This is a long one, not really that interesting. Back in 2013 I saw a young girl standing on the sidewalk trying to get people to complete a survey. It was very hot and I kind of felt sorry for her, so I answered these questions for her survey. The questions were like "how long are you in pattaya?", "what are you visiting here", "what is your job and wage" etc.

After I completed this survey she said thank you and gave me a sealed envelope and said "see if you win prize", or words to that effect.

The envelope and all of her survey stuff was professionally printed, looked like it had been produced by some big company.

I opened this envelope and it said "YOU HAVE ONE A FREE IPAD MINI". I was a bit suspicious of this, but I kept reading and it said "FREE! NO OBLIGATION, NO FEE, NO PURCHASE NECESSARY". All in perfect English.

At this point I thought, if there is a catch, why are they telling me there isn't? Anyway this young lady lead me on a baht bus, which she paid for. The baht bus stopped at a 5 star hotel. A very nice and expensive looking hotel. At this point I thought "heh, maybe it isn't a scam".

I waited in the lobby of the hotel and shortly after an elderly (50-60) Australian man came through smiling, shook my hand and lead me to some seats beside the pool.

There was no mention of my free prize, he made some small talk and then offered me if I pay him 20,000 baht per month he will give me access to exclusive hotels across the world. I declined his offer and said if I knew this was what you were doing I would never have come here.

He was a bit annoyed and said I was wasting his time, I said yes, and you've wasted my fucking time. I really don't know why he thought anyone would want that after offering a "FREE, NO OBLIGATION, NO PAYMEMT" prize. Really odd and what an idiotic scheme.