Scammers target Bangkok restaurants with large bookings and bogus transfers

It should have been an ordinary Thursday night last week at Bangkok smokehouse The Smokin’ Pug when a man called to book for 20 people the following evening. The man, Anon, said it was for a company gathering. What the restaurant found unusual was that Anon wanted to pay in advance.

“He asks to preorder which is very normal for us, but we never ask for prepayment,” restaurant owner Dana Garber told Coconuts. “He insisted on prepaying, which was a red flag.”

The man sent a transfer slip totaling THB16,689 that, according to Garber, was fake as no money ever came. By 4pm the next day, three hours before the reservation, the man asked via Line chat for the restaurant to find two expensive bottles of wine they didn’t have in stock. Anon mentioned a friend he knew who could get the wines, but the restaurant would have to pay first.

Garber said the restaurant…