Important Warning - Cell Phone Scam

[AjarnP]

I have always been of the opinon that my nearest and dearest was one of the less gullible of the ladies we call wives, faincees, girlfriends and other endearments. READ ON IT'S IMPORTANT

The other half) has been receiving phone calls (unbeknownst to me) to ask her to enter her cell-phone number into a draw and win cash prizes and or a car even. Chancing her luck she has happily provided details of her phone number to be entered into the draw.

Today, this is Saturday by the way, she received a phone call to say she had won second prize in the cash sum of THB 80,000. "How quickly can you get to an ATM machine?" they asked. Well....in latter years the old eyes are not what they were and the sun was shining on the ATM screen and being of such good faith she asks the guy what she had to do. push this, enter that, push the first button again and again and again and again and again and again (is that eight times...it should be!!!)

She has (i'll be kind here) been duped out of a large sum of money. What's the "she" BS it's "we"!!!

PLEASE, PLEASE BEWARE OF PHONE CALLS COMING IN SHOWING A "PRIVATE" NUMBER CALLING. IT IS A SCAM, THE BANKS CAN'T HELP COZ YOU PRESSED THE CONFIRMATION OK BUTTON AGAIN, AGAIN AGAIN (ENOUGH ALREADY). THEY CANT STOP IT COZ IT WAS AN ATM TRANSACTION ON A NON-WORKING DAY. THE POLICE CANT DO ANYTHING COZ THEY NEVER DO. NO, THAT'S A BIT UNKIND, THEY HAVE BEEN AS HELPFUL AS THEY CAN BE WHEN TALKING TO THE IDIOT THAT FELL FOR THE SCAM WHILST TRYING HARD NOT TO SNIGGER. AIS, THE PHONE SERVICE PROVIDER ARE (bit late to tell us now) AWARE THAT THE PROBLEM EXISTS BUT COZ THE BANDITS ARE USING TTT P.C.S. TELEPHONES THEY ARE ABLE TO HIDE THEIR NUMBER. AIS ARE UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING.

JUST BE CAREFUL IS MY EXPENSIVE ADVICE

Ajarn P

p.s. feel free to pass this on to your friends if you like

[goski]

I've heard about this before and as you noticed it is a devious trickery! Let them burn I say, together with people that lure money from elderly people that sometimes don't know any better.

[toptuan]

Assuming the money was transferred to a third party account, the bank would have a record of who that recipient was. Even if your wife pressed the confirmation button a hundred times, it was still a swindle/extortion and you should have legal rights, both within the Thai banking industry and the law. You need to take matters into your hands and be very proactive (and quick) about this. I believe there's a possibility for a resolution to this. (If not getting your money back, at least to catch the culprit).

• Did your wife get the printed ATM receipt? That would be half the battle, methinks. If not, the bank should still have a record of who the recipient was.
  

• At the least, YOU could go to your bank, and follow up on it first thing Monday morning. Take your ATM receipt with you. If not, provide them with the details of your account, time of transaction, location of ATM, amount, etc.
  

• From there, you should press the bank to follow up with the authorities immediately. My guess is that a bank pressing the authorities would get more results than an individual making the complaint.
  

• Furthermore, see if they will also give you the recipient's bank, account #, and name (if not shown on your ATM receipt).
  

• I would then follow up with the recipient's bank as well. If it's a different city/district, press that bank to go to the authorities immediately as well. Ask them what additional recourse you have with them, if one of their customers swindles money out of you, using their banking services. Some banks may attempt to settle with you and then find recourse with their insurance, rather than allow this to become a public relations nightmare by it going public.
  

• If all else seems to fail, and the banks don't seem too concerned, tell your bank and/or the recipient's bank that you will take this story to the media. If this doesn't move them, then go to the Bangkok Post or Nation, and ask to speak to a reporter on the crime beat. Take with you all the details you have, ESPECIALLY the names of the banks involved. The Nation also has a Thai language newspaper so you may get more coverage. If it boils down to this last step, act quickly, because the media doesn't like old news.
  

Transferring to a third account is the only way I can think of for your wife to have lost money to someone else through an ATM (unless, of course the recipient was standing behind her with knife to her throat). If she made an ATM "payment" the details captured (name, bank, account number) should be essentially the same.

If money wasn't somehow transferred to another real account, there seems to be a hole in the story here, somehow...

Good luck, and let us know if you made progress on this despicable scam.

Edited February 11, 2007 by toptuan

[skippybangkok]

Well, reminds me of the Nigerian scams. Not sure why she really bought into this stuff, it should of had alarm bells hanging all over it. As the saying goes, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". If anyone has gulliable wives / family ( my mom is sweet and believing ), instill in that no one walks up to you and gives you something for free.

By the way, we got done by a maid recently, but she turned out to be a clepto-idiot. Was taking things so obvious, even an alzheimers patient could pick up on it. Got some friends in a detective branch we bought over, and had a crying confession in 15mins. If you have maids, leave some "scraps" around every now and then to see if they "clean" too good. (by the way, her cleaning sucks)

[solo siam]

I don't really understand how they could have convinced her that transferring all of her money into someone elses account is part of the 'winning' process.

