Taxi scam at Immigration — meter running 4x normal — asking for the meter isn’t always enough

I was at immigration last week and had to make a last minute trip over to the IT location from the Government Complex B location (due to K-bank branch closure). I went out to the regular line of taxis that are always at Government Complex and got into the first cab, which was a blue cab.

He started the meter and it initially said 35. Before we had gone more than 500 meters — still within the road system of the Government Complex, it shot up to 78.

4 km later at IT, probably a 8 minute trip, it read 202 baht.

When he stopped, I pointed at the meter and said in English "your meter is broken".

He laughed nervously and responded "Oh! hahaha, okay, okay, 100 baht!"

There were 2 police officers right there talking to some motorcycle taxi guys, and I was tempted to involve them, but I was running quite late for my visa renewal appointment time with this unplanned trip between locations, so I paid the driver the 100 baht and carried on.

When I was finished at IT and wanted to return to the Government Complex B, I used a bolt taxi, and the ride was 41 baht. Clearly the earlier driver was operating a scam with the meter set to run 4-5 times the honest rate.

I'm finally reporting this today to the dlt reporting email.

Just passing along here as well. Even when the meter is on, beware. Some drivers rig them. This isn't the first time I've encountered a rigged meter in Bangkok, but it is the first time it was so obvious and blatant.