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Mayor declares war on scamming Pattaya jet ski vendors


benny31

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Mayor declares war on scamming Pattaya jet ski vendors

 

After months of non-stop complaints about purported rip-offs, Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome personally warned Pattaya Beach jet ski vendors their “cards have been marked” and finally moved to write new laws to regulate their operation.

 

Making a surprise, plainclothes visit to Pattaya Beach last week, Itthiphol intercepted a number of the jet ski operators allegedly scamming tourists out of hundreds of thousands of baht weekly for non-existent damage to the water craft and served notice he’d had enough.

 

“I know your game and your cards have been marked,” Itthiphol, writing on his online Facebook page, said he told the jet ski vendors.

 

“I can tell you that they did get a bit of a shock as normally when we go out there is a large group and they can see us coming. But I just turned up in my (regular) clothes and asked them, ‘Why are you causing so many problems? What makes you think you can behave in this way? It’s not Thai and it’s not good,’” Itthiphol wrote.

 

Then, before jetting off to a large German travel fair, Itthiphol ordered Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh to assemble marine police, water sports business owners and others to debut proposed regulations aimed at reigning in the jet ski and related operators.

 

The rules call for establishment of a commission that will determine costs for jet ski damage and service disputes with other boat operators, city registration of all vendors, and the opening of 24-hour “tourist service centers” where disputes can be settled.

 

Itthiphol’s intent is to keep police out of the disputes, as both national and tourist police officers have been caught on video and in photos helping jet ski vendors extort as much as 300,000 baht a week, according to several witnesses.

 

“(There will be) more to come next week as we have more investigations and implement our plan for keeping police out of any negotiations,” Itthiphol assured readers to his Facebook page.

 

Itthiphol took pains to make clear, however, that he believes only a few corrupt officers are involved.

 

At the March 11 meeting, Ronakit said if the city finds a damage settlement has been made without the commission’s involvement it will be considered a “serious infringement” that can lead to cancellation of vendor’s license, banishment from the waterfront or jail time.

 

The regulations, however, must first be approved by Banglamung District and Chonburi Province.

 

Itthiphol has been inundated with complaints from non-Thais about the jet ski problem since a Pattaya Mail special correspondent posted videos and links to reports of the scams to his Facebook page earlier this year.

 

Since then, dozens of new reports, photos and movies have been added, all showing the same thing: Jet ski vendors are systematically targeting mostly non-Western tourists, demanding tens of thousands of baht by falsely claiming they damaged the boats. And, photos show, they are getting a handful of corrupt police officers and non-Thai “interpreters” to help them.

 

The outcry has since spread from the social networking website to independent blogs and even newspaper reports in England, Australia and Europe.

 

Rather than rely on police, Itthiphol has recruited help online, encouraging people to send him photos, videos, news stories and first-hand reports about scams and who is involved. Among those identified assisting the scams are a tailor near Walking Street and officers from the Pattaya Police Station and Tourist Police.

 

“I (have) met with the police and asked them to move quickly on the video evidence and look for ways to cause these people problems if they want to operate like this,” Itthiphol wrote online. “You may have reservations about the police but there are some good ones and I know who they are. I informed them this is causing both the City and me a bad name.”

 

Not delegating the Facebook page to assistants, Itthiphol responds personally to comments about jet skis and other matters at Facebook.com/PattayaFuture.

 

Source - Pattayamail

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The jetski operators aren't answerable to anyone,there not insured, licensed or even registered Business's.

 

So either get rid of jetski's off the beach all together, that would save alot of headaches, and reduce annoying Noise Pollution.....or reduce the amount of operators to one/two for the whole beach that are Licensed/insured and registered Business's.....

"You only get two pieces of ass in your life. Your first and your last." Everything in between is extra gravy and I love extra gravy.

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Its a good initiave but lets see how this one goes, there are too many influences with the vendors and the police so it wont be stopped easily, doesnt matter if its the mayor because who has the real power in Pattaya..

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Will be interesting to see if anything good comes of this initiative. Personally i'll keep to the land side of the coconut bar - not one of the Jet ski operators can be trusted IMO.

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The scam's been on going for decades I doubt it will go away.

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Sounds like a load of PR crap so people will think somethings being done. Will be interesting to see whats changed if anything in the coming months

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It's high time something was done to regulate the whole industry . I still wouldn't use them .it's too much of a risk

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  • 1 month later...

lATE REPLY

Did post an experience we had on our last trip regarding being scammed in the same manner.

28000 baht was the hit .Worrying though was the offer or demand to forgo cash for sex with some of those in our party,most likely not many young women tourists go near the jet ski's ,but you can imagine there situation should they not have the money being demanded, no less than rape i would say.

No saying of course they would soley target young women.

ROD THE SOD

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Yea as mentioned before same sort of B.S. was done in Phuket a few years ago. You know, all the hand wringing, the "soul searching," big bold talks about dealing with the jet ski scam.

 

But, you guessed it, they're as strong as ever, the jet ski scammers, in Phuket.

 

If I go there this summer they'll still be there. And the year after, and as long as Pattaya exists.

GFE: Gull Friend Experience

 

Official Pattaya Song

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What again!!...seems like the Mayor is always declaring war against these scammers. It's all bulls**t.

 

He's probably get a kickback from them..... :D

TALIA

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