Monday 26 November 2007

Scams in Thailand

Oh my sweet lord almighty in heaven. Is there something in the water this week or what! A man just came to our house (an uncle I think) and signaled J to come with him. They went and hid in the garage. I had no idea what was going on until 5 minutes later J calls me inside all secret squirrels and shows me the folded piece of paper in his hands. A photocopy of a million dollar American bank note! Was I screaming eureka as I'm sure the man in the garage was hoping to do after gaining my knowledgeable approval of its existence? More like shaking my head savagely like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. After I broke the news that no such note existed I was met with silent disbelief. He continued to talk in hushed tones to J and photocopy the precious document while I tried to convince him of the impossibility of the note. He even offered J a $10,000 cut to help him exchange the money! Boy am I kicking myself now that we let him get away!

Apparently uncle's very close friend had been on a fishing boat and had discovered a handful of the million dollar notes in someone's pocket. Hmm, very convincing story....he nearly had me there! Apparently the boat scavenger had already cashed in one of the bank notes and was now rich beyond is wildest imagination. J's poor excited uncle was asking me what the American exchange rate was and was nearly dancing around the room when he figured out he had access to 34 million bahtaroonies. No matter what I said he just couldn't completely believe me that it was a scam. This was his closest mate, how could it be untrue! I ended up googling American bank notes just to bloody prove my point (hallelujah for the internet!). Interesting fact I learned was that once upon a time there was a $100 000 bank note. That's some big kahoonas! After seeing all the available notes on screen before his own eyes, he looked so crestfallen that I really felt quite sorry for him. At first I found it all beyond amusing which morphed into incredulity and ended up feeling so sad that people are so easily taken in by get rich quick scams. Of course I could in fact be wrong in my understanding of US money and I've led the poor man astray and cheated him out of millions... my bad, y'all just let me know now.


4 commentaramas:

Carol said...

That's a really sad wee story - Although I did think it was kinda funny that they hid in the garage and at least you only shook your head savagely and didn't projectile vomit on them!!

C x

Anonymous said...

tee-hee

Maybe there is a rogue Nigerian gene in amongst there somewhere??

I think you can sleep soundly honey, knowing you have not diddled your rellies.

Much love
Becksx

Mel said...

Carol - hehe! I guess I forgot to mention that part of the story! Chunky!

Bec - you know the funny thing is there are a lot of Nigerians in Thailand!!

Anonymous said...

Well, I think THIS dude is wishing he had read your blog:

By KAREN DAILY
Staff writer
The Aiken County Sheriff's Office arrested an Augusta man Monday on allegations he tried to open a bank account with a counterfeit $1,000,000 bill, officials said.

http://www.aikenstandard.com/2007redesign/news/290388788841492.php