Early in my traveling days, I went to Bangkok, Thailand with a group of friends and we were not sure where to eat. I stupidly asked a random Tuktuk driver to introduce us to a place to eat and he gladfully guided us. It was also extremely strange that the Tuktuk driver gave a steep discount on the ride also.
For the uninitiated, a Tuktuk is a 3 wheeled modified motorcycle used as a taxi.
We were brought by the Tuktuk driver to a restaurant not on the main road and everything was normal, we ate the food and when the bill arrived, we were charged a bomb. I've read variations of this scam where if the tourist wants to go to Restaurant A, the Tuktuk driver will say his affiliated Restaurant B is nearer, serves more delicious food and has reasonable prices. In addition, most of the time the Tuktuk driver will bring tourists to a seafood restaurant where it's easier to charge exorbitant prices compared to just a noodle shop.
Apparently, it’s common for Thai Tuktuk drivers to earn extra income to bring tourists not just to scammy souvenir shops, overpriced tailor, red light district aka Thai girl show and yes, restaurants that scam people. These Tuktuk drivers earn a commission each time a customer steps foot into the business premise and gets additional bonus commission if the sale goes through.
Moral of the story and lesson we got was to be aware that there are many unscrupulous people out to scam people, we cannot be too trusting to strangers especially at tourist spots. These tourist spots are ripe for being scammed. Lesson learnt.
Fast forward today with ride sharing apps, more people are using ride sharing apps like Grab, Gojek to move around and these types of scam is lesser now.
