Golden getaway: Thai woman swipes Chinese man’s credit cards in Pattaya

A Thai woman is on the run after stealing credit cards from a Chinese man to buy two gold necklaces valued at about 33,000 baht from a gold shop in Pattaya.

Bang Lamung Police Station told Channel 8 that the 33 year old Chinese man, Dihui Wu Dihui, reported the theft of his credit cards to the police via a phone call on the afternoon of March 13. He explained that a Thai woman, whose identity he did not know, stole his credit cards while he was sleeping.

The Chinese man disclosed that he had met the woman on a dating application while he was in Bangkok. A week before the incident, they were travelling together in Pattaya and stayed at a hotel in Soi Khao Talo.

According to the Chinese man, he woke up on March 13 to see that the woman disappeared from his hotel room. Then, he received two messages from his banks on his mobile phone informing him that his credit cards had been used to buy gold necklaces worth 32,815 baht.

Thai police officer Sornsuphan Audthonsri-anan reported that he did not understand Dihui’s complaint due to the language barrier. So, they requested Dihui to meet them at the police station later, providing a Chinese interpreter. However, Dihui did not appear at the scheduled time.

According to the Facebook page, Esor New, the Thai thief remains at large, evading capture. The page alleges that Dihui wasn’t the initial target of this woman. She has been running a romance scam through a dating application for a while now, frequently altering her name and profile on the app to ensnare fresh victims.

Thai netizens questioned why the gold shop approved the sales despite the differences in the woman’s signatures and names on the cards.

Channel 8 reported that the owner of the gold shop refused to give an interview with the media. However, in a brief conversation, it was revealed that the woman used two credit cards to buy two gold necklaces until the credit limit was reached.

The owner added that she allowed the woman to buy the products because there were no names or signatures of the cardholders on the back of the cards.

Bang Lamung Police Station officers did not disclose the next steps of the investigation to the public.