Thailand Vietnam and Colombia Stories of Scams and Jealousy

Story 1: The Big Show in Colombia and a Police Scare

My buddy Mike and I decided to go back to Colombia after taking a break for a few years. We rented a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment with Jacuzzi tub in a top hotel the Beverly Hills of Colombia. A month before our trip, we had primed the pump by creating a Facebook profile featuring Victoria’s Secret gifts and Pinnacle Whipped Cream flavored vodka. The girls absolutely loved it to the point where they were willing to fight over who would get to come over.

We always announced that the “Big Show“ was coming to generate a large crowd of ladies asking for invites. Sometimes we even printed T-shirts saying “The Big Show.” We brought Victoria’s Secret gifts 10 to 13 gift bags for the lucky ladies who received the invite. We had found that the girls would perform at 100% if they knew the bonus for a top shelf girlfriend experience depended on it.

Well, the party was rolling hard: three guys and about seven girls, all having a great time. Music, laughter, and people rotating in and out of bedrooms with a different girl every 30 to 40 minutes.

My friend Felix was at the party too. He worked on top of the mountain “maked powdered sugar” he was fun, nice, and in upper management at his job. The music got loud, and a drunk girl started saying “Mr. Felix” over and over, louder and louder. Felix had gone into a bedroom with his date.

Colombian Police Knock on the Hotel Door

Then we got a knock at the door. Two young policemen stood there. They accused us of drugging the lady, and they didn’t look happy. My buddy Mike, who was fluent in Spanish, told them no, she had shown up acting silly. The police started to say, “You’ll have to come down to the station and talk to the captain.” Mike always panicked under pressure. They then mentioned they could write us a ticket to settle the matter right there and then. It’s always about the money.

I simply said, “Wait one moment.” I knocked on Felix’s bedroom door. “I hate to interrupt, but…” Felix came out and looked at the young policeman. They said, “I think you all need to come to see the captain at the police station.” Felix raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you mean Captain Ramos?”

The officers looked at him nervously. They asked Felix his full name. He told them. Panic spread across their faces like they had seen the Devil himself. I had never seen a Colombian turn white as a ghost before, but they did. “No problem here,” they muttered before quickly exiting. Once outside the door, they broke into a slow jog as I left no kidding.

I turned to Felix. “What was that about?” He smirked. “When I was young, I wasn’t a very nice man.” We all laughed, turned the music back up, and kept the party going.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, but in Colombia, always have one of the mountain boys with you.

Story 2: The Gambling Scam in Saigon and a Narrow Escape

I am a 65-year-old living in Brisbane, Australia. After a tyrannical six months at work in 2004, I decided to take a five-week break from mid November in Vietnam. I had never spent more than a quick business trip in Southeast Asia prior to this. My original and long-term preference was to go to Thailand, but I have always been impressed with the intelligence and work ethic of the Vietnamese I know in Australia, and I also had a commercial interest in Vietnam.

I wanted a low-key trip where I focused on rest and healthy eating: no drinking, no expensive restaurants, no constant gallivanting around the country. I had decided to spend 4 days in Saigon, then fly to Da Nang to stay near the beach for 4 weeks.

This all went very well. I thoroughly enjoyed the people I met and got rest at the same time. I particularly became a fan of the Da Nang massage spa, where the girls were serious masseuses with world class skill sets. This was not a happy ending spa; those girls could make a fortune in wealthy enclaves around the world; their techniques were that good.

Now, on the last day of the trip, I was back in Saigon staying in the same boutique apartment complex as when I arrived. This was in the popular tourist area of District 1, across the road from Saigon Central Park.

On the second-to-last morning, I was in Central Park early doing my exercise routine involving balance and stretching movements. I was wearing stretch hospital scrubs for comfort, and there were many others in the park doing their own thing.

Eventually, a well-dressed, brown-skinned man took an interest in what I was doing. He kept watching me for a few minutes. Eventually I stopped and made eye contact with him. He asked me what exercise I was doing, and I explained that it was optimized for its anti aging effects. We talked a little about it, and then Joey his name commented on my scrubs. I explained that I was a health professional from Australia. He asked where, and I said Brisbane.

