. They?ll quote Bt7,000 for four suits at first, but finally charge as much as Bt50,000,? he said.

 

He said the tourists get their suits only when they are about to leave the country and have almost no time to inspect them.

 

Even if they try them on and they don?t fit, the shops won?t offer to remake them or refund the money,? the official said.

 

He said the OCPB normally takes immediate action upon receiving tourist complaints, knowing that the victims have a limited time in country.

 

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop yesterday established a committee to crack down on individuals or gangs detrimental to Thailand?s tourism.

 

Pol General Noppadol Som-boonsap, former head of the Department of Special Investi-gations, was appointed committee chairman. Senior officials from relevant agencies, such as the Metropolitan Police, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Immigration Bureau and Customs and Revenue departments, also sit on the committee.

 

We will protect the tourists,? Noppadol said.

 

TAT Governor Juthamas Siriwan, who also sits on the

 

committee, said the move would expedite interagency coordination in a bid to help tourists more efficiently.

 

She said the TAT does not have a mandate to enforce the law, and when it requests assistance from other agencies, sometimes there is no response.

 

 

The Nation

[OCgringo]

,,,,,Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop yesterday established a committee to crack

down on individuals or gangs detrimental to Thailand?s tourism.......

 

does this mean they will round-up the ladyboy pick-pockets around Nana ?

 

I doubt it !