Had a great time in Thailand. I took care of my medical and dental issues, and this is where I spent majority of my money, roughly %60 of the budget. Even met a nice girl while there and still keep in touch with her. Countering my own advice, I brought back 19.7 Kg of various things and souvenirs I don’t really need but couldn’t resist buying, in the newly purchased fiberglass luggage.
I guess it is easier to lug things around on the way back, since you know where you are going, your home, as oppose to when you are going into the unknown like I did, deciding to take my chance with finding the hotel.
It is the experience that counts and I had a blast, almost completely forgetting Mike and the event at Bangkok Airport. Well, lets be open; my thoughts were furthest away from him. Continuing my low tech holiday, with nothing digital but my simple cell phone, I hardly ever looked up my email. It was an escape into the real life heaven, unencumbered with modernities.
Within a week, I felt like a new man. Even my short term lease apartment in Pattaya’s Soi Bukhao had an old school CRT TV, a big box beaming Fox News, BBC, Al Jazeera but sadly no CNN. Felt like I’m back in the 90s, before the Digital Revolution truly began and I felt great, rested and relaxed.
Decided not to contact Mike during my stay there, since I didn’t have my bank account details, like I wrote before. Instead I left to deal with that once I return back to Auckland. Still… I was puzzled that he didn’t email me at all, just to say hello, thank you and that he’s arrived safely to Germany, etc.
True, I didn’t access my email more than three times, so it could be that his email ended up in the spam folder and got automatically deleted, I thought. It’s possible, but who cares about that now? My attitude was to relax and enjoy my holiday as much as possible while I still can. Will think about such things later, when I return home.
By the time I came back home, I completely forgot about it all. Until 23 August ’11. Approaching the 25th, it jolted the memory from my subconscious, as it has been almost two months since that event, and I still didn’t hear a word from him. So I sent him a brief “Remember me?” email, just to say hello and see how things have turned out for him.
On the 25th, exactly two months later, with no response, I decided to finally find some free time and check this guy out. Few hours before needing to go to work, I punched in “Mike Kanonsri” into the Google’s search engine. Only for it to return searches for Mike Kaminski.
Strange I thought, almost nothing came up in relation to him. For a few minutes I was starring at Google’s search results, when it occurred to me to switch to Google’s German version and try again. Yeap, his name was now more visible. Strangely enough, the name didn’t seem to be that popular in Germany. Thinking I’ll be flooded with results, having hard time to look for “my” Mike Kanonsri out of hundreds or thousands.
In fact, with few minor exceptions, what I got on Google.de related exclusively to “my” Mike, mostly being mentioned on several German travel forums. After using Google Translate to translate several posts into English, the truth finally came out. Various travelers were telling the same story over and over again, about a fellow German traveler supposedly stranded in Bangkok Airport, in dire need of 60 to 100 Euros to pay Berlin Air for an early flight out of Thailand after allegedly being robbed of everything he had.
From crude, fit and miss but mainly sufficient translations, the people didn’t seem to feel like they suffered major damage financially, it was more loss of face and anger for being taken for a ride. Just like me. Their principles were violated, regardless how small amounts they lost.
The earliest post I could find telling of that scam was in April 2009. He probably operated earlier than that, but I didn’t dig any further since I felt there was no need and I had everything I need to confirm I’ve been scammed like a young monkey.
There was a variation to the airport scam above, where he would pose as a stranded traveler at a train station, not sure where... probably Phuket, Chiang Mai or Pattaya, or somewhere else where there was a high traffic of foreign tourists. It seems majority of his victims were German, but like my case proves, every nationality can provide the winning lottery numbers for Mike.
Apart from that, there were also some leads on Google.de about scams targeting local Thais, which is how he eventually showed up on the radar of Thai authorities. Had he stuck to western tourists who don’t have time nor language skills to report their loss at a local police station, he would most likely avoid detection. Which goes to show about his character - a scamster through and through, unable to control himself, and avoid taking unnecessary risk.
Resident Thais certainly do have time, language skills and willingness to report and chase their financial losses which in relation to their own incomes are significantly higher than our own. The first one was something about him posing as a director of a foreign, guessing German, cement factory and scamming the local Thai car dealership. The second was in relation to a local Thai woman who reported him to Chonburi Police for stealing two cell phones and cash off of her.
That’s how his face eventually ended up on the equivalent of a “Wanted” poster.
How came he's free again? Have they arrested him, took photo then let him go on bail, only for him to run away?
