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Prakhonchai Nick

Prakhonchai Nick

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A new thread as suggested by Ivor.

xxxxxxxx xxx INSURANCE

Many Thai people are coerced into buying a life assurance/.savings package from agents who come knocking at their doors.. They know nothing about insurance and are seduced by the smooth talking well dressed agents. The following relates only to one Insurer, but the selling methods are adopted by all banks/insurance companies.

These agents, once having received the signed documents (and taking fat commissions) then collect premiums monthly from the customers.

This week I have been told of 2 such customers in my village, who despite having paid all the premiums, one for 2 years and one for 1 year, have both been advised bythe Insurers HO, that their policies have been cancelled since not all premiums have been paid. They have also been told there will be no refunds of the premiums that have been paid.

It transpires that the agent either pocketed the premiums, or passed them to someone else, who pocketed the money, resulting in the cancellation of the policies.No doubt the agent considered the Thais as typical country bumpkins who she could fleece with no consequences. I intend for her to get her comeuppance!

I have taken on the cases for the 2 villagers. Insurers have so far shown no interest, but my correspondence with the parent company, has produced a response. Neither Thai was capable of doing anything for themselves, as neither could read nor write Thai. Despite their financial loss, their attitude was the typical "mai phen rai"

Quite clearly the premiums should have been paid through a bank, but of course neither Thai had a bank account, and it was as much as they could do to scrape together the baht to pay the premiums.

I hope to be able to sort matters out for them and am looking for a full refund of all premiums paid, + interest +_ compensation. I shall dangle the threat of legal action against their employee if they do not come up trumps.
 
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Just out of interest Nick are you communicating in Thai or English with said company? Just for safety sake Nick, maybe you should refer to Company X instead by name.
You know how it is, in Thailand with their weird defamation laws. Anyway they need a shake up, exploitation of the poor and ignorant must stop.
 
Good Advice Rice...have amended accordingly. Thanks However there is no disputing what has happened,and another agent who happened to be in the village an hour ago was forced to admit what had happened, and assured the policy holders thatthe girl in question would visit to make things right. Too late for that.

Initially corresponding in English. However parent co have acknowledged in English, and have copied me in with their email to the Thai insurer Next step is the MD in Europe if necessary. I have taken similar action before on several occasions with positive results.
 
Stick to government insurance!

Lambs to slaughter...

Thank goodness that they haven't discovered pyramid selling yet!
 
CO-CO said:
Stick to government insurance!

Lambs to slaughter...

Thank goodness that they haven't discovered pyramid selling yet!
Click to expand...

I think they have and I think it is happening now. I was made aware a few months back from another Farang friend in our part of town that he was 'investing' in some kind of Forex scheme. He freely admitted he didn't know how it worked but it seemed to guarantee a good monthly return on his money. You don't get money for nothing but here it was, a good monthly pay out every month, for doing nothing. He did not try and sell the scheme to me.

Fast forward a few months. My wife went along to see a hair dresser in the village the week before last, one who she has used many times before. She (the hair dresser) started talking about this 'investment scheme' and called around another friend who was further up the selling chain. There was a minimum investment of 35,000 baht and payments would start after 3 or 4 months in the scheme. Of course, if you put more money in the scheme, say a million baht, you could sit back and rake in big sums every month. They also said you could increase your initial investment once you had joined the scheme. They mentioned that the wife and Farang friend who I spoke about earlier were already in the scheme and making good money every month. They also mentioned that they themselves were making very good money each month, the second lady claiming to make over a million a month. All very convincing although my wife was not taken in by the sales pitch. If the scheme was as good as they said it was why were they trying to get her to buy in? She politely declined. Since then, a news story has broken about some 'big lady' in Bangkok who failed to pay her investors any returns on their money. They too were investing in the stock exchange through a third party. Her clientele are understandably very upset.

Are these various schemes related, are they one and the same? Are they pyramid selling schemes that rely on an every increasing customer base and corresponding revenue to pay off the investors who are already in? Is this just another Ponzi scam? Both SWMBO and myself go by the old adage, 'if it sounds too good to be true then it is too good to be true'. We may not strike it rich but, then again, we have no intention of risking what savings we already have.

iu
 
CO-CO said:
Stick to government insurance!
Lambs to slaughter...
Thank goodness that they haven't discovered pyramid selling yet!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately they have discovered this and do so at the village level. They call it the Chair game or aircraft game.
As a pyramid grows the pilot or top chair takes out say 10,000 B, you must pay 650 Baht to play and you pay each week even after you get your 10,000.
Although the "captain" is the person at the top of the tree, having received the payment from the eight or sixteen paying passengers, once they leave the scheme they are able to re-enter the pyramid as a "passenger" and hopefully recruit enough to reach captain again, thereby earning a second payout.
So the pyramid grows with more and more participants until of course the eventual collapse, as that of all pyramid schemes.