Joey’s Story About His Daughter in Brisbane

He was so excited. He explained that his daughter had just finished her nursing studies in the Philippines and had secured a job in a Brisbane hospital. I was happy for him, and we marveled at the coincidence. I asked what he was doing in Saigon. He said he and his daughter had come to visit his sick mother, who lived in her wealthy second son’s home. Joey explained that the main reason for the visit was to get her blessing and approval for his daughter’s move to Brisbane. His mother was against her granddaughter going to Australia for work because she had heard it was racist and becoming more violent.

He asked me my views on this, and I explained that most hospital and aged care staff are migrants these days, and even though there might be a little racism, it was certainly not the norm. I reassured him that it would be a very good decision for his daughter to go there, as she would learn more in Australia than through any other option she had.

Joey then asked gently if I might be able to help his family by meeting his mother to explain the conditions in Australia. He said his mother had hospital appointments in Saigon that morning but would be back at the house by 10:00 a.m. He said the house was only 15 minutes away and he could take me there by taxi and pay for a taxi to bring me back to the park.

I thought about it for a moment and said yes, I would be happy to meet her. That would be my good deed for the day.

Joey was a well dressed Filipino with a respectable look to him. Soon his cheery 20-something Filipino niece joined in, and after talking with her for a few minutes, I was even more at ease with these people. Their story rang true. Joey’s niece wore a necklace with a Christian cross on it, and both were respectably dressed and of pleasing appearance. (By the way, the daughter was with her grandmother at the hospital.)

So off we went in a taxi to the brother’s house. It was a well-built, substantial home in a nice suburb with lots of trees, wide streets, and little traffic. The house looked reasonably new and of high quality construction expensive blockwork on the exterior, craftsman quality marble tile floors throughout, and high ceilings.

Waiting for Joey’s Mother at the Saigon Home

We went in and were greeted by a cheery middle-aged lady who was cooking up a traditional Filipino meal for brunch later. They said I was welcome to stay for the meal. We sat around in the kitchen talking for 20 minutes about the situation. It all felt so natural and nice.

I was wondering when I was going to meet Joey’s mother and asked Joey. So he phoned his daughter again, and she advised that the hospital was running behind schedule and they might not be back at the house until lunchtime. They again asked me to stay for brunch. The cook kept bringing me small bowls from the pot to try. It wasn’t really my type of food, but it was tasty enough.

I had been there for around 40 minutes when Joey’s brother Ken who owned the house came downstairs. He was a striking man very healthy and handsome looking, dressed in smart casual clothes and adorned in gold. He had a strong presence and the confident air of someone worldly and used to getting what he wants.

Ken was immediately interested in me, and we talked about the meeting in the park that morning and my agreement to help out Joey’s daughter by talking with Joey’s mother. Ken was very grateful and appreciative of the situation.

I was interested in Ken and how he came to be living in Saigon. He readily told me his life story briefly: he was a senior croupier and manager at one of the large casinos in Macau, specializing in blackjack. He also trained young croupiers and was part of an international professional association. He claimed to know many influential casino owners and wealthy gamblers.

Ken’s High-Stakes Blackjack Proposal

He said he managed private high-stakes blackjack games for ultra-wealthy players, receiving 10% of the pot. He told me that three of the four players had already delivered $1 million each to him in cash stored in his safe, and the fourth Mr. Pong, a billionaire industrialist from Brunei was arriving that afternoon to deliver his stake.

Ken then began explaining that Mr. Pong had shorted him on his fees in past games, paying him only 5% instead of the arranged 10%. He said he had been waiting for an opportunity to correct this. Ken then excitedly suggested that since he had just trained me in card manipulation, I should play against Mr. Pong in the upcoming game with Ken ensuring I would win, thus reclaiming the money Pong owed him. He offered me $220,000 for my trouble.

At this point, alarm bells were ringing. There was no way I would scam a Brunei billionaire. I declined firmly. Ken kept pushing me, but I stood my ground.

