Is the Movie 'Hostel' Based on a True Story?

Hostelsclub published an interesting article about whether the movie Hostel is based on true events:
http://www.hostelsclub.com/article-en-597.html

Apparently, some incidents involving torture for money happened in Thailand with organized crime, but not with tourists and not with hostels:

The truth behind 'Hostel' has its roots not in the lands of Eastern Europe, but in the side-open spaces of Thai villages, where organized crime syndicates rule and poverty forces residents to part with family members for excessive amounts of money. These people are then transported to cities, where the rich and the weirdly psychotic gamble to see how long their victims survive being tortured. From this game, a deeper one evolved, where people started paying exorbitant amount of money to torture and kill these victims.

It would be interesting to find out more about that.

Many people seem to think the movie Hostel is based on true events. One person on Twitter even said he didn't study abroad because he thought the movie was based on true events(!).

Does anyone know more about the background of the movie(s) and the incidents in Thailand?