Mother and daughter arrested over 7 million baht fortune-telling scam
Appears the pair weren’t smart enough to predict the police coming to their door.
A Thai fortune teller and her daughter have been arrested after charging a customer more than 7 million baht for predictions and forecasts about their life. Normally, fortune-telling sessions, popular in Thai life, range between 100 and thousands of baht, depending on the popularity of the fortune teller and the methods they use.
And then there’s the fortune tellers who adorn their predictions with additional elaborate rituals than push up the price. 48 year old Samorn and her daughter 19 year old Sukanya were arrested with and arrest warrant from the Roi Et Court, north-eastern Thailand.
Samorn aka. “Auntie Doctor” rented a space at a Roi Et market in 2018. Sukjai was one of her victims that walked in and decided on a session. Samorn informed Sukjai that she had bad luck in her life, according to the cards, and that she “will be unhappily burdened with a heavy problem”.
Samorn offered to help her get rid of her bad luck but (surprise) she would have to purchase offerings for the ritual.
To make things even easier, Samorn claimed that Sukjai didn’t have to be with her when the ritual was being done. Instead would send a photo confirming the ritual had been completed. But Samorn kept calling Sukjai with more warnings about impending bad luck, including references to members of her family.
Now time to super-size the scam!
Samorn stated that she could solve ALL of Sukjai’s bad luck. Over a period of 4-6 months in 2019 Samorn had used her daughter’s bank account to bank the money transfers from Sukjai. The full amount totalled 7,285,622 baht.
Police investigated Samorn and Sukanya and discovered they used the same scam with other victim, taking advantage of their lack of education and personal sadnesses There were 2 other victims in Samut Prakan province with damages totalling 220,000 baht. In the case of one of those victims Samorn returned 170,000 baht in exchange to not take the case to court, according to Thai Residents.
The fortune telling gang told police they’d used the money for gambling, online casinos, had purchased 2 vehicles and renovated their home in Roi Et, so the money was all gone. The pair have been sent to the Pathumrat Police Station for prosecution.
SOURCE: Thai Residents | INN News
