How I scammed the scammers in Thailand (and why you should always pay by credit card)

I saw the post about the karaoke scam in Chiang Mai, so I wanted to tell the story about how I scammed the scammers and you can too TL;DR a Thai bar tried to scam me, but in the end, they paid ME and got no money. Always pay with the credit card if you’re being scammed. A few months ago, I was in Ko Samui staying on the north end of the island and I was walking around town and stumbled into a quaint girl bar. I figured I’d go in and have a few drinks and play billiards with some bar girls. The menu prices were a little bit high for Thai standards, but it was understandable because we were on the island. 300 baht lady drinks, 250 jack & coke etc. I’ve been to dozens if not 100+ bars in thailand so I’m very familiar with the process and I’ve never been scammed. anyway, after about an hour when the bill came, I was expecting it to be 2000 to 3000, but they brought me a piece of paper with a bunch of thai writing and “21,400” circled. I asked them to explain the bill and they could only account for about 3000 with the drinks and girl charges, so I said “im not paying this” and like CLOCKWORK these three musty Thai men walk out of a back room. (keep in mind I was the only guy in the bar, which is usually a red flag I know but this was a sleepy part of the island so I thought it was fine.) the guy immediately surrounded me and locked the door. At this point, I knew what was going on, so I smirked and handed the mamasan my credit card. She goes “no no no! Cash only!” and I said to her “I have only 500 cash ,if you want money you have to use the card” she relented and charged my card 22,000 saying fees. After I paid I obviously immediately left, and first thing next morning I went to the nearest police station. I explained the situation and they were obviously familiar with the owner in the bar because they immediately offered to take me there and negotiate with her which I accepted. They tried to get me to accept ฿5000 but I helped firm and we were there for about 30 minutes arguing but eventually the bar owner gave me 12,000 cash. Once she handed me the money I spit on the ground near her feet and called her a ควาย , which enraged everyone, including the police, who told me I needed to apologize. At this point, I was so angry. I just walked away and the police didn’t bother to come after me so that was the end of it and I enjoyed the rest of my time on the island. Anyway, this is the good part of how I scammed the scammers, about a week after the charge is settled on my credit card, I called my bank and disputed it the entire transaction. I told them I was being threatened and that they took my credit card from me and I did not authorize the transaction. The bank initiated the dispute, and eventually the bar owner responded with CCTV footage of me sitting down in the bar supposed to be “proof” that the charges were genuine. Anyway, I don’t know if this made a difference or not but I told my bank I will absolutely not pay for this and then if they don’t reverse the transaction, I will close all of my accounts with them. After 10 weeks, I got a letter that the dispute was finished and then the money was returned to me. If you’ve been following along, you realized what happened, I paid nothing, and the scam bar paid me 12,000. Theres levels to this stuff and if you play your cards right you should be able to get out of scam situations like this without issue .