If the adversary threatens you if you don’t give out (give up) the PIN then that is a robbery whether or not the adversary is a police officer.

The simple answer is that the reason why we trust our money to financial institutions is that we expect that if we are robbed via one of their financial vehicles, we will be protected.

That’s why you’re only liable for the first $50 of unauthorized charges when someone steals your credit card. Its why when banks fail, we get up to $100,000+ back.

Its one of the reasons why we carry ATM cards, credit cards, and even, (God forbid) traveler’s checks.

The premium, if you will, is that interest free loan that you give the bank so that it can lend your money to other people at ahigher interest rate to make money.

What are you talking about? Chris Elliott is a well known travel ombudsman who also writes for MSN. He gets involved in consumer cases because people ask him to. Chris will often post quotes from the letters written to him, so it’s pretty safe to assume that the first indented section was part of the letter written to Chris asking him to intercede.

For you people that did not get it Derek did not write this story….Also, poor little Derek is not cowering in the corner somewhere crying because I wrote some mean and nasty things here! .He probably does not even know this blog exists!

That being said, I do feel sorry for Derek for being robbed…It must have been scary..And I never said he deserved being robbed!

BUT, as I said earlier..He made some mistakes. And to all the people that have chastised me for not having any sympathy for Derek…I will again remind you of the title of this thread that reads…..”Warning to travelers” (as in listen up…you may learn something here!)

By the way, anyone who can quote the “Electronic Fund Transfer Act” verbatim.to a financial institution has enough “world experience” to know to get a police report after a robbery…Some-thin ain’t right here!! By the way this is no grade school child we are talking about here People!

Sure it’s OK to get mad at the bank…And think they should just pay it anyway…….RIGHT!…..

What ever happen to Personal Responsibility?!

I fail to see where Lianne did a 180. She said she doesn’t walk down the street assuming she may be attacked at any second, even though she has been attacked before.

From your previous post you made it sound like you feel the need to believe that every street you walk down may be dangerous. That’s your perogative. I hope that you don’t accidently “defend” yourself from someone who’s just trying to ask you what time it is.

Carver…

Nicely said.

That being said, I believe (as I have stated in previous posts) that if you are old enough to travel alone, especially to a big city or foreign country, then you have the responsibility to do a little research before you leave. Are there areas of the city that are more prone to crime than others? Are there schemes that are more prevalent in a particular city/country? If anyone, especially a college student alone, is travelling to a foreign country, he needs to have the phone number and address for the American Embassy with him at all times. If he is afraid to go to the police after a crime is committed, he should be able to talk to someone at his hotel/hostel who can assist him. Not wanting to appear stupid to strangers in a foreign country (not saying that is what happened here, but if it were my brother, that might prevent him from talking to authorities) is not an excuse for failing to act.

Again, this was a horrible experience for Derek and hopefully someone will read this post and know what to do should they be caught in the same situation. Most of the comments on this site are not meant to place blame on the victim, but to help other travellers who might not otherwise think about how to handle themselves when a situation arises. However, I can’t blame the bank for not reimbursing him the money without any documentation to back up his story.

I cannot agree that Derek is blaming others. He was the victim of a crime. By definition that makes it the fault of the criminals, not Derek.

I realize that you don’t have alot of sympathy for Derek, but i would remind you that at some point we were all novice travelers. As such, I would ask for some kindness towards this poor kid.

Not everyone knows to get a police report, especially some college student in a foreign country.I remember getting my license plate stolen when I was 21. I only made a police report because my parents told me I needed to. Clueless kids. Give them a break.

Again I say…Wow!

I see I will not win this with a person that does not debate fairly….And frankly I have better things to do with my limited time here!

But the fact still remains that Derek could of, and should have done a few things different to protect himself before he was taken advantage of, and after to cover his butt.

And the fact that Derek put himself in the situation of being a foreigner on an un-inhabited dark street in a place that is known for problems was his first…And not getting a police report to cover his butt, being the last.

Again, I would hope Derek and the readers of this blog would come away with more than the scenario that “He did not deserve what he got”.. That is just blaming others for a situation Derek should have never let himself get into!

And again I say…This was an inexpensive learning experience. Get over it!

The Courts do not consider themselves collections agencies. That being said, it can be a real beast to collect money from an individual. However, collecting from a bonafide business is usually fairly easiy by comparison.

I lived as a single female college student in New York City for 4 years. Two of those years were spent on the edge of Spanish Harlem. During that time I successfully fended off 2 purse snatchings, one in broad daylight. I know a thing or two about situational awareness.

However I did not then, nor do I now, spend every waking moment thinking that someone is out to get me. That’s called paranoia and is recognized as a mental disease.

My point was that no one *deserves* to be the vicitim of a crime, no matter how ill-prepared they are, the way that some people on this blog seemed to be insinuating. As the crime was occuring, Mr. Wilairat *was* aware of his surroundings and acted in the way that would get him out of the situation in the way that he believed would cause him the most amount of physical harm. That should be commended.

Insane you say Lianne? Hmmm! I think it would drive me insane NOT to be prepared for constant danger! Because I’m a realist!
I would also call that taking care of one’s self! Or being self sufficiant. And no Lianne, people such as my self and most of the people I know are not going insane from being aware of one’s surondings…It keeps people alive!

By the way Derek, I’m sorry you lost $300…But like others have said consider your self lucky that’s all those scum bags got…And think of it as a learning experiance.