Tourists claim to have been almost abducted by Thai drivers to the Philippines? Response from Tourism Authority of Thailand

Recently, incidents related to telecommunications fraud in Southeast Asia have attracted social attention, increasing people's vigilance. According to media reports, Malaysian man Andrew recently posted on social media, telling the story of himself and his friends who were almost "abducted" by a driver in Thailand and ultimately "managed to escape".

However, after the incident was exposed, the Thai Tourism Bureau came forward to clarify, stating that the police investigation found that the incident may actually have been caused by poor communication between the driver and Malaysian passengers, resulting in a misunderstanding.

The driver is suspected of "trafficking" passengers?

Malaysian Man Tells Strange Riding Experience

According to reports, Andrew shared on social media that he had recently traveled to Bangkok, Thailand with his friends, consisting of two men and three women. At the end of the trip, they called a car to the airport to prepare for a flight back to Malaysia, but on the way, they found the driver's movements suspicious. Andrew suspected that the driver was trying to sell their group of 5 people to the Philippines, but in the end, they opened the door and jumped in the traffic jam, successfully escaping.

According to Andrew, when he got into the car, he noticed that the window glass was completely black, and the driver even made a sneaky phone call and asked where they came from. Andrew said he can understand a little Thai, "mainly because he can listen but not very well.". He noticed the driver calling and saying, "We are currently carrying three girls and two friends from Malaysia, both male and female."

▲ Andrew posted a taxi record

After discovering that a passenger could understand Thai, the driver immediately updated the information to the other end of the phone, saying, "There is one here who can speak Thai and translate very clearly." The driver also manually locked the door, which alerted Andrew. Next, the driver described the passenger's behavior over the phone, not only mentioning the price of the Philippines and "1500", but also saying that he was looking forward to and excited. Andrew said that his hands trembled with fear after listening.

According to reports, Andrew said that according to mobile navigation, the journey to the airport is only 30 minutes, but the driver's navigation shows it takes 50 minutes. They felt scared and wanted to get off under the guise of using the restroom, but were refused by the driver. The driver stated that there is a restroom at the gas station ahead, but when they looked at the map, they found that the gas station mentioned by the driver was not on the map.

All these eerie signs made them decide to jump off the car and leave. Taking advantage of the traffic jam, Andrew and his friends opened the door and jumped out of the car without warning. The driver did not catch up, which made them "convinced that they were almost sold to scam the park.". Andrew recalled, "That eerie atmosphere, I can never forget... it seemed like my body was injected with adrenaline, my heart was beating fast, my pores were rising, and so on."

Thailand Tourism Authority: Misunderstanding caused by poor communication

The driver has no criminal record

According to reports, the Thai Tourism Bureau clarified on the 9th that after the incident, the police summoned the driver to explain, and it was found that a misunderstanding may have occurred due to poor communication between the driver and passengers.

The Thai police stated that the driver has no criminal record and driving a taxi is just his side job, usually engaged in the medical equipment industry. The Thai driver involved explained that the map he used was built-in to the ride hailing app, and all drivers must use this map, so it may be different from the route displayed by passengers.

In addition, the driver also confirmed that he did make phone calls in the car because his cousin had a car accident that day, so he kept talking on the phone to discuss compensation, medical treatment, and other issues. It was also difficult to hang up the phone at that time.

As for the passenger's claim that the driver refused to let them use the restroom, the driver explained that it was because he entered the lane where he had to turn right and was unable to stop halfway. He told the guests that they would go to the nearest gas station restroom, but the tourists insisted on going to the mall restroom and could not communicate.

Red Star News reporter Deng Shuyi