Koh Samui: Bank customers beware - manager in alleged 9 million fraud got another job on the island

 

Picture: Daily News

 

An assistant bank manager who a customer claims stole 9 million baht of her money using a fake ATM card and fake signatures on withdrawal slips has just moved to another bank. 

 

The alleged thief is claimed to still be working on the holiday island of Koh Samui.

 

The scandal dates back years but is only now fully coming to light. 

 

A woman in the real estate business in Surat Thani claims that the manager used fake signatures to get an ATM card before emptying a savings account over many years with withdrawals in the 10,000 to 100,000 range. 

 

They also got 1 million baht using a fake signature on a withdrawal slip. 

 

It is not known if the assistant took a job at another branch or a different bank - either way the bank has not been named due to Thailand's tough defamation laws, notes Thaivisa. 

 

After years of trying to get her money Jittima Suphannapong, 43, has gone to the press in desperation. 

 

Years of pressing the bank in question and a full year after filing a police report nothing has happened to get her money back. Now with a downturn in the real estate market Jittima is desperate for the money stolen from her. 

 

Picture: Daily News

 

The saga began in 2012 when she opened a savings account with 9.5 million from a land sale. The assistant bank manager at a newly opened branch was recommended to her by people in the real estate industry. 

 

Instead of looking after her interests she claims that between December of 2012 and December of the next year the assistant manager applied for an ATM card using a fake signature and ID and started to bleed her account dry. 

 

By 2015 9 million had gone missing. 

 

She said that she noticed this when a check bounced. Thai Rath did not explain how the theft had managed to go undetected for so long. 

 

She went to the bank to complain but in the four years since then nothing has happened. 

 

She claimed that the assistant manager in question - having got wind of the investigation - resigned and went to work at another bank on Koh Samui. 

 

Dissatisfied with progress in November 2018 she filed a police report. 

 

But still nothing has moved on in the case prompting her appeal to the press today. 

 

She presented evidence in the form of statements, ATM withdrawals and fake Thai ID signatures. 

 

The case comes after one last week where a famous restaurant owner in Samut Prakan lost millions from an account with Bangkok Bank. 

 

In that case the customer swiftly got his money back and a female bank employee is facing charges of embezzlement. 

 

Source: Daily News

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-11-20

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That's why I check my fixed accounts at least once a month,

You have bank robbers and here, robbers inside of the bank.

regards Worgeordie

1.  and within the bank, there was access to her actual Signature, each time a Cheque came in for Clearing.
2. The victims signature always evolves ever so slightly over time... so the thief could always keep her fake one, current!

I'm glad the idea of checking personal references is alive and well in the banking industry.

6 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

That's why I check my fixed accounts at least once a month,

You have bank robbers and here, robbers inside of the bank.

regards Worgeordie

That’s why my 800K goes in n out on my yearly extension day!

It's time the Government put the screws on the Banks and started massively fining them every time something like this happens.  Sadly; we all know nothing will be done in the 'Hub of Thieves'.

Not all cases like this go unpunished. Some years ago, a friend and neighbour had 20 million baht taken from his account whilst he was overseas.

He was building a house and his builder colluded with an assistant manager in the bank to steal the money using a copy of his passport and forged signatures.

The assistant manager was 'connected' and expected to escape punishment but my friend took them to court in Suratthani.

The case was easy to prove because the passport copy was an old one of an out of date passport (first used when he opened the bank account).

Both went to gaol.

An offensive post has been removed. 

3 hours ago, Olmate said:

That’s why my 800K goes in n out on my yearly extension day!

That's why I use monthly transfers. 800k in a Thai bank for 5 months and 400k permanently residing in the bank? Am I stupid?

It's been pouring Thai bank employee fraud cases lately... This one, the restaurant owner, the elderly woman -- all in the past week or so.

 

And those are just the ones that make the news.... not counting all the other ones that we'll never hear or know about.

 

Not surprisingly, Thailand is giving new meaning to the term "bank robbery".

5 hours ago, worgeordie said:

That's why I check my fixed accounts at least once a month,

And having bigger amounts on fixