Thais may get peed off with my writing here but this was told to me by my close friend. Her brother and family went to Bangkok for a holiday last month and on their way home bought something at the airport. After they left the cashier's counter, an airport guard approached them to check their purchases and that's when the horror started. They found an item ( can't remember what) that they didn't buy and suspected that it was planted in the shopping bags by most likely the counter people. He was detained and despite their pleadings and their friends' ( had Thai friends), was locked up. A few in the chain of 'arrest to being charged' demanded money, something like 10k Sing dollars. They would have paid if they had the money, all they wanted to do was leave. Then after a few days, he was taken to court and the judge charged him 2000 baht or something miniscule!!!

According to the brother, there were other non-Thais who were in his predicament and for some reason were not taken to court even after 2 months in gaol.

When I was living in the US, I would have been scammed many times if I was not renting a room from an American woman who wised me up to it. They see our foreign names in the phone book.

Just a reminder to anyone travelling (anywhere), watch like a hawk when you pay things, not just painful cases like this but being overcharged, things swapped or missing. Tourists are easy targets.