Monk’s plea: Thai woman scams 78 year old monk of 800,000 baht

A 78 year old Thai monk from Rat Samakkhi Temple in Chon Buri urged police to track down a woman who swindled over 800,000 baht from him. The monk added that he will forgive her and stop the legal process if she presents herself to the police and take responsibility for her actions.

The community leader, Yotsadhammo Puangsisang, accompanied the monk to the Plutaluang Police Station to file a complaint against the scammer on July 29. However, the case had not developed, so Yotsadhammo reached out to Channel 3 to spread his story and pressured the suspect.

Yotsadhammo revealed to the media that the woman first asked for money from him in April last year. She made the monk feel sorry for her by saying she had been made bankrupt and lost everything in her life.

The woman asked for money so she could travel back home to the central province of Chantaburi but did not have enough money to fill up her car with fuel. Yotsadhammo decided to support her.

After that, the woman visited Yotsadhammo at the temple several times and asked for money each time. She initially requested 1,000 baht but it increased to over 100,000 baht per time until Yotsadhammo had given her all of his savings, 850,000 baht.

Yotsadhammo disclosed that he started saving when he entered the monkhood 20 years ago. He even gave his monthly 700 baht government allowance to the woman.

Yotsadhammo said the woman then disappeared and blocked him on every channel. He wants her to surrender to the police and return the money she borrowed from him. He expressed his willingness to forgive her and drop the legal process.

A similar scam was reported two years ago when a monk fell victim to a fraudulent call centre, losing nearly 500,000 baht to the scam gang. The scammers lured the monk into transferring money to them by saying the amount was his mother’s debt. The cyber police managed to track down the scammers and arrested key figures last year while the other four suspects remained at large.