Bogus baht bills bankrupt shopkeeper in costly counterfeit conundrum in northern Thailand

A significant financial loss was experienced by a 61 year old shopkeeper from Udon Thani, due to counterfeit banknotes.

Buaphan Somsud filed a complaint with the local police station today after discovering someone had used 50 baht counterfeit notes in her shop’s top-up machine.

Buaphan, who owns a grocery store in the Ban Lao community, reported the incident to the Deputy Inspector of Udon Thani Police Station. She notified him that someone had used five counterfeit 50 baht banknotes to top up their account using the JJ Top Up machine in her store. This act had caused her significant loss, and she wished to report the incident to the police for further investigation.

The event took a turn when Buaphan showed journalists the top-up machine located in front of her grocery store. Inside the cash box of the machine, four counterfeit 50 baht banknotes were found mixed with genuine 100, 50, and 20 baht notes.

Buaphan shared that an 86 year old local man came to top-up his account earlier that day. When the machine failed to work, indicating that it was out of cash and could not accept any more money, the man reported the issue to her. Upon opening the machine, she was shocked to find four counterfeit banknotes along with some valid ones, reported KhaoSod.

Expressing her disappointment, Buaphan stated that she didn’t expect this type of dishonesty in today’s society. She appealed to those who had used the counterfeit banknotes, pleading with them not to repeat such actions.

She emphasized that she works hard to make a living and this incident has not only cost her money but also her time. Instead of receiving real money, she ended up with counterfeit bills, causing her significant distress.

Con artists are exploiting online refill machines to carry out fraud using money mule bank accounts, according to a warning issued by Thai police yesterday. The alert yesterday, November 22, was initially raised by the Sai Mai Must Survive (Sai Mai Tong Rot) Facebook page, which posted a video warning of the deceitful practice primarily occurring in Thepha district, Songkhla province.

The police urged individuals to report any suspicious behaviour to their local police station or call 191 available 24 hours. Read the original story HERE.