When Mr. Pong arrived, I was surprised at how frail and unassuming he was. Ken took him upstairs, and I excused myself. Joey ordered a taxi to take me back to Central Park but before I left, he asked if I wanted to donate to Ken’s charity for poor children in Saigon associated with the Catholic church. He showed me a brochure, and I left a 1 million Dong donation in a box before my taxi arrived. I said my goodbyes and left.

Realising I Had Escaped a Saigon Gambling Scam

On the way back in the taxi, I was still processing what had happened. I wasn’t sure if I had just missed out on an easy 10% cut of a sting, or if I had narrowly escaped a much darker scam.

Only later, after hearing about similar cons, did I realize I was likely the intended victim. The elaborate setup, the slow build of trust, and the high-stakes scenario had drawn me in deeply. But in hindsight, I was naive to believe Joey’s story and even more reckless to go with them to a random house. Looking back, I realized that Ken was the mastermind, and anyone willing to go to such lengths was likely a dangerous character. I consider myself lucky to have walked away unharmed both financially and physically.

Story 3: The Three-Day Rule and Sam from ThaiFriendly

I have traveled to Pattaya six times and will say some words about some of my trips and exploits worth mentioning.

I’m a 62-year-old and work in aged care, looking after the elderly. Pattaya is an escape from reality for me. At the age of 21, I had a severe motorcycle accident with damage to both legs and had several knee surgeries on one leg and ankle surgery on the other leg. I put in a lot of hard work over the years, and if wearing jeans or trousers, no one would notice. Likewise, if I wear knee-length shorts and have tanned legs, my injuries are not noticeable.

After my accident, it took me years to get going again mainly because most people who I knew before the accident didn’t want anything to do with me because of this. I managed to become a reasonable player, and after the accident, through sheer determination and gym work, I also learned to water ski. I developed what I refer to as a “sixth sense” whereby I can sense women from early on and hence have never married. I can sense early on if something is not right.

For years, I wanted to go for a holiday where I would be in the pool, have umbrella drinks, then go into the sea and back to the pool. But due to my leg issues, I never got around to this holiday. I also focused on buying stereo equipment, guitars, and amplifiers.

June 2012, I was finally ready to go for this holiday but I realized that my dream holiday of the pool to the sea and back again would be in resorts that are away from the single scene and orientated towards married couples, boyfriends and girlfriends, and the like.

A friend I know from China told me that she’d been to Thailand twice and mentioned it was great. So in July 2012, I did a Google search for holidays in Thailand for single people and up came a website. This website at the time was great detail in every city mentioned along with resort star ratings. Up came Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, and Pattaya.

Choosing Pattaya for a Solo Thailand Holiday

I knew Bangkok would be humid and smoggy. Phuket had photos of jet skis and water skiing which I had previously done and it looked quite interesting. Chiang Mai had photos of people riding elephants (and I think elephants should be free to roam around the jungles). Pattaya seemed middle of the road, so I chose Pattaya not knowing at this time that Pattaya had a reputation as an adult playground. Even after going there several times, I still don’t, for some reason.

I knew that I’d have to stay in at least a four-star resort I can’t remember if someone told me or I just knew. I read about four-star “guest friendly” hotels, whereby you can take someone back for the night. Working in aged care in Australia is at the lower end of the salaries, but I’m not a money oriented person.

I had some trepidation about going to Thailand because I used to see these stories about tourists getting injured in fights or doing stupid things such as jumping off the balcony into their resort pool and leaving their brains at the airport. From October 2012 up to departing in February, I did a lot of reading and research on the internet about Pattaya and was surprised by what I was reading. With all of this reading, research, and awareness, it never prepares for what happens when faced with attractive bar girls or go-go girls.

I also read up on clothing what to and not to wear when going out at night. Prior to departure, I exchanged Australian dollars for Thai baht and took about 5,000 Thai baht in case the ATMs were closed such as what happens where I live in Australia very often.

