Not every love story in Thailand ends well, and this tag gathers exactly those cases: people who trusted someone and eventually discovered that money, not the relationship, was the real interest. These are harder stories to read, but necessary ones, because they lay out in detail the warning signs that went unnoticed the first time — urgent requests tied to a supposed dowry, sudden family problems that always get solved with a transfer, or pressure to rush visa paperwork. If you're starting a long-distance relationship, these stories are worth reading carefully. A repeated refusal to video call, always with a different excuse, is one of the signs that shows up most right before the first money request.
A German from Frankfurt recounts how, on his fourth trip to Pattaya, he spent 27 days with Siri, a 28-year-old bar worker, until he saw her holding hands with another man and she gestured for him not to speak. A final goodbye message changed little.
A Mancunian recounts how five years with a Thai woman who claimed to own a hotel in Chiang Mai ended with over £30,000 lost on land, a house and a pickup truck, and a suitcase packed within seconds the night he said no.
A 52-year-old American looks back on his ten-month relationship with Tan, a Phuket bar girl who was honest from day one about how it worked. Knowing exactly what he was getting into, he fell anyway, until she told him she was marrying someone else.
A recently retired American looks back on his relationship with a Thai woman he met in Hong Kong. What began as a romance with visits to Bangkok turned into a growing list of monthly payments, until he discovered he wasn't the only man supporting her.
A 50-year-old Australian met Mali in Bangkok, a highly educated woman he spoke to every day for months. When she finally told her mother about the relationship, her mother demanded a $35,000 dowry and $2,000 a month. The story of a breakup nobody considers normal, not even Thai people themselves.
On his first trip to Thailand, a 34-year-old Frenchman met two women: a genuine massage-shop worker and a Patong bar owner who started asking him for money for everything, food, petrol, even the pool table rental. The story of how he told one from the other.
A 54-year-old Austrian had been travelling alone to Thailand for years when he met Aom, a pregnant woman, with no expectations between them. Months later she asked him for 60,000 baht for her mother's hospital bill. Instead of sending the money, he flew to Kanchanaburi to check it out in person.
On New Year's Eve 2023, a 44-year-old Dutchman spent the whole day with a bar girl in Pattaya, covering food, pool and beers at a Soi 7 beer bar. Half an hour before midnight, her supposed Canadian boyfriend turned up. Months later he found out the same setup kept repeating with other foreigners.
Before a trip to Bangkok, I met up with a woman from a dating app. She said it was her birthday and took me to her favorite restaurant. The bill came with no breakdown: 6,000 baht. When I asked for an itemized version, she got up and vanished. The real bill, from the kitchen, was less than half that.
Conor, a 44-year-old from Ireland, spent months video-calling Ning, a 26-year-old from Samut Sakhon, before meeting her in person. The relationship survived a pregnancy scare and a confession he'd been hiding from the start: he was married with three kids. What he discovered about her afterward changed everything.