I am surprised you don't know of this CO-CO. Mainly played by women.
They like to keep it quit secret for obvious reasons though from Farang husbands.
 
nomad97 said:
I think they have and I think it is happening now. I was made aware a few months back from another Farang friend in our part of town that he was 'investing' in some kind of Forex scheme. He freely admitted he didn't know how it worked but it seemed to guarantee a good monthly return on his money. You don't get money for nothing but here it was, a good monthly pay out every month, for doing nothing. He did not try and sell the scheme to me.

Fast forward a few months. My wife went along to see a hair dresser in the village the week before last, one who she has used many times before. She (the hair dresser) started talking about this 'investment scheme' and called around another friend who was further up the selling chain. There was a minimum investment of 35,000 baht and payments would start after 3 or 4 months in the scheme. Of course, if you put more money in the scheme, say a million baht, you could sit back and rake in big sums every month. They also said you could increase your initial investment once you had joined the scheme. They mentioned that the wife and Farang friend who I spoke about earlier were already in the scheme and making good money every month. They also mentioned that they themselves were making very good money each month, the second lady claiming to make over a million a month. All very convincing although my wife was not taken in by the sales pitch. If the scheme was as good as they said it was why were they trying to get her to buy in? She politely declined. Since then, a news story has broken about some 'big lady' in Bangkok who failed to pay her investors any returns on their money. They too were investing in the stock exchange through a third party. Her clientele are understandably very upset.

Are these various schemes related, are they one and the same? Are they pyramid selling schemes that rely on an every increasing customer base and corresponding revenue to pay off the investors who are already in? Is this just another Ponzi scam? Both SWMBO and myself go by the old adage, 'if it sounds too good to be true then it is too good to be true'. We may not strike it rich but, then again, we have no intention of risking what savings we already have.

iu
Click to expand...

Just seen this on Thai Visa - this is what they are into I am quite sure ..........................

Online Forex fraud could have swindled 10,000 people out of a billion baht

BANGKOK: -- A group of complainants have visited the Crime Suppression Division's computer crimes section to say that they have been swindled on Forex markets. The complainants represented thirty people but this is just the tip of a massive iceberg.

There are thought to be 10,000 victims of the con with a billion baht in losses, reported Daily News. Thatsaran Salelanon, 41, a victim said that she decided to invest in a Foreign Exchange fund that advertised lucrative daily interest rates. It was advertised under the name Wealthy-Plus on Facebook. She ploughed in 183,500 baht in June and all seemed well for a while with dividends paid every day. Then the people who operated the site said that it would be down for three days from July 22 to 25. But it did not return and calls to the site thereafter met a stony silence. The complainants were advised that the wrongdoing falls under the CSD's economic crimes section as it involves brokers and share trading markets. Three people were named in the complaint namely Dechawat Watanapot, Jintana Wongchalee and Paphatya Watanasing. The complainants presented investigators with evidence of certificates and Line application messages to back up their claims.

Source: Daily News

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/934687-online-forex-fraud-could-have-swindled-10000-people-out-of-a-billion-baht/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=feed: thaivisa24 (today#39;s best thaivisa topics)
 
Rice said:
Unfortunately they have discovered this and do so at the village level. They call it the Chair game or aircraft game.
As a pyramid grows the pilot or top chair takes out say 10,000 B, you must pay 650 Baht to play and you pay each week even after you get your 10,000.
Although the "captain" is the person at the top of the tree, having received the payment from the eight or sixteen paying passengers, once they leave the scheme they are able to re-enter the pyramid as a "passenger" and hopefully recruit enough to reach captain again, thereby earning a second payout.
So the pyramid grows with more and more participants until of course the eventual collapse, as that of all pyramid schemes.

I am surprised you don't know of this CO-CO. Mainly played by women.
They like to keep it quit secret for obvious reasons though from Farang husbands.
Click to expand...



They didn't have a 'tongue-in-cheek' emoticon Rice :):)
 
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