Catfished by catfish: Gay Thai man nets 120 suckers in fake fishing scam
Officers from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) arrested a gay Thai man for using a fake social media profile, posing as a beautiful woman, to trick 120 victims into sending masturbation videos of themselves before selling the videos online.
CIB police discovered a secret group called “Gril grop” on the Telegram app, where explicit videos of male university students from the Lat Phrao area of Bangkok were shared. Most of the videos showed victims stripping off their clothes and masturbating.
Members of the group were required to pay 200 baht for access to all the videos, with membership restricted to those personally chosen and invited by the group’s administrator.
Further investigation revealed that the administrator was a 25 year old man named Apiwut, also known as Ten. Police arrested Apiwut at his condominium in the Lat Phrao area yesterday, September 16.
Apiwut confessed to his crimes, stating that he used a fake profile on a dating app to attract male users. He would then gain their trust and persuade them to record explicit videos, which he saved and sold in the Telegram group.
A search of Apiwut’s mobile phone revealed that 120 young men fell victim to this scheme. Apiwut is now facing three charges, including:
- Section 5/6 of the Act on Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking: operating human trafficking by seeking benefit from creating or distributing explicit media. The penalty is imprisonment from six months to four years, a fine from 50,000 to 400,000 baht per victim, or both.
- Section 287 of the Criminal Law: producing, possessing, importing, exporting, or distributing indecent documents, paintings, publications, pictures, advertisements, photos, films, voice records, or other materials The penalty is imprisonment of up to three years, a fine of up to 60,000 baht, or both.
- Section 14(4) of the Computer Act: importing indecent information into the computer system which the public is likely to access. The penalty will be imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to 100,000 baht.
