Corruption Part 4: The Duty Free Scam continued...

Should you not be convinced that it it is best to do your duty free shopping before arriving in Thailand, here are two other stories that back the claim that corruption is rife at Bangkok's airport:

'I shopped at the new airports King Power last year. I used my Visa card for the purchase.Unbekownst to me, an employee ( or ring of employees ) stole my credit card number, sold it to someone overseas and within a week, I had a 20,000 dollar balance from purchases made in London. I have never set foot in England.'

'I doubt very much that anything will be done about the K. Power Duty Free Shops scam because the police are obviously involved as will be the Airports Authority of Thailand (AAoT) folks. The airport is a symbol of Thailand's corruption, and indeed the gateway to it. The AAoT are the people who run the airport taxi mafia and the other taxi counter / transportation scams.'

Despite the huge damage stories such as these do to the reputation of Thailand, no one is doing anything about it. In fact the Thai Minister of Transport has, very recently, said that he intends to 'clean up' the problems at the airport; the trouble is his focus is elsewhere and he refuses to even discuss this particular issue.

Spend a lengthy spell banged up in the 'Bangkok Hilton,' or pay a large bribe and be shipped straight home; not much of a choice is it? It's best to stay away from Thailand's Duty Free stores.