[AjarnP]

I don't really understand how they could have convinced her that transferring all of her money into someone elses account is part of the 'winning' process.

Ben,

That's why its called GULLIBLE!!!! It is normal Thai mentality from my experience when one is called by a recorded message followed by pressing 9 and getting to speak to a human being that tells you you have won some money. His excuse was that you are entering a code to receive the prize funds. When the ATM screen is almost illegible through sunshine being reflected off it and when teh guys is telling you to rush or you'll lose the prize. Well............

If hindsight were forsight we'd all be geniuses

Cheers

AjarnP

[AjarnP]

Assuming the money was transferred to a third party account, the bank would have a record of who that recipient was. Even if your wife pressed the confirmation button a hundred times, it was still a swindle/extortion and you should have legal rights, both within the Thai banking industry and the law. You need to take matters into your hands and be very proactive (and quick) about this. I believe there's a possibility for a resolution to this. (If not getting your money back, at least to catch the culprit).

• Did your wife get the printed ATM receipt? That would be half the battle, methinks. If not, the bank should still have a record of who the recipient was.
  

• At the least, YOU could go to your bank, and follow up on it first thing Monday morning. Take your ATM receipt with you. If not, provide them with the details of your account, time of transaction, location of ATM, amount, etc.
  

• From there, you should press the bank to follow up with the authorities immediately. My guess is that a bank pressing the authorities would get more results than an individual making the complaint.
  

• Furthermore, see if they will also give you the recipient's bank, account #, and name (if not shown on your ATM receipt).
  

• I would then follow up with the recipient's bank as well. If it's a different city/district, press that bank to go to the authorities immediately as well. Ask them what additional recourse you have with them, if one of their customers swindles money out of you, using their banking services. Some banks may attempt to settle with you and then find recourse with their insurance, rather than allow this to become a public relations nightmare by it going public.
  

• If all else seems to fail, and the banks don't seem too concerned, tell your bank and/or the recipient's bank that you will take this story to the media. If this doesn't move them, then go to the Bangkok Post or Nation, and ask to speak to a reporter on the crime beat. Take with you all the details you have, ESPECIALLY the names of the banks involved. The Nation also has a Thai language newspaper so you may get more coverage. If it boils down to this last step, act quickly, because the media doesn't like old news.
  

Transferring to a third account is the only way I can think of for your wife to have lost money to someone else through an ATM (unless, of course the recipient was standing behind her with knife to her throat). If she made an ATM "payment" the details captured (name, bank, account number) should be essentially the same.

If money wasn't somehow transferred to another real account, there seems to be a hole in the story here, somehow...

Good luck, and let us know if you made progress on this despicable scam.

Hi Toptuan, and thanx for your advice.

Heres' where we are now.....

yesterday (Saturday) she was still speaking to the idiot when we pulled up in front of the Police Station which was only 5 minutes away in Mae Chan. Constable Plod heard the end of the conversation through the cell phones speaker. Believe it or not I was in the car as this was going on gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

An immediate call was placed to the bank in question and as I said earlier they were unable to 'stop' the transfer. Our stay at COnst. Plod's place took 8 yes, eight hours. during which we had all the receipts laid out and were constantly calling the banks. The banks though, were unable to help.

As it stands now. 'Er indoors has been given a PoA from Plod and is flying to BKK to visit the receiving bank at opening time on Monday. We have found out though that the receiving account has no money in it. What this appears to mean is that the money was transferred out before it got cold. It was too large a sum to have been withdrawn so it had to have been a transfer methinks.

Fortunately, in the days of computers (bless their socks) at least a trail must have been left somewhere. All we have to do is try to follow the footprints so to speak.

Your advice about going to the press is one that hadn't occurred to us. It is good advice and I will tell "she who used to be obeyed" to get onto it PDQ

Thanks

Ajarn P

[ProThaiExpat]

In the U.S. there are many scams preying on the older citizens where in announcements of winnings are made and it is after the phone contact is made that the gullible "winner" is convinced that the Cadillac they won will be deliverd once the license and registration plus sales tax are paid, "winners" cost.

Police are hot on it but every year, one reads of many taken by this and similar scams. My mother was in the middle of one and I was lucky to stop it before she sent in her "costs" She was quite angry at me for keeping her new Cadillac from her. She was 85 at the time.

Edited February 11, 2007 by ProThaiExpat

[LindsayBKK]

This was a Thai news item more than 6 months ago. Thais being called to say they have won money and need to go to their local ATM and tranfer account details. They were given more a Thai mobile number to call for transfer information. Unfortunately many people have been hooked and seems it's still going. Funds are actually being transfered to China where it's started. Some people even transfered funds more than once.

[lopburi3]

I strongly suspect the bank account will have been set up with borrowed documents and lead no place. Some banks have allowed very high amounts of withdrawals (believe Bangkok Bank was 150k or more per day although, perhaps because of this, some have reported it being lower now).

[britmaveric]

stupid!!!!!