Thai woman duped out of 1 million baht by fake police call centre scam
Years of part-time earnings since 15 years old vanish in online fraud
A Thai woman lost more than 1 million baht to a call centre scammer who posed as a police officer and issued a fake legal charge against her. She said she had been saving the money since she was 15 through various part-time jobs.
The 25 year old recent graduate, Ploy, filed a complaint with Huai Khwang Police Station yesterday, October 23, after being contacted by the scammers on Wednesday, October 22, and transferring over 1 million baht to the gang.
According to Ploy, the first scammer claimed to be staff from a mobile network company and told her she had registered a phone number linked to online gambling and other illegal activity. The call was later transferred to someone pretending to be an officer from Mueang Loei Police Station.
The fake officer claimed he needed to investigate her financial transactions and demanded that she transfer money for the legal proceedings.
Ploy said the fake officer then contacted her via the LINE application, showing a police uniform and an ID card with the name Nittinai Thepthian during a video call. Several other men also posed as police officers, speaking to her on the call. She was instructed not to hang up, leaving her no time to verify their identities.
Ploy added that the scammers knew her full name and other personal details, which made her believe they were genuine police officers.
She first sent 630,000 baht to the bank account of a woman named Maratree Prathan, then 400,000 baht to a man named Supharuek Waenthong, totalling 1,030,000 baht. The scammers then pressured her to send another 500,000 baht, but she had no more money and could not borrow from friends.
Ploy later became suspicious, researched similar scams online, and realised she had been deceived. She then stopped the contact with the scammer and reported the case to the police the following day.
She said the money she lost came from years of part-time work since she was 15 and that she now had nothing left.
The victim warned the public not to speak to strangers on the phone or transfer money without verification. She urged the government to take stronger action against scammers, saying, “This should be a top priority, but scammers are still deceiving Thai people every day.”
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