Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Driving License in Thailand and possible scammers associated therewith. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: License in Chinese ad "issued lawfully". So apparently the Chinese, a lot of them have been coming in here and advertising things like "we can get you a second passport. You can just buy one now." Now they're advertising apparently things associated with the driving license here in Thailand which are completely unrealistic, and then on top of it they used a photo of somebody's driving license and that was called into question. In any event, quoting directly: "The Department of Land Transport says the Chinese tourist who has been holding a Thai driver's license in an online post, advertising "fast track" services for official documents on a Chinese e-commerce platform, obtained her license legally. The advertisement on the Xiahongshu platform caused outrage in Thailand after it was reposted online by a Thai social media user who claimed the woman in the picture was able to secure a Thai driver's license in Chiang Mai without having to go through any theory training or practical test." 

Yeah look, I mean if you think the DMV is a bit difficult to deal with back in the West, Department of Land Transport has its own process and it can be rather Byzantine I will admit. Quoting further: "The DLT on Sunday said the woman had lawfully obtained her license at a DLT office in Chiang Mai, but her picture was used without her consent to advertise the illegal service." So, again apparently what they were doing was this person went through the normal process and then they are claiming a fast track probably to induce people to get money. Quoting further: "The Department urged foreign visitors not to fall for such advertisements, as they may have been posted by scammers. It noted several fraudulent pages have used the Department's logo or images of legitimate license holders to fool victims into giving up private information or paying much higher prices for official services." Well look, I have no problem with folks charging money for services that they render. That said, as we have discussed in other videos, acting as an agent, acting in a legal profession, acting in anything having to do with those areas is a restricted occupation here in Thailand to all foreigners. So that alone, the agency alone, is enough to warrant in my opinion at least some level of legal scrutiny.

That being said yeah watch out for anything I mean the thing to take away really from this video, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. When you're dealing with bureaucracy in any jurisdiction, the notion of a fast track, it may exist, there may be dual options; there may be ways of doing things to get things done more quickly. There may be ways of in some cases and we had this in the past where there were same-day service fees, that went by the wayside. I think the total workload just went to the point where they weren't able to delineate like that and the stuff in the slower line was just hardly getting done at all. 

That being said, yeah, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. The notion that you can get a driving license in Thailand without having to show up to the actual office that issues them is pretty unreasonable, in my opinion kind of nonsensical. So the thing to take away Thailand, is if it does sound too good to be true, think about the possibility that it might be a scam.