Phuket Jet-Ski Scams

Phuket Jet-Ski Scams: Aussies to Screen Official YouTube Video Warning Soon

By Alan Morison
Friday, August 19, 2011


PHUKET: Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is making a video warning travellers about Phuket's jet-ski scammers and it will be posted on the Internet soon.

Footage for the video was shot on Patong beach by Australian Embassy officials earlier this month and is now being processed in Australia.

Release of the video on YouTube will highlight lack of action by Phuket authorities to halt the jet-ski scams.

Good jet-ski operators on Phuket are now likely to suffer a loss of business with the rogue operators, who mostly work Patong beach, Phuket's best-known west coast destination.

Even the Tourism Authority of Thailand has recently reported in a news release the rising number of complaints from tourists who have been ripped off or threatened by jet-ski thugs in Phuket and Pattaya.

Despite years of plain-speaking by envoys from Australia, China, Britain, Korea, and other key tourism markets, the Australians are now being forced to act to save travellers from the thugs of Patong beach.

Release of the Australian video will be interpreted on Phuket and in government circles in Bangkok as an international indictment of the lack of action by Phuket authorities.

Australia's honorary consul for Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi, Larry Cunningham, said today that online travel forums were now full of reports by travellers on how they had been ripped off by ''the jet-ski mafia'' on Phuket.

Mr Cunningham, who has been interviewed for the video, said: ''Reports of the scams by jet-ski operators on Phuket just keep coming. The rip-offs have proved so lucrative that motorcycle hirers on Phuket are now trying the same scam.''

Several scams based on different scenarios are employed by jet-ski operators but the most obvious one involves pre-existing damage that is only spotted by the operator when the tourist returns the vehicle.

''Motorcycle hirers in Patong have tried this twice recently,'' Mr Cunningham said. ''Scratches on the underside of the motorcycle are only revealed when the renter returns it.

'''You've been using this off-road,' they say. Extra money is demanded.''

Mr Cunningham said there had also been two recent cases where motorcycle hirers had used duplicate keys to make off with motorcycles at night, demanding the full cost of a replacement vehicle from tourists.

''Most people who come to Phuket for a holiday have a great time,'' Mr Cunningham said. ''But it's upsetting that nothing is being done to deal with the dark side.

''I can't tell you how disturbing it is to have visitors robbed, threatened by the jet-ski gangs and sometimes reduced to tears in these incidents.

''The scamming on Phuket has been raised repeatedly. The rip-offs continue.''

Jet-skis and the high fares of tuk-tuks are likely to again be items on the agenda when Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha meets with Phuket's honorary consuls on August 31.

Both issues have been discussed at length without resolution since the first of the innovative quarterly ''summit'' meetings on Phuket early last year.


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