Thai farmer’s life savings harvested by call centre scam

An elderly Thai farmer has fallen victim to a call centre scam, being coerced into losing his entire life’s savings of over 3.2 million baht.

The farmer, 74 year old Thongchai Boonko filed a complaint at Nongprue Police Station in Chon Buri today. He reported receiving a phone call from a man claiming to be a government officer from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI).

The incident occurred a week earlier on June 12, when the unknown caller falsely accused Thongchai of being involved in money laundering and demanded he transfer money to their account for inspection.

Using a fake profile picture of a police officer obtained from a social media messaging application, the scammer threatened Thongchai with freezing his bank account if he did not comply.

In a state of panic, Thongchai withdrew his entire life savings and transferred 3.2 million baht to the account provided by the scammer. After realising he had been deceived, Thongchai sought help from his family and reported the scam to the police.

Remarkably, the scammer bravely attempted to contact him again during the reporting process, using the same tactics, he demanded the remaining funds in Thongchai’s account to be transferred.

Thongchai expressed deep regret, noting that the lost money represented his lifetime of hard work as a farmer. Police are currently investigating the situation, reported the Pattaya News.

In related news, a well-known lawyer in Ratchaburi province staged another protest outside a local bank after losing over 1.1 million baht to a call centre scam. The lawyer, who had previously used extreme measures to protest, threatened to take drastic actions if the bank did not return his money.

During his last protest, the lawyer had poured poo over himself in front of the bank. He returned to the bank today as promised, where he was met by nearly ten police officers from the Ratchaburi City Police Station, who were present to observe and prevent any incidents.