I'm bemused by a nice little scam happening everyday in BKK
It's not really a scam that hurts individuals ... but somebody is being stung. Read on.
It concerns the Chao Phraya river ferries. Every time I visit BKK I enjoy travelling up the river on the public ferry. Not the Tourist Ferry ... which is a different scam that rips off visitors that don't know the alternatives ... but the Public Ferry with the orange flag on top.
Standard fare is 15 baht, regardless of whether you travel one stop, or the entire length of the river ... 30 odd stops.
Fares are collected on board by an official ticket seller, who has a little leather bag money bag and a ticket dispensing machine around her waist.
She wanders through the crowded ferry and collects 15 baht from all new passengers whilst the ferry is in motion to the next stop.
Thing is ... she only randomly issues a ticket. Nobody seems to care that they have paid 15 baht, but no ticket is given. I've never seen anyone inspecting tickets, or collecting them at the destination, so I suppose why would anyone care.
Meanwhile ... the ticket seller is busily collecting money from perhaps 1000 passengers, and only issueing maybe 700 tickets during the day.
At the end of her shift, presumeably she only has to account for 700 ticket sales to her boss, and there is no possible way of knowing just how many other lots of 15 baht she has collected.
She's collected 1000 x 15 baht. She's given her boss 700 x 15 baht.
Do the maths ... and you will see that it's a really nice little earner for her. Day after day after day.
I've watched them do this, and it's much more prevelent on really crowded ferries, where the seller pushes quickly through the crowd, busily collecting 15 baht from everybody, but rarely pausing to issue a ticket.
I asked for a ticket once .... received a ticket ok, along with the "stupid farang" filthy scowl. 5555
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I mentioned the Tourist Ferry scam. Everyday hordes of visitors assemble at Sathorn Central Pier in BKK, waiting to catch a ferry 20mins upstream to Grand Palace.
(Sathorn ... this is where the 2nd bomb exploded in the canal recently)
Everywhere at this pier, there are big signs in English directing visitors to the Tourist Ferry queue. 100 baht fare to the Grand Palace.
Inevitably, it's a long queue, and visitors happily join this queue. I did the first time in BKK also.
15m from the farang Tourist Ferry queue, there are always a few dozen locals hanging around waiting for other ferries. One of these other ferries is the public ferry with the orange flag on top.
Fare to the Grand Palace on the public ferry ? ..... 15 baht
No English signboards anywhere to be seen indicating this cheap alternative to the Grand Palace. 555555555 It's a beaut scam.
Gotta love it.
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