I’m on my flight into Thailand and was asked by two fellow Australian males who I was sitting between where I was going to in Thailand, of which I replied Pattaya. They told me, “Even though you’re going alone, you will have a lot of fun in Pattaya.” To say I was a little excited is an understatement.

I arrived in Bangkok at 6:00 a.m., found a taxi, and headed off to Pattaya.

Breaking the Three-Day Rule with a Pattaya Bar Girl

On the first night in Pattaya, I did what most people do: I spent the evening just walking around and exploring the bar scene. On the second night, I did see a girl that I liked working in one of the bars, and I spent a very pleasant night with her back at the hotel. On the third night, I hit Walking Street again and bar-fined another girl and did not see her again after the morning.

Now things changed on the fourth night. I hit Walking Street again, and I went to a great go-go bar that I had read about. Here I met a beautiful, tall, long-haired Thai girl. I saw her dancing and wanted to get her off the stage as every man was looking at her. She was stunning. Eventually she came off stage, and I was lucky enough to get her attention and buy her a few drinks. She asked if she could go with me. She got changed, and we played pool and took in a band at another bar, then back to the resort.

Being with her was just like wearing a glove: it all fitted. Although she was working, she came across as a very pleasant girl. She didn’t try to extract more money from me than the agreed bar fine price. The rates for a girl’s company both short time and long time were much more reasonable back then, and of course the rates were better.

I broke the three day rule which I had no idea about at the time but you either click with someone or you don’t, and I’d rather be with someone I click with than someone I don’t. I saw her continually for 5 days. She came to my hotel around 6:00 p.m., we’d have a drink downstairs, go and have dinner somewhere nice, and then generally go and listen to some live music and play pool in one of two other bars.

Returning to Pattaya and Ending the Bar Girl Relationship

After my vacation was over and I returned to Australia, I tried calling her a few times, but it was difficult probably because she was working. When I eventually got through to her, she wasn’t exactly thrilled to hear from me. I put this down to tiredness.

I arranged another holiday 15 months later, and she stayed with me for 10 or 14 days; I can’t quite remember because it was back in 2013. I wanted to see what type of a person she was and if worthwhile continuing to see her as perhaps more than just friends, as in all honesty I really did like her. If I was going to see her on a long term basis, I was not prepared to see her as simply a customer. I had to pay her bar fine every day and her daily rate which came to quite a lot of money for someone who was on a low-end salary job like me.

I wanted to test the waters and see what kind of a person she really was. On the last morning before I left, I explained to her that I don’t think I should have to pay for the previous night as I had taken her out of the bar for so long I paid for all her drinks, meals, little presents, and everything else and explained that if she was a reasonable person, she would agree to not taking money off me for the final night.

Of course, a Pattaya bar girl, she didn’t agree to my proposal and fumed, stormed out of the room in a bad mood, and slammed the door behind her. I felt a little bad and rushed down in the elevator to pay her her 3,000 baht but on exiting the hotel, I saw her speeding away on her scooter. That was the last time I ever saw her. So much for reasonable proposals.

I tried to contact her again when I was back in Australia as I felt perhaps I’d been a little unfair and I wanted to send her the money, but she never answered any of my calls. Looking back on it now, and with much more experience, I realized it was purely a transactional relationship. But it still amazes me how two people can be so close and have so much fun together when really it’s just about the money. Perhaps this is why so many guys fall for bar girls in Thailand they are very skillful at playing the game.

Meeting Sam Through ThaiFriendly

This was my second Pattaya trip, and other post trips went along without a hitch. Once again I broke the three day rule. I met some nice women who I spent time with. On one of my Pattaya trips, I thought I would try the ThaiFriendly website. I met a girl online. She arrived at the resort on her scooter, took off her helmet, and looked like she just stepped out of a beauty salon or magazine. She told me her name was Sam not a very Thai name, but perhaps one of her earlier customers had renamed her just for fun.

At first I thought she was a ladyboy, but she turned out to be a real girl, very beautiful. I remember we took a stroll along Walking Street, and I’m looking at her thinking I haven’t seen any other girls dressed so nicely, with her hair done so neatly. She really did stand out from the bar girls.

