Pattaya Scams

The house that Jack built scam

There was a nice guy from…well let’s not worry about exactly where he was from.

However he came to Thailand a couple of times. And of course fell in love with a gorgeous girl from these sunny shores, in fact in Pattaya of course.
At this point there was never any hint of a scam or any scams to come. So much so that he planned to have a house built, move here, and they would live happily ever after.

But in order to do all this, he needed to carry on working for the present, save some money so he could build their dream house. Then he would move here for good.

So they found a piece of land which this chap bought for his girlfriend (foreigners cannot own land in Thailand) Then he got her to organise the building of the house. This was up-country, far away from Pattaya. From what I can gather it was going to be a modest, but nicely designed home.
The girlfriend kept him up to date with progress reports, how the concrete foundations were doing, the concrete and steel pillars to support the rest of the house, etc.

This guy was obviously a happy man. A new home for him and his future bride, so he could move here and retire to enjoy his time in Thailand with her.
The information she sent him was that the building was coming on slowly, but steadily.

After a few more months, he had the chance to come here for a short holiday and see the fruits of his investment.
It was at this point that his girlfriend started to try to stall his impending visit.

There seemed to a whole list of reasons why he should put off coming just now. She said that the builders had now finally pulled their finger out and the house was moving ahead nicely. In fact she said it was all going to be finished in another month. A great leap forward from what was happening in the beginning.

So, suggested the girlfriend, wouldn’t it be a good idea if he waited just a little longer until everything was completed, and the air conditioning was installed, so he wouldn’t have to suffer the hot weather here without it.
The boyfriend had to admit this did sound sensible, so he transferred some more money to cover the cost of the air-con and electrics, happy in the knowledge it would all soon be finished.

Come the day of his arrival, there was no-one to meet him at the airport.
His girlfriend’s mobile phone seemed to be playing up too.
So he made his own way up-country to their new house.

What new house?
He arrived at the plot of land to find it exactly the same as when he left all those months ago.
Empty, bare, barren. Devoid of any building work or new house.

He still couldn’t get hold of his girlfriend, and now the penny was starting to drop.
He managed to ascertain that the plot of land he had bought for her still belonged to the original owner, he found out it had never been sold to anyone.

Sadly a very, very, expensive scam.

Apart from only renting property here rather than buying, if you do ever decide to go down the house buying/building route, then you need to have a lawyer who will ensure all is above board and legal.

However, the single most important factor is still being able to trust your partner.