When first looking at the photo, it took me awhile to recognise him. At first I had a hard time accepting it was him, but then… the eyes. Those sad looking, drooping eyes… yeap, that was him. No wander I couldn’t recognise him straight away. The arrest warrant was issued in September 2006. His age was 40 back then. In almost 5 years he has aged considerably, but those eyes gave him away.
The German scam victims told the same story I am; stranded, no money, scars from being attacked… so let’s reconstruct the event. If he indeed was attacked in Chiang Mai and lost everything in the robbery, how come he managed to get all the way back to Bangkok? When you are stranded in a 2nd or 3rd World country without cash, it’s no picnic anymore.
The locals can barely support and look after their own families, let alone offer charity to a stranded traveler from a comparatively wealthier country like Germany, so would charge him double or triple to get him from A to B. That leg of his “journey back” doesn’t even feature in his story.
It is certainly no small feat, considering the distance and expense, to traverse it with no collateral such as a passport to the taxi driver or another charity input from a fellow westerner. There was no mention if the Thai Police transported him, or if German embassy paid for it. German embassy only features in the part of the story when he’s in Bangkok and is not mentioned at all before that.
Then, his claim that he would leave his hotel carrying all of his valuables on him; passport, camera, wallet with cash, credit card, cell phone… what kind of normal person does that? Let alone supposedly highly educated and well paid like him, who works for Siemens of all companies? Nobody does! That doesn’t happen! Certainly not if you have just arrived into a strange country for the first time.
With electronic tickets issued by airliners these days, I could swallow the part of the story how his paper ticket was stolen, but a new version can be quickly printed off at the counter with which he could fly again. But… yet, it never occurred to me to ask him to let me see it. In fact, not even some sort of ID.
How would Air Berlin issue him with a new copy of the ticket without some sort of ID? Without knowing it was really that Mike Kanonsri, as oppose to some other? Yes there doesn’t seem to be many Mike Kanonsri’s in Germany, but he certainly wouldn’t be able to show up at the Air Berlin counter and say; “Hi, although I can’t really prove it, I’m Mike Kanonsri, I’m flying out of Thailand in six days and I need you to print me a new copy of the airplane ticket, because the original one got stolen.”
As far as they are concerned they can’t even be sure he is Mike Kanonsri in the first place, and not some impostor pretending to be him. If they did, they would open themselves to being sued in the court by real Mike Kanonsri if it is established the guy who pretended to be him, got the ticket without the ID and flew out of the country in his seat was a fraudster after all. No, it can’t happen. He needs some sort of ID on him.
German embassy to Thailand would issue him with an Emergency Travel Document or some such thing, which I never asked to see. Besides, thinking about it, I don’t think German embassy would be heartless enough to leave its citizens in distress on cold just like that. "Here’s 1,000 baht to see you over the next 6 days until you fly out, that’s that and guten abend."
Yet, all along I was willing to suspend my disbelief and accept the selective story he was serving me, in spite of big holes in it and missing parts. So what sold me in the end? Why did I fell for it, like many other who got scammed by Mike?
Simple:
A) he was believable and
B) I was gullible.
Let’s analyse A) first. Yes, he really was believable. I was completely convinced he’s the Real McCoy. In reality he was an excellent actor. Yet… those injuries he showed me. The injuries looked absolutely real. One missing tooth. Half of another tooth broken. It gives you cold chills just looking at it. Then, that injury on his leg. Fresh, red scars lined up like that all along his shin.
Even now, I’m not quite sure if those aren’t real injuries of some ailments long time ago, a remnant of a signature of pain, now employed in the theatre of deception, or if that was created using a standard make up kit, like they do in the film and TV to create special effects.
Finally the red face that might as well be a face of an alcoholic, a group of people in permanent distress, always worried about where their next drink will be coming from, open to do anything to get it and quench the thirst. Morals be damned. It was even possible he was a drug addict. Actually now that I think about it, that was more likely.
The aging process between the photo and how I remember him indicates rapid aging process and the only drug that has such a devastating effect on human beings in ability to make them age so rapidly by sucking all zest of life out of them is crystal methamphetamine. Even the watery eyes are it’s trademark signature. It is the most dangerous drug in the world for a reason. He conveniently used the drug’s brutal physical effect on him to elicit a compassionate response by pretending they are effects of the physical attack he suffered.
All of the above was enough to fit snugly into my own failing at that moment, which was gullibility. Which is the B) part of the equation. Still I have to be fair to myself, it wasn’t just gullibility. It was my genuine compassion towards people in distress. Yes, I have my personal failings and flaws but also virtues, such as willingness to help a fellow human being in need.
