Thai man loses 50,000 baht after being blackmailed with explicit video

A Thai man revealed he contemplated suicide before turning to the police after losing 50,000 baht to a scammer who blackmailed him with an explicit video.

The victim told the Police Cyber Taskforce (PCT) that he met a Thai woman on social media who claimed to be a teacher. After a period of online conversation, he asked her to be his girlfriend.

She said she would agree to go out with him if he made a video of himself showing his face and penis and send it to her.

The victim complied and sent a naked video of himself masturbating. The woman immediately revealed herself as a scammer. She demanded money from the victim by threatening to release the video on social media.

The victim revealed that he transferred money to the scammer three times, totalling 50,000 baht. He did not have any more money to give to her and planned to commit suicide before going to the police for help.

PCT officers reviewed the bank account that the victim transferred money to and discovered that it belonged to a 64 year old Thai man called Niphon. Police successfully tracked down and arrested Niphon on January 8 on a beach in the Sattahip district of Chon Buri province.

Niphon denied involvement in blackmailing and extorting money from the victim but admitted that he once joined a scam call centre gang in Cambodia. Niphon claimed that he is homeless but used to live with his family in the Isaan province of Nakhon Ratchasima. He added he went to Cambodia with many people in the community to work for the scam gang last year.

Niphon said the gang ordered each Thai person to open bank accounts in exchange for 7,000 baht per account. He opened three accounts and got 21,000 baht. He only worked with the gang for six days and then returned to Thailand.

Niphon claimed that he did not know how the scam gang used his bank account and insisted that he was not involved in the scamming processes.

Despite his denials, Niphon faces one to 10 years in prison and a fine from 20,000 to 200,000 baht for violating Section 338 of the Criminal Law: threatening to reveal a secret of another person for money or other benefits.