I broke the three day rule again, and as Sam was a really nice person to be with and really good fun, I thought about bringing Sam to Australia for a while to see if she liked it as I really enjoyed her company. So I went to see an immigration lawyer in Australia. To be honest, I nearly fell off my seat when he told me what was involved in bringing a girl from Thailand to Australia. She has to have very good proof that she has a reason to go back to Thailand such as a job. Apparently, a lot of Thai girls who are brought over to Australia by foreign men run off and overstay their visa, normally ending up working in a massage parlor or a Thai restaurant or something similar.

So back to Sam. It was now late May, early June, and on the third night while having dinner at the restaurant, she told me some interesting information. As she sounded so convincing, I actually believed her. Sam said she arrived in Pattaya at this time last year with nothing but the shirt on her back to get away from her abusive husband. She went on to tell me that she started off working as a cleaner in the Frog Bar at the end of Walking Street. She told me she used to sleep on the floor of the bar and drink water from the tap. I know it sounds unbelievable, but that’s what she actually told me. She also explained this is where she learned to drink alcohol because at the Frog Bar, customers presumed she was a bar girl and bought her drinks.

Apparently one morning the owner of the bar, a female, came in early and asked Sam what she was doing sleeping on the floor. Sam explained that she had nowhere else to go. The owner said, “You should have told me.” The owner then set her up in a small room in Pattaya not far from the bar.

In Australia, we are brought up to normally believe what the other person is telling us is true. Perhaps this is the reason I believed everything Sam was telling me at the time. I know it sounds really crazy as I’m writing this, but I did really believe everything she told me.

Sending Money and Questioning Sam’s 15-Hour Gaps

I stayed with Sam for all of my holiday, but I was running low on money so on my last night, I just had enough to get back to the airport and get a snack. I promised her I’d send her money when I got back to Australia and good to my word, I sent her 5,000 baht by bank transfer when I was back in Melbourne.

I called Sam using FaceTime. She had cried when I left Pattaya, and she was crying again on the phone. It was so sad to see her crying like this. Remember, I told you I had gone to see an immigration lawyer about bringing a Thai woman to Australia. Well, this is where my story gets interesting.

Sam and I used to talk every day. I used to work night shifts, so the time corresponded when we could both talk at the same time. Something that would be odd was that we would be talking deep in conversation when she would suddenly snap and say, “I must go to bed now” and she would hang up. This became a pattern, and she would disappear for around 15 hours, promising to call me as soon as she woke up. I thought, who needs to sleep for 15 hours? By coincidence, the time that she used to say she had to sleep and hang up was the same time that she would normally leave my hotel room in Thailand. My best guess is she had a certain time frame to talk to different guys where she would put on a sob story and try to extract as much money as she could during those phone sessions with different guys.

The immigration lawyer wanted to review my text conversations with Sam to verify that everything was genuine. He was particularly suspicious of the recurring 15 hour gaps in communication.

One day I had a strange experience with Sam. My phone rang, and when I answered, I saw her visibly crying. The moment she saw me, she immediately hung up. Confused, I texted her asking why she was crying, and she responded, “Because you won’t talk to me online.” However, it was she who had been avoiding talking to me for 15 hours at a time, and she clearly didn’t like being questioned about it.

Discovering the Truth About Sam’s Life in France

I had her number saved on my phone, and one day Facebook suggested her as a friend under “People You May Know.” Out of curiosity, I clicked on her profile and was shocked to see that her listed location was in France, not Thailand. Further, I discovered that she had been in a relationship with a man from France, and there were photos of her in France with him and I think his parents. It became clear that he must have flown her there. And the most unbelievable part was the timing exactly a year earlier, when Sam had told me she arrived in Pattaya with nothing but the shirt on her back, sleeping on the floor in the bar, she had actually been in France not struggling in Pattaya as she had claimed. Around that same time, I also found photos of her working as a vendor at a shop selling fruit running what appeared to be her own fruit stand.