Guess C) compassion can also be worked into the equation.
Yet what aggravated my gullibility further was my slack effort at making sure his story is tested better which would be D). Could have pressed him for the ID, hospital discharge documents, other documents and tested the holes in his story such as the trip between Chiang Mai and Bangkok or help given by German embassy.
Then there was another thing I completely missed out. What about his friends, family or even workmates? Were none of them available to help him out and wire him some emergency funds via Western Union? Cash in hand that would help him out? Hasn't he got anyone else to help him out but a fellow traveller?
Ok, so let’s say that he is a sad loner with no family or friends... couldn’t his boss or workmates at Siemens help him out in circumstances such as this? Siemens wouldn’t allow for a valuable employee to be stranded just like that in a foreign land. Siemens is not McDonalds. The calibre of people and skills they need is different and harder to find.
In fact, it would be easier for them to collect on the loan after paying him out some of his salary in advance, unlike friends or family. Just deduct it off the next pay cheque. 80 Euros is not such a big amount for them to handle, even if it entails his manager personally going to Western Union to send him the cash to bail him out. Which would bring us back to some sort of ID issued by German embassy like an Emergency Travel Document. You can’t leave the Kingdom without it or a new passport.
Apparently, according to German victim testimonials I managed to translate, an ex-wife features as part of the story that is served up, but because I was already sold there was no need on his part to deliver that portion of the spiel, so not sure what the complete story sounds like.
One other thing I failed to do, amongst many, is to ask him to sign some sort of IOU note. Some sort of written record that he owes me money, even if I really didn’t expect for him to pay me back. It was a matter of principle. Sure, he wrote down his details into my note book, but never an IOU.
Because I really never expected him to pay me back, as long as he made some sort of effort to communicate how he arrived to Berlin safe and sound. The amount of money wasn’t too great to worry about a monetary loss, but a loss of face. Therefore the importance of the IOU, in case it is a scam, which it turns out was in the end.
Now if I spy him sitting at that bus station bench at Bangkok Airport again next year and manage to get an Airport cop to follow me so I can confront him about it, without an IOU it’s my word against his. Without anything tangible on the paper to serve as proof of my claims, the only thing to rely on is that wanted poster of him issued by Chonburi Police, most likely the Pattaya branch of it.
So, in the end A + B + C – D = SCAM. Will it stop me from wanting to help other people who are in genuine need through charitable organizations and such? No, it wont. It wouldn’t be true to my character. Tell you what though, I’ll be wary of people like him requesting outright help in cash handouts from now on, as oppose to helping them in some other way.
For example, calling up a family member somewhere to confirm the story he told me, as they’d be aware of it too, or going to the Air Berlin counter and paying it direct to them. Both of those actions would expose him as a fraudster he is. The counter supposedly doesn’t open until 9 am, but if I was genuinely concerned about helping someone out without getting scammed, I’d stay few hours longer at the airport and do that. By paying him cash direct, I exposed myself to the risk of fraud.
What I can’t blame myself for is not vetting him on the internet before paying him out, by using some sort of device, such as I Phone or Blackberry. Didn’t want to carry anything digital or valuable with me, anything more than needed, specifically for the reasons that I didn’t want to lose it in the possible turmoil that might envelop in case the Redshirts win power back in the General Elections scheduled in the middle of my holiday and things turn to chaos.
If I did check him on the net, yeah I’d stumble first, but eventually the truth about Mike Kanonsri would came out and this whole thing could have been avoided. Yet, I guess I should be thanking him for making me richer with experience. It was much more I received in return to the money he scammed out of me.
Knowing myself he could have scammed much more out of me than he did. This has been an important lesson and a warning which I should heed in the future. Mainly – yes, I can be scammed out of money. Therefore the need to be extra careful about displaying it and keeping my mouth shut about having it. Otherwise I’m marking myself as a target for sharks like this guy.
And also, it's a warning to do proper vetting and checks of people I decide to deal with. That was a more effective lesson about guarding my nest egg than any legitimate University based short course on scams. Probably cheaper too. Therefore I should really be grateful to him.
He exposed a part of me I wasn’t even aware I had. That I can be easy pickings for vultures and scamsters like he is, taking advantage of easily trusting people like me. I’m weak and a danger to myself in that regard. Giving my trust away too easily.
In future, if the people, facts and numbers don’t stack up right it is better to walk away from the deal of the century and lose invisible profits that to lose real cash if it turns out to be a fraud of a lifetime.
