Elderly woman in Phuket arrested for running gambling fraud scheme
Police arrested a 71 year old Thai woman for a gambling fraud scheme, swindling more than 9 million baht from a businesswoman in Phuket. She was also found involved in similar cases that caused losses exceeding 64 million baht.
The elderly suspect, identified only as Sor, was arrested today, August 20, in Talat Nue subdistrict of Phuket. Her arrest was made after one of the victims filed a police complaint after losing over 9 million baht to Sor and her accomplice.
The victim revealed to police that she advertised land in Phuket for sale for about 2 million baht. Sor and other criminals in the group, whom police described as a “buffalo gang”, approached her for further information about the land sale.
Sor and a Thai man known as Dome pretended to be interested in buying the land. After gaining the victim’s trust, the pair introduced her to another man known as Suea.
According to police, Suea arranged for the victim to meet another woman named Hong, who pretended to be a wealthy woman and showed an interest in a traditional gambling game known as “Fan Tan”, involving guesses about pumpkin seeds.
Suea then encouraged the victim to join the gambling game with him and taught her techniques that convinced her she was certain to win.
The victim eventually agreed to put money into the game. During the early rounds, the group reportedly pretended to lose by having Hong guess incorrectly five times in a row.
The victim then became more confident and increased the amount of money she wagered. After that, members of the criminal gang secretly removed one pumpkin seed to manipulate the result and ensure that Hong won.
Suea then pretended to become angry and blamed the victim, claiming that she had caused a pumpkin seed to go missing and was therefore responsible for losing the bet and paying the entire amount.
The group repeated the deception, switching between different tactics until they had obtained more than 9 million baht from the victim. The victim eventually realised she was deceived and later filed a complaint at Thalang Police Station.
KhaoSod reported that police reviewed criminal records which showed that Sor had been involved in similar cases across Thailand for about 15 years. Her actions caused damage of more than 64 million baht.
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