That revelation was a turning point for me. Looking back, it was moments like these that shaped my experiences in Thailand and my understanding of the reality behind some of the encounters I had there.

Story 4: The Jealous Bar Girl and a Chase in Phuket

I’m an executive at one of East Africa’s major airlines, and my job involves fixing accommodation and travel arrangements you could say I’m a glorified concierge.

My story begins when I was in Phuket for a small conference that was hosted to entertain executives from smaller airlines in neighboring countries. The conference went well. Everyone went home, and I decided to take a few days off in Phuket to relax after a week of attending to my guests.

That’s when I called Om. Om is a girl I met in Bangkok a few years back, and I’ve been seeing her on and off since. My airline allows me to travel anywhere we operate outside of business trips twice a year, and I usually choose to visit Thailand three to four times a year the food is great, the weather is fantastic, and the women are beautiful with no judgment or discrimination as long as you have money. I can’t say the same about women in Dubai or most countries in Europe, including Turkey.

Om is from Isaan in northern Thailand. She has an ex-husband who took their only son to Australia, and she has been fighting to get him back. I met her during a low point in her life, and we had a great conversation. The aerobics were out of this world remember, I came from a country where women are so conservative that they’ll remind you that the mouth is for eating (if you know what I mean).

I booked her a flight to Phuket so we could spend time together before I flew back home. When I met her at the airport, she looked like the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. She was wearing a white and green sundress that looked like it was made for her. She came running and gave me a hug like no one ever had before. We went to my hotel and the aerobics were amazing. Afterwards, we went out for dinner, had some drinks, and enjoyed what Phuket had to offer.

That’s when things started to change.

Om Becomes Jealous During a Night Out in Phuket

I had spent the past week entertaining airline executives, many of whom didn’t even speak English covering their bills and making sure they were taken care of. Now I wanted to relax. Everywhere we went, I got more attention than she did which started to get on her nerves. To this day, I still think she was the most beautiful woman I had ever been with or even wanted to be with but I have to admit, I’m a sucker for attention.

Things escalated when we went to a live band bar. I bought a beer for the singer who was performing a Thai song I didn’t even understand and that was the final straw for Om. She said she wanted to leave. I asked where, but she just said she wanted to go and demanded her bag from the hotel room. At this point, I was tipsy, enjoying my evening, and I wanted to keep having a good time. Hearing this from her was disappointing.

She looked visibly upset and started getting aggressive and a bit violent. I sobered up quickly and asked what she wanted. She said all she wanted was her bag, which was still in the hotel room. I got a taxi back to the hotel. We walked up to the second floor where our room was, and I handed her backpack to her. She left immediately. By the time I caught up with her, she was at the reception collecting her ID. I gave her 7,000 baht which was what I had planned to give her at the end of the second day and asked if that was enough. She didn’t say anything and just left.

Determined not to waste my night, I started talking to freelancers as soon as I stepped out of my hotel. Not long after, I heard a loud woman’s voice. I turned around it was her. At that moment, I was determined to get away as quickly as possible, so I kept walking. She was still there. Believe it or not, I started running. She kept up. Then she started throwing rocks at me.

Eventually, I was stopped by a Thai police officer who asked me why I was running. I explained that we had a fallout and she had been chasing me. I also mentioned that she was throwing rocks, and I was afraid she might hit someone which I didn’t want on my conscience. The police questioned her, and she claimed that she had left her phone in my hotel room and needed it back. Although I knew their request was more of a courtesy, they asked if I was willing to let her retrieve it so I agreed. Apparently, she had dropped a cheap knockoff phone behind the bed which I hadn’t even noticed.

On her way out, as she was being escorted by the police and hotel security, she threatened to tell my wife about all our encounters. She even said she was going to send my wife a picture of us together.

Monitoring My Wife’s Facebook After Om’s Threat

To this day, God forgive me, I monitor my wife’s Facebook account, and as far as I know, there have been no friend requests or messages from Om.

Learn from me: enjoy the moment, but don’t get caught up with it. The girl you spent last summer with, don’t give her important information. And most of all, don’t be too popular.