Catfish hooked: Gay Thai man arrested for reeling in victims
Police arrested a gay Thai man in the central province of Chachoengsao on Monday for using fake social media profiles of attractive women to approach men, trick them into sex calls, and blackmail them for money.
The LGBTQA+ suspect, 25 year old Adisak, was arrested at a welfare home in Chachoengsao at about 4.30pm on Monday, October 7, under Section 338 of the Criminal Law: money extortion. Adisak strongly denied the accusations and attempted to destroy all of the evidence on his mobile phone.
Adisak’s arrest came after one of the victims filed a complaint with the police, stating that a Thai woman approached him through the Instagram account @mint_m_m3 and asked him to engage in a sex call with her. She then recorded the call and used it to blackmail him for money.
The victim said that the woman threatened to share the recording with his colleagues, forcing him to transfer money to her multiple times. The total loss exceeded 300,000 baht. When he could no longer transfer money, he decided to seek help from the police.
The police investigated the Instagram account and discovered that it was operated by a gay man, not the woman in the profile picture. With clear evidence, the police sought an arrest warrant and managed to apprehend him on Monday.
During the arrest, police searched Adisak’s mobile phone and found that he was operating multiple fake accounts under the usernames @mint_m_m3, @ksnj655, and @Javjj26. He used pictures of attractive women to attract attention from his victims.
More than 100 men were deceived, and some did not even realise the criminal activity until they were contacted by the police.
When asked where Adisak obtained the women’s pictures, he claimed that he bought a second-hand phone and that the pictures belonged to the previous owner.
Under the charge specified in Section 338, Adisak faces imprisonment of one to 10 years and a fine of up to 200,000 baht.
