Written on April 30, 2002

To the editor:

Dear Sir:

We wish to thank you for the coverage provided in your newspaper regarding the jewellery industry and jewellery scams in Thailand. The attention and debate generated by your coverage can only be a positive to this situation.

However, we feel it necessary to clarify some points of information to your readers.

1) The assertion that there are printed warnings is only partially true. Most of the warnings are inside the Tourist Police office (too late) or, as your article stated, inside the Wat Pho. Tourists who are interecepted before reaching the Wat Pho will miss this warning altogether, as they are told the Wat Pho is closed for one of Thailand's numerous holidays.

What is correct is that there is a warning posted on the window of the Tourist Information office near Khao San Road. Sadly, every time one of the helpful employees slides open the window to talk to a tourist, they inadvertently block out the gem scam warning.

In all cases, the warnings are only in English, which is little comfort to our members who do not speak English.

2) As your article points out, there are warnings about the scam posted on the Internet. However, these warnings, like the TAT ones, only tell you to be wary of gem scams. They fail to explain how a gem scam works and what signs to look for. Our website shows the stories told to our members, so that other tourists can recognize the scam as it happens.

3) The warnings themselves address the issue of tourists wanting to buy jewellery. None of our members had any intention of buying jewellery when we arrived, so most of us aren't even aware of Gemfest. In any event, the proliferation of fake ID in Thailand renders any such scheme easily counterfeited.

4) The Tourist Police are, in our group's experience, unreliable. The information given by the Tourist Police has varied wildly amongst our members, with a few reporting fast, efficient service that allows a quick recovery of their money, while most report outright lies designed to stall and discourage the victim from even attempting to get their money back. Our group has identifed certain officers of the Tourist Police who we suspect of collaboration with the jewellery stores, and complaints are being filed with the Royal Thai Police.

5) With all due respect to Pol Maj-Gen Sanit Miphan, we have yet to see any active effort from the Tourist Police in investigating our complaints. Many members report being told that the Tourist Police can not even send out officers to escort tourists back to the shop, and as documented in our April 19 Press Release, two officers abandoned a group of 7 tourists in front of a gem shop, where the group was promptly attacked by the "staff" of the jewellery shop. Indeed, none of our group members can ever recall having seen the Tourist Police do any of the actions described by Pol Maj-Gen Sanit.

As for Mr. Cook's letter in the Postbag of April 28, the only thing on display there is his complete lack of knowledge regarding the scam itself. We were not told we could avoid paying the export tax, we were told there was a special tax holiday in a bid to promote tourism in Thailand. Indeed, the main pitch used by the con men is that we are helping Thailand's economy by promoting tourism and that we should tell all of our friends about this tourist incentive. One couple even reported being told that a portion of the proceeds would go to a scholarship fund for Thai students.

The entire scam rests on assurances that everything is legal, making Mr. Cook's comparison to opium purchasing nothing more than a cheap shot. The TAT warnings talk about tuk tuk drivers taking you to a jewellery store, not an old man talking about the 1997 Asian economic crisis, the monk ushering a tourist into a meditating area where an accomplice awaits, or the 10 year old boy telling you the Wat Pho is closed for Songkran.

We do not, as Mr. Cook states, "spend (our) valuable holiday time looking for a way to exploit people less financially fortunate than themselves". It is the conmen who look for ways to exploit tourists who do not speak the local language or understand local customs. Tuk tuk drivers have hijacked our members from their intended destinations to take us on special "temple tours" where accomplices are ready to act out a series of coincidences and lies to allay our suspicions.

It is precisely for that reason that our Group has set up a website to give tourists the warnings they need, and the steps required for recovering their money. It is also why we are drafting a series of proposals that will reduce the incidence of this scam. The problem is easily solved by the Thai authorities and has been done before, most recently in the 3 months following the April 2001 elections; however, with up to $US100 million of money taken from unsuspecting tourists each year from this scam, only Mr. Cook would fail to see why this scam is allowed to continue.

Contact: thaigemscamgroup@yahoo.com


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