BBC : 'Defrauded by my wife and criminals in Thailand' - 18 Sept

He's not the first and definitely not the last.

There's lots of news on such matters over the years.

One may consider a gamble when choosing someone.

It's not easy between the west and the east especially both parties had not much knowledge and experience about each other.

Sure but the lawyer is not in jail..... this seems too simple scam to do.... many are involved inside this scam to be able to sale asset and the scapegoat is the wife and nobody else in the top level of organisation or public company in Thailand... like land office, and all around it

For a wife to abandon her 3 kids, she should have pressure from a gang or a debt hidden to pay back to them, the husband was not aware.... family is important in Thai culture and when kids are involved the matter is different.

Yes family values are there but not 100%

Recently a young guy tried to rape his grand mother in Nakon Sawan.

There are many couples leave their kids to their relatives and work in another city, even single parent do that.

Some thai men divorced and totally abandon their wife and kids.

Sometimes when comes to money, some people can do the extreme and join hands with friends or relatives etc to get assets and money.

A thai lady in Samut Sakorn with her ex husband kill her Japanese husband. 2 of her Japanese husbands died.

A thai lady in Chonburi get guys to kill a Singapore guy for insurance money then dump the body in canal.

Lots of crime between couples - thai ladies against foreigners and vice versa.

This will go on for centuries.

The case of the irish man which appear in the video with the british man is worst, he lost over 64 million....

Brief story :

Mr.Vard five years ago was cheated out of six properties in Phuket after his maid apparently took the deeds to a lawyer in Phuket – and replaced them with photocopies.

His mansion and other properties he had bought were then sold on to other Thais at a considerable discount. Among the recipients, its claimed, were relatives of local police.

The maid was later jailed for 17 years, but being a country girl from North East Thailand she gained little from the deal.  It's alleged the lawyers grabbed 85-90% and split the profits – a considerable amount of which its claimed went to local police.

During the debacle the maid is also alleged to have demanded a ransom demand for Vard's son, Daire, for 5 million baht .

And the children claimed they were locked in a well when their father had to go to Bangkok on business.

After several years of ‘witness protection'  by the DSI  (Department of Special Investigations) Colin Vard has now lodged a formal complaint against the Police Colonel formerly in charge of Chalong Police station in Phuket.  He is claiming police deliberately falsified his statement. Mr. Vard is also suing his lawyer.

Mr Vard said :

" The maid was complicit in the deception but her input and the financial reward was entirely negligible. From the outset it was the intention of all that she take the fall.

"Basically and this can happen to anybody my company and properties were transferred by my signature being forged not once twice or thrice but numerous times by lawyers and their accomplices.

"Just last week I discovered that a prominent lawyer forged a shareholder of my companies signature in order to essentially gain full control of my company.

So many stories, you'd think they'd put of others from entering schemes, but they never do.

When's the next victim coming to Thailand?

Usually company's documents need company's stamp and copy of director's I'd or passport. It's not easy to copy company's stamp and ink mark is there.

I don't know about people's signatures, Chinese or Japanese or Koreans have their characters thus Thais sure have great difficulties to copy.

Companies documents can be kept safe in the bank safe deposit box. Company's stamp under lock and key.

Even personal account can have rubber stamp and it's best to have 2 accounts.

There's always cheaters; robbers; con artists etc everywhere.

It's about how difficult you do your safety net. Besides I wouldn't park my money here or Phils or Indonesia or Indo countries as their currency is not stable.

These people park their money in Singapore or Hong Kong. Currency and government is stable and laws are strict.

Now you can remit money without using the bank and fees are lower in the countries around here.

Even Indian can remit money to India faster than the banks t/t service haha
They have their network of people I was surprised when I learned about it.

I can import stuff from certain countries and I don't need to go to bank to fill all kinds of documents etc just to remit money overseas.

Small remittances amount still need to go
through the hassle. This waste time and wastage of man power and money.

Now one can collect money from certain countries like eastern Europe or south American countries easy.

Thailand strict monetary laws makes the country behind others and backwards.

Fred wrote:

So many stories, you'd think they'd put of others from entering schemes, but they never do.

When's the next victim coming to Thailand?

Bapak Fred

Don't be surprised it happen as we speak ;-)

if one goes to you tube, you see and hear some of the ladies have more than 1 western guy and receive money from more than 1 guy monthly.

Some of these guys knows he is not the only guy but yet send money. Hoping to relocate to Thailand and be with her instead of a western lady.

Its buyer and seller market, guy buys and woman sells.

Rejoice wrote:

Some of these guys knows he is not the only guy but yet send money..

I knew a guy who did that.
He met his wife in a bar, bought her services, started sending cash, married her, then sent a load of cash to her family.
Last I heard he was still doing it, but that was years ago, so he might have ditched her by now, or his money run out so she ditched him.

No clue, but he was very silly.

Fred wrote:

Rejoice wrote:

Some of these guys knows he is not the only guy but yet send money..

I knew a guy who did that.
He met his wife in a bar, bought her services, started sending cash, married her, then sent a load of cash to her family.
Last I heard he was still doing it, but that was years ago, so he might have ditched her by now, or his money run out so she ditched him.

No clue, but he was very silly.

Bapak,

He's not the only one as there are much more. There will be more to come too!

Some take from Peter to pay Paul.

There are joints whereby these girls go there to party & book young Thai guys.

I don't need to say more.

Quite a number became dead broke as they are retired and depend on their small pension or social security money.

They had sold their house back home and all money are gone in Thailand. They got no place to stay when they go back to their country.

