Hehe yeah, and i'm sure he'll enjoy it.
Surely you have to have your wits about you stay safe there, but i've been to thailand very often, and it's not -that- dangerous a place compared to many other countries. Yes, there are the ladyboys, the tourist traps, the gem-scams, the tuktuk-scams, risk of diseases and what not.
But this is not really something specific to thailand (well, apart from the ladyboy thing perhaps), you will encounter such things when travelling to any country in southeast asia.
I think the safest countries in the region are singapore, malaysia and thailand, roughly in that order.
One thing is that scammers and fraudsters somehow are able to spot first time visitors and target them. I'm not sure how they do it, but i've noticed that the first time i was in thailand i got approached by shady figures much more often than on any subsequent visit.