Thai Private Eye - Investigates Thailand
On this page you will find some press clippings, articles and columns by and about Thai Private Eye which have appeared in English-language newspapers throughout Thailand and on quality websites world-wide.
Mango Sauce (Friday, March 5, 2004)
Private eye exposes my Thai girlfriend's lies
I once employed a private detective to spy on my Thai girlfriend. When I told my mates about it, they were gobsmacked. They assumed that only Philip Marlowe and classy 1930s broads did stuff like this. In Thailand, though, hiring a private eye is sometimes unavoidable.
Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that I'm an elderly piss-soaked invalid keeping tabs on my pouting teenage wife and her muscular tennis coach, let me explain the circumstances.
Three years ago, I had a serious row with my Thai girlfriend. The timing couldn't have been worse because I had to go to London the very next day. On arrival at Heathrow, I received a text message saying that she'd committed suicide.
Phil Macdonald's Farang Affairs in "The Nation" (Friday, February 27, 2004)
What's she up to then?
An acquaintance suspected his girlfriend was doing stuff that she ought not be doing. So he got all covert on her, the sneaky bugger.
"She was obviously not telling me the truth. The only way I could find out what she was up to - and get her to admit it - was to have her followed," he said.
So he got the sleuths at Thai Private Eye on her case. Two days later he was provided with enough evidence to confront his wayward sweetheart, who had no choice but to admit her shenanigans and beg forgiveness from her terak.
Bernard Trink, The Nite Owl, in The Bangkok Post (Friday, August 10, 2001)
Article via Internet Archive
A flourishing scam:
Bar girls copy the `boiler room' boys and take the unsuspecting to the cleaners
Warren Olson, Founder of Thai Private Eye
Bernard, as we all know, scams abound -- government embezzlement in Nigeria and boiler rooms in Bangkok being but two. It's a wonder how gullible people are! I had a couple of guys overseas ask me to check up on "missing" girlfriends in July. In each case they'd been corresponding with a local lass with starlet looks, if their internet pictures were to be believed.
In time, each girl declared her love and expressed the desire to meet the wonderful man: "Just send me the money and I'll be on the next flight." The airfare was promptly sent but none of the girls arrived. The men didn't know each other, but reacted in much the same way: worried that their beloveds were ill, had an accident or had been abducted. It isn't clear if the girls were one and the same -- their photos were different.
An e-mail was received from the friend of one saying that she had been detained at Don Muang Airport for an incorrect visa as well as for not having sufficient funds to cover her stay abroad and had been put behind bars. Could he please immediately send 50,000 baht for her release and a further 150,000 baht which she needed to leave the country. I was embarrassed to take the (US) $200 to check her case with the authorities. And he sent her the (US) $1,500...
The police were helpful and it wasn't difficult for me to look into the matter. Her story was made out of whole cloth. She hadn't been arrested, her money requirements were made up. She milked the man for how much as she could get, then broke off contact with him. The other guy's case is heading the same way. Advise your readers to be wary. I wouldn't be surprised if this scam is flourishing.
Bernard Trink repliesA number of my readers assert they have no sympathy for victims of scams: "It's their own fault; they allowed themselves to be suckered and they deserve to pay the consequences."
Surely this judgment is too harsh. Even wary people like to think there are exceptions to the many out to cheat them. Alas, more - not less - caution is necessary when dealing with internet romance. A word to the wise.
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