Exchange scams in Phuket: clone websites, fake Telegram accounts and how to verify you are talking to CAT Exchange

What happened with cat-ex.com?

Someone registered a domain one hyphen away from ours and copied our brand onto it. Visitors who typed the short version of the name landed on a page that looked like CAT Exchange and were handed a Telegram contact that belongs to another party.

Key facts

• CAT Exchange never asks for a deposit before a rate is agreed within the 60-minute hold.
• CAT Exchange operates a single office, open 12 hours a day, 09:00 to 21:00.
• The phone and WhatsApp number, +66 84 263 9185, answers within minutes.
• A confirmed rate holds for 60 minutes after you agree it in chat.
• Declining DCC saves 3 to 7 percent of a transaction as of 2026.
• Thai ATMs charge foreign cards a fixed 220 THB per withdrawal on top of any DCC markup.
• An ordinary exchange completes in up to 15 minutes at the Bang Tao office.
• A written quote is agreed in chat before money moves, within the same 60 minutes.

We are naming it here because silence helps whoever set it up. If you reached this page through any address other than cat-exchange.com, close the other tab and start again from ours.

How does a clone website work?

Three moves, always the same. The operator registers a domain that reads like the real one, copies the design, the logo and often whole paragraphs of text, then swaps out one thing: the contact details. Everything else stays convincing because it was written by the company being impersonated.

Common domain tricks in this niche include dropping a syllable, adding a word such as "official" or "pro", swapping a hyphen for a dot, changing the ending from .com to .net or .site, and using a lookalike character. Read the address bar letter by letter before you write to anyone.

How do fake Telegram accounts work?

They copy the avatar, the name and the description, then wait to be found. A fake account rarely approaches you first. It sits in search results, in the footer of a clone site, or in a comment under a post in a local group, and it looks right until you compare the handle character by character.

Two more habits protect you. Open a chat from a link on cat-exchange.com rather than from search, and never continue a conversation that moved to a new account "because the old one was blocked". Real offices do not migrate customers mid-deal.

What are the official CAT Exchange contacts?

One office, one phone, one Telegram handle, one email.

There is no second branch, no partner office and no agent collecting money on our behalf. Anyone offering to meet you elsewhere as a CAT Exchange representative is not one.

The about page and the Bang Tao office page carry the same details, and the Google Maps profile shows the same address and hours.

How do you verify the office in a minute?

Six checks, none of which needs technical knowledge.

1. Type the domain yourself: cat-exchange.com. Do not follow a link from a message.
2. Compare the Telegram handle with @CatExchange1, character by character.
3. Call the phone number published on the site. A working office answers.
4. Check the Google Maps profile for the Bandon-Cherngtalay Rd address, the hours and the photos.
5. Ask for a written quote with the amount, the rate and the payout method before anything moves.
6. Refuse any prepayment. No deposit, no "network fee in advance", no "confirmation transfer".

What other exchange scams appear in Phuket?

Clone sites are the online version of older tricks that still run at street level.

• Board bait. A headline rate applies to one denomination or one amount, and the fine print sits where nobody reads it. Ask for the rate on the notes you hold.
• Commission after the count. The rate looks strong, then a percentage disappears at the end. Ask whether the rate is net before you hand anything over.
• The fast count. Notes counted at speed, out of your line of sight, then handed over short. Count them yourself, at the counter, before you leave.
• Dynamic currency conversion. Not a scam in the legal sense, and it still costs 3 to 7 percent as of 2026 when you let a terminal charge you in your home currency instead of baht.
• The crypto meeting. A stranger who wants to meet in a car park and asks for the transfer first. The USDT guide sets out the safe sequence.

What do you do if you already sent money?

Act in the first hour. Save the chat, the domain, the wallet address and the transaction hash, screenshot everything before it disappears, and report the account to the platform. Contact the Thai tourist police on 1155. If a bank card was involved, call your issuer and ask about a chargeback.

Then tell us. A report about a clone using our name helps us push for a takedown, and it costs you one message on WhatsApp or Telegram.

How does the real office make a deal transparent?

Everything is written down before anything moves, and nothing is added afterwards.

Current numbers sit on the rates page and the USDT flow is described on the USDT to THB page. Both start from the same domain and the same phone number.