Some are con by buying a business - restaurant; bar etc and it went bust in 4-6 months only.

Many are even con to buy thai products to sell in their country. They pay a high price for the products because not buying from direct source or paying high commission.

I noticed the women are very afraid and fear if the western guy talk in English to a foreign Asian men.

They must be doing something wrong for they fear the truth are reveal to the western men.

At times, I see the women dislike the western men knows too much and fluent in Thai language so that there are conversation which can hide from the men.

if you set everything up properly you will not get cheated.
people balk at paying a lawyer and then they loose everything
as they say her som nom nah - basically what goes around comes around

spend a few baht and protect your assets

And what about all the farang/thai couples who have no problems and are happy? They don't write to Expat.com because they have nothing to complain about!
A lot of Westerners do stupid things. Very often at a well frequented bar on Sukhumvit Soi 7, I have seen Westerners pay bill of 3-4000baht (because several thai ladies have eaten and drank alcool.)
One must realise that when Westerners spend extravagantly thai people cannot realise all the work they have done to attain that situation and might think Westerners are stupid people who spend money like water! And of course a bar is not the place to meet the right person if one wants to get married!
Some of these bad stories it is necessary know all the details and as cthierrymk said in the first story the wife would probably be the culprit.
In my dealings with thai people I have more an impression of honesty and being conscientious than cheating!

I have been now 9 times in Thailand and tomorrow I fly over there for another 4 weeks again.
Make my good experience and the not so good as well.
But never going over my financial limit as it comes to women. I'm realistic if it comes to my age and if I meet the right girl I enjoy every time I'm over there.
You must be really true blue and maybe stupid as well if you think that the lady's different then here in oz if it comes to being spoiled. But at least they are nice to look at an smiling all day long.
I live at my girls place incl. her family and I don't mind spoil them for one month~ about 30000 baht.
So what? Never give up my safety net in Australia I have paid my taxes too. Come back home for 3 month and of again! My old friend lives in the countryside (isaan) permanent and if it doesn't work out I have a place to stay for a few weeks incl. his motorbike ore we drive togeather with his car somewhere to enjoy our time togeather. What's wrong with you? If it hasn't work out here with your wife or partner ,what you expect in another country? Stop this complaining and don't be that stupid loosing the rest of your money what's left over from your disaster here in OZ.

the trick is that every legal document is in Thai and the unknowing person signs the documents in a trusting way and never thinks about it until they realise that they signed their assets away.
Always, if you dont understand get a translator or a trusted 3rd party to tell you what you are signing.

TonyST wrote:

And what about all the farang/thai couples who have no problems and are happy? They don't write to Expat.com because they have nothing to complain about!

No one is really complaining, just trying to advise the foolish to take care.

The resorts are full of really silly foreigners, commonly there for sex, but hardly a one with the first clue what they're actually spending in a bar, and no clue as to what the locals think of them.
All they see is the young girl who's willing to go to bed with them, but no thought as to why she would.
Been there, seen it, got out because I'm not that daft.
There goes all the holiday resorts aimed at foreigners, but the local getaway spots are fantastic.
I especially loved the south of Thailand near the Malaysian border. The place is stunningly beautiful and the people are real, not pros and gold diggers out to rip you off.

The BBC link above is a 50/50 problem that happens because the desperate and/or immoral see an easy mark in very silly western tourists who go there for what they can't get back home.

Just like to point out that the British foreign office advises only essential travel to the provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Songkhla, near the Malaysian border.

Fred I'm very interested in southern Thailand border, I moved to Khao Lak           ( couple hours north of Phuket). I just lived in Mexico for 5 years not worried about warnings from Britain. Mexico makes Thailand look like a theme park when it comes to corruption & violence ..how long were you there, what was rent, beaches. I beaches are hour away are they nice beaches? my email is ***. Thanks Fred

Texmex9696 wrote:

Fred I'm very interested in southern Thailand border, I moved to Khao Lak           ( couple hours north of Phuket). I just lived in Mexico for 5 years not worried about warnings from Britain. Mexico makes Thailand look like a theme park when it comes to corruption & violence ..how long were you there, what was rent, beaches. I beaches are hour away are they nice beaches? my email is xxx@ xxx. Thanks Fred

I wasn't there for more than a few days, but that was enough to see the amazing beauty of the place.
The various warnings are in place because there is a level of terrorism in the area that arose because of an extremely silly set of politicians many years ago, coupled with a minor attempt of religious/nationalistic incursion into the area that is still evident today.
You see things like jungle temples and retreats being 'guarded' by half asleep soldiers, but that's about as far as overt security went whilst I was there.
I'm not much of a fan of beaches, so I'm unable to comment on them.
I stuck to local tourist spots and wandering around where tourists don't go or know about, not the stuff aimed at foreigners.

I did notice the total lack of the mess we know goes on in the western tourist places, no bar girls hanging out of windows and no daft tourist prices or tuk tuk drivers as annoying as they are persistent in trying to destroy your holiday. That and no tourist rip off jobs.
Basically, it's lovely.

As a bit of historical irony, the Islamic terrorists/freedom fighters are living in the areas the previous communist terrorists/freedom fighter used to attack, whilst the new terrorists/freedom fighters attack places the old ones used to hide out. There goes the stupidity and pointlessness of extremist politics.

Added - I've just noticed you're an American. It is a fact some aspects of US foreign policy are unpopular, and that sadly means Americans are commonly targeted by silly extremist groups using the "All are the same" theory. The more extreme end of Islam tend to like attacking Americans without a lot of actual reason past stupidity, making you a target for any such groups in that area.

Not a political statement, just an observation.