Filipino scammers in Bangkok

[TEE10]

On the morning of July 7 I left my hotel in Sukhumvit Road to walk into
central Bangkok. A young woman of perhaps 30 and a Filipino man of
about 50 approached me in a friendly manner. Finding I was English, the
man said that his sister was coming to London to work as a hospital
nurse. As she was apprehensive about living in Britain, he asked if I would
come to his home to reassure her. I said I would be happy to help as,
by coincidence, my grandson was also a nurse in London.

He called a taxi and after 15 minutes we arrived at an attractive
bungalow set in a garden. I accepted a soft drink and the sister came
and sat beside me. I spoke to her about nursing in London and she
listened politely.

Then the man asked me to come into another room, where he produced a
pack of cards and said he would educate me in the secrets of card play.
By this time I seemed to be floating in a dreamlike place. I started
giggling, which annoyed the man. He asked to see my wallet and roughly
went through it. Other people came and went. We played cards but I had
no idea what I was doing. He then took my camera and put it in a
cupboard.

I was incapable of saying or doing anything. Finally, I was told to get into a
taxi and taken to a modern shopping complex by the man and his "nurse" sister.
I was told to hand my bank card to a shop assistant. I remember signing the
till printouts and seeing the man and his sister head off with shopping bags.
The taxi driver then took me back to my hotel.

It was not until I reached my room that my brain seemed to clear and
the enormity of what I had done dawned on me. It was clear I had been
drugged. I phoned my bank to cancel my debit card but three
transactions totalling £2,550 had already been cleared and the money
taken from my account.

The following morning the Filipino man rang my hotel room and made it
clear that I should tell nobody. He said if I told the police then we
would both go to a Thai jail (I had already informed the police and the
British embassy). Fortunately, I did not hear from him again.

It was such a frightening experience that I want to warn other
travellers to Bangkok. I will not be able to recover any of the £2,550
because I had voluntarily signed for the sums being taken from my
account.