{"id":540,"date":"2025-09-28T07:11:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T07:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/?p=540"},"modified":"2025-09-28T07:11:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T07:11:40","slug":"check-who-you-do-business-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/check-who-you-do-business-with\/","title":{"rendered":"Check who you do business with"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

If you are a short or long term visitor to Phuket, you will discover that there isn\u2019t a shortage of good opportunities for investment, but that there are also an abundance of scams too. Be cautious, take your time, observe, check, observe again \u2013 before making commitments.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Hurry to say the least<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

In a world where sound bites, short tweets, Facebook comments, We-Chat recorded voice instructions and emoticons are gradually permeating our lives both personal and professional at all levels, the basics of doing business can be forgotten. Using short form messages for all communications and business activities is also not advisable because \u2013 contrary to the principles of WhatsApp, Line, WeChat and Facebook Messenger \u2013 short and sweet is not always good.<\/p>\n

The long con<\/strong>
\nRecently in the news there has been a spate of \u2018scam\u2019 or, to use the legal term, \u2018fraud\u2019-based activities relating to business dealings. One such scam comprised a business person who used a Facebook page to sell fairly inexpensive products to a group of people.
\nThese products were reportedly marketed solely from the Facebook page and using Messenger. Following the build up of \u2018trust\u2019 by the purchasers of the products, the same business person then approached the group to ascertain if they would participate in a money lending scheme with attractive too-good-to-be-true terms. Having acquired their trust, the business person collected the monies, didn\u2019t provide the returns, and simply disappeared.<\/p>\n

The victims were unable to identify the con artist, as they had all been communicating via Facebook and message systems only. They had not collected specific identification documents or address information on the person, yet they had sent monies \u2013 in aggregate a significant amount \u2013 to that person.<\/p>\n

Many con artists believe that what they do is not morally wrong, if people are greedy enough to make bad decisions…<\/p>\n

The first successful project con<\/strong>
\nMany developers who build a successful real estate project should be respected and rewarded for having gone through a difficult set of challenges. Unfortunately, in many packs of apples, there may be a bad apple or two.<\/p>\n

Some developers do not set out to scam their owners, but they become over-confident and over-extend themselves; then they may pass on their bad risk management decisions to buyers.
\nMany developers will set up their marketing on the basis of one completed project, which they will represent as \u2018successful\u2019. They may set up multiple similarly branded projects and then persuade buyers that they are \u2018on a roll\u2019.<\/p>\n

They may even pay a contractor to start some foundation works, or for land clearance and superficial preparations to be made to their land to demonstrate that \u2018works are underway\u2019. Many times we have seen this model collapse, and expensive luxury-car-driving developers are suddenly humbled and must give up all control and assets to the bank that amazingly decided to lend them money for speculative sale projects.
\nThis is of course at the worst end of a spectrum in which there are many successes but, nevertheless, this is a reality of the business environment and, wherever possible, must be avoided at all costs.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

What does \u2018due diligence\u2019 really mean?<\/strong>
\nIf you ask different lawyers from different law firms, you may receive similar lists, some longer than others. However, it is worth conducting an inexpensive \u2018preliminary\u2019 due diligence on who you are doing business with, before you even spend time, resources and monies on exploring a business investment opportunity, of any nature whatsoever \u2013 be it real estate, a joint venture into a potentially profitable food and beverage outlet, a hotel or a travel business.<\/p>\n

Here are some very basic checks:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Google Results \u2013 has the person extensively deleted Google information under the \u2018Right to Be Forgotten\u2019. What was forgotten…?<\/li>\n
  2. LinkedIn information \u2013 does this match up with other information provided, or are there conflicts? I remember some ex-staff of mine subsequently changing their profiles to represent they \u2018managed\u2019 the business I owned, when they were actually only junior employees. LinkedIn has no truth verification process.<\/li>\n
  3. Department of Business Development online check.<\/li>\n
  4. Department of Business Development physical check for more information on corporates.<\/li>\n
  5. Litigation check of individual; corporates to idenfity cases filed in the court. This is a province-by-province check and the records are not necessary \u2018national\u2019 or updates as such. Therefore specific checks of the relevant court system are required.<\/li>\n
  6. Asset check \u2013 land, shares. It is not possible to ascertain what land a person or company owns simply through a public check.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Summary<\/strong>
    \nSome people will conduct a quick Google search of someone, and forget that they might see what the other person wants them to see. Con artistry is as sophisticated as the technology we all use. Therefore, basic checks of information, comparing results and conducting diligent enquiry is an irreplaceable measure of caution that is unlikely to be replaced by any automated process anytime soon.<\/p>\n

    By Desmond Hughes, Senior Partner of Hughes Krupica.<\/strong>
    \nHughes Krupica is a law firm which specialises in Real Estate; Construction; Hospitality; Corporate; Commercial; Personal Injury; Dispute Resolution; and Litigation, operating in Bangkok and Phuket, servicing clients in relation to their business activities in Thailand and in other regions of Asia.
    \nwww.hugheskrupica.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If you are a short or long term visitor to Phuket, you will discover that there isn\u2019t a shortage of good opportunities for investment, but that there are also an abundance of scams too. Be cautious, take your time, observe, check, observe again \u2013 before making commitments. Hurry to say the least In a world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":544,"href":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions\/544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thephuketnews.net\/WOP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}