Gay Boy Thailand

I have heard some half-baked warnings about extortion of gay men in Malaysia, where sex between males is illegal, and this is a call for specific information. If you know, could you please respond to this post?

At Utopia-Asia info on some Malaysian crusing spots says “beware of decoys”, but nothing more. Who are the decoys? How does the blackmail work? Is it about getting caught for having sex in public or is it in private too?

One reader wrote in a comment that he knew several gay foreigners who had been blackmailed for money in Malaysia. By who? How?

Finnish Man Survives Shakedown
Pattaya City News 22.3.2006

In a bizarre story that is yet to have a conclusion, a man from Finland happened to pick up a male bar worker from Boyztown on Friday night the 17th of March and was returning to his room in Jomtien by way of motorbike taxi when the trio were stopped by a car holding six Thai males. Two of these men were wearing police uniforms with the rank of sergeant. This pair asked the Finnish man for his identification papers and other information and then told him he was under arrest, without specifically detailing his alleged crime. The sergeants told the man they were from Prathum Thani province near Bangkok and would have to take him there unless he could come up with the sum of 700,000 baht to avoid prosecution.

The Finnish man said he didn’t have that amount of money lying around but would try and contact friends to raise the cash. He and his Thai male friend were then taken by the policemen to a hotel room in Central Pattaya. Because it was late at night the police and their friends were not as vigilant as they should have been and the bar boy was able to escape from the room while his captors fell asleep. He alerted Pattaya police who returned to the room to find only the Finnish man in residence.

It appears that the police and their accomplices decided to abscond after finding one of their captives had escaped. Pattaya police began investigations and on Wednesday they arrested a 45-year-old Thai man in Pattaya and charged him with kidnapping and holding a person for ransom. Pattaya police say they are searching for the two Prathum Thani sergeants who appear to have fled.