The sharper edge to traveling in Asia

6 Tips to avoid being drugged & robbed Thai street women

Written By: herbrunbridge - Sep• 08•10

When drinking with a street lady, watch your assets, not hers

Judging by news stories and interviews with a number of individuals conducted by WoWasis researchers, the practice of Thai street ladies meeting a man on the street, accompanying him to his hotel room, drugging him, then robbing him while unconscious, is rampant.

In each case, the process is identical. While in the man’s room, the woman puts crushed sleeping pills into the man’s drink while he isn’t looking. Several sips later, he’s passed out for several hours. When he wakes up, all his cash and valuables are gone.

In a variation of this crime (see story link #2, below), the customer is actually drugged on the street at a sidewalk bar. In all cases, the danger is always present that the victim will fall, hit his head, and die. If this happens to you, your death will probably be ruled heart attack by the authorities.

Such cases are especially common in Bangkok and Pattaya. These stories aren’t printed in Bangkok’s The Nation and the Bangkok Post newspapers, as there are so many incidences of this crime that it’s no longer newsworthy. But take a look at the following articles from the Pattaya Daily News, all written during the past few weeks:

http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010/07/27/two-jordanians-drugged-robbed-at-pattaya-hotel/

http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010/08/04/danish-national-drugged-by-unscrupulous-working-girl/

http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010/08/31/habitual-offender-implicated-in-american-drugging-robbery/

Here are 6 great tips that will help you to avoid this scam:

1) While drinking at street bars, keep an eye on the drink at all times. While drinking with a lady, if you look briefly away from your beer, keep your finger inserted in the bottle. Don’t let her taste your mixed drink, as she could palm a drug into your drink without your knowing it.

2) When possible, stay at a hotel that takes the woman’s ID card and enters the information in a logbook prior to her entering your room. Women practitioners of this crime will tend to avoid these hotels, as their information will be on record. Some of these hotels will call your room when the woman leaves the hotel, and will not return her ID until you answer the phone and indicate that all’s well. 

3) Stay at a hotel that offers safe deposit boxes, and use them. If never makes any sense to carry more than a few thousand baht with you, and leave the Rolex, along with the rest of your cash and valuables, in the box. In addition, Rolex-wearing men are often deliberately targeted.

4) Don’t wear expensive jewelry when you’re out at night. It makes you a target (see #3, above).

5) If you’re in your hotel room with a woman, keep your drink with you, in plain sight at all times. The most opportune time to dose your drink is when you’re in the bathroom, taking a leak.

6) If you use a laptop computer in your room, use a Kingston (cable) lock to secure your computer to a safe and durable spot. Virtually every hotel room has a durable spot, from an iron window grill to the wooden slat directly under the drawer of your desk. Thieves generally prefer snatch-and-grab loot, and probably won’t be carrying bolt cutters.

Even the savviest travelers get scammed occasionally, but ensuring that your valuables are safely locked away and watching your drink will minimize your losses.

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One Comment

  1. winlo says:

    This is a absolutely brilliant page!

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