Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, well we are discussing the notion of ‘bank error in your favour’. As you can see from the thumbnail, I remember this from Monopoly, the game Monopoly, there was the card you could pull, 'Bank error in your favour, you get free money.' Fun stuff.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya retirees targeted in latest in scam calls scandal. Quoting directly: "Always be suspicious of anyone claiming to be an official of an organization who wants to chat about you, or tells you that is a bank error in your favour, or sends a message claiming a parcel cannot be delivered. If it sounds too good to be true, it will be just that." Yeah, well done, tip of the hat down there to Pattaya Mail and Mr. Kenyon on that article; great article, lot of information in there. Very useful to the Expat Community, especially the retirees. It provides a lot of peace of mind if you read that article, and I really do again congratulate him on that article, that was well done, and I think very helpful to the expat Community overall and to the retiree Community here in Thailand. 

But the thing to take away from this video is yeah, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you are going to get a banker in your favour, you are going to be in the Bank's lobby I expect; you're not probably going to hear about that over the phone, or if you do, ask them, "okay which bank branch can I go to so I can deal with this" and get there and physically deal with somebody who is going to hand you some money. What you shouldn't be doing is giving scammers your information over the telephone. That can prove to be a problem as they use it to rip you off down the road.

So the thing to take away from this video, retirees and expats here in Thailand, if you are getting calls from people that say there is some bank here in your favour, or that they are making a list of people who don't have to pay taxes, or something having to do with your “residency” for Immigration purposes, ignore all of that. If you would be dealing with any of those people be it the Revenue Department, the Immigration Office, or the Bank, you are going to be dealing with them in person. If they are going to be giving you free money - in the case of the bank;  if they are going to be saying we need something for your residence - in the case of Immigration; if they are saying we need something for purposes of your tax filing - in the case of Revenue Department, you are going to be looking somebody in the eye when dealing with that. So please, guard against scammers here in Thailand who use this as a subterfuge to get the better of you.