On our first day at patong we were walking down the street and a girl came up to us saying excuse me I'm not selling anything but I have questionaire for the tourists.
We thought ok and answered her question as they seemed innocent enough giving where we stayed and our room number.
The next day we received a phone call.
"we would like to take you on a tour of the west side of the island as we dont get many tourists this time of the year and would like you to have a look at it for booking next time you come as everyone goes to Phuket or Patong.
For doing this we will give you free tickets to Fantasea."
We thought this is ok and we get tickets so we went along.

Now comes the hitch

It was a property developer trying to sell timeshare at certain resorts. It was all flashy and looked great we were impressed and had some interest
He wouldnt tell me the price tho
after getting back to their office I asked the manager how much. he then stated $15000 aus$ we nearly fell off our chairs.
He then said we need it in a month and can we put $4000 today on your credit card
Wow hit with a sledge hammer. After that it was no thanks take us back to our hotel with 4 hours wasted of our holiday

my advice is do not fill out tourist surveys as there always seems to be strings attached (we did get our free tickets tho ;))

Hi Yamana,
We had a similar experience a few years ago, we were stopped in the street by a british man with scratch cards - you scratch off the card and sure enough you win a prize - the prize was 4 hours of our day waisted looking at time share!! You learn by your mistakes! We have never been conned by time share touts again.

cant you just leave once you realise what it is? Can they force you to stay against your will? I would much rather leave and pay for a taxi back, then waste all those hours on that rubbish! Hopefully more tourists become aware of this terrible scam and they stop doing it. But then again, if that stops they will always find some other way to con people!

Best thing to do is just ignore the people on motorbikes that ask you if you speak English and the people that want to do a survey, you will be sorry if you scratch the card or do the survey and as said will waste 4 hours of your day.

A no thankyou and just walk on is all it takes for them to move on to someone else. Good advice.

We wwere caught by these people too and thety can be very persistant the guy on the bike said we had won the top prize and had to go immediately to the andaman because he would then be paid. we didnt as we thought it was a con. the other was for the sean pearl and was for units the guy phoned us and offered breakfast we declined but he called again and again my husband was very firm with him in the end. just walk aweay thanks but no thanks its your precious holiday time dont get caught up!!

Anyone who goes to Bali gets beseiged daily by survey people particularly around Kuta. The difference with Patong is that it is generally Westerners doing the touting. Avoid these people like the plague - remember the golden rule - do not give your room number or hotel name to complete strangers. If it is too good to be true it probably isn't!

Also be careful of the ones dressed like school kids saying they are doing a survey on tourists for their schools, they are also time share!
Cathy

When someone on a bike usually a brit askes if i speak english I say my aw kup and smile as I walk off. You should see them scratch their head as I make my get away.
Try it.

Shway

We do the same Shway except when they stop and ask us if we speak English - we say No and keep walking.
Cathy