This happened near the village where we have a home where we stay when not in Bangkok.
One young village girl, 16 years old and from a poor family found an 40/50 year old expat online from a city 50 or 60 km away, and they chatted online for few months. He speaks and chats in English and she only knows Thai. Then a month ago, during the school holiday the guy visited and offered to marry the girl. The family seemed to think a dream came true and asked for half million baht financial support, which was negotiated down to 200.000 or less. There was no real marriage and no paperwork done. Lots of stories were going around as the family has to ask other villagers to help with translations...
Then the guy stayed in the village for a month with the girl and after the first days it went downhill according to the stories. The guy could not communicate in Thai and his only interest seems to be in the sex. He then left and took all that he bought for the family with him. Now they seem to have broken up, with the girl staying in another village for her safety, and the foreigner coming back the first time, threatening with lawyers and police to demand back the money, and coming back a few days later with flowers to make up and ask to take the girl with him.
Surprisingly, after all this time, nobody knows his name or address, not even the "wife". Nobody knows where he lives, what he does for a living etc.
So many things are wrong, so many red flags, and with a foreigner involved (who should know better!).
If the girl would have been forced to go with the guy then this would be trafficking but luckily she is still in the village.
I am interested to hear your views and if there are similar experiences, and suggestions on what to do / not to do.