75 year old Thai woman loses over 18 million baht to romance scam
A 75 year old Thai woman lost over 18 million baht to a romance scam within just a few months of making contact with the scammer. The scammer tricked her into investing in a deceitful company called Gold Future.
The victim’s son told Channel 7 that his mother invited him to invest in the Gold Future business in early July. She told him that he would make twice as much money from the investment. He immediately knew it was a scam because of the impossible profit and warned his mother to stay away from it.
Then, in August, the Thai woman borrowed 1 million baht from him and his brother. His mother later told him that she had borrowed money from relatives to settle their household expenses. He was confused because his mother never had financial problems before.
He later found out that his mother had transferred 18 million baht to the scammer on October 6. He brought this issue to her attention but she remained steadfast in her belief that Gold Future was a legitimate enterprise. He had to ask his friend, who was a police officer, to explain it to her until she understood.
The mother agreed to tell her sons the whole story. She explained that a Thai man called Thavisak, also known as Tee, reached out to her via Facebook. Tee initiated their conversation by pretending to send a message to the wrong person, thus initiating a connection.
The mother admitted that she had been taken in by Tee because he had expressed his concern by sending her flowers when she was hospitalised.
The mother said she continued talking to Tee and started a romantic relationship with him. Tee then invited her to invest in the Gold Future business and she transferred 100,000 baht to Tee for the first time on July 13. She then sold her diamond and gold accessories and borrowed money from relatives to invest in the business.
According to her son, his mother transferred money to the scammer 17 times and more than 18 million baht swapped accounts.
The son said he called Tee after learning about the money his mother had transferred. Tee assured him that his business was entirely genuine and vowed to send him documents to prove the claim.
He tried to establish Tee’s real identity by checking with the flower shop but the shop refused to disclose customer information.
The son said he had already filed a police report and the case is still under investigation. He wanted to warn every family to keep a close eye on old family members to avoid falling prey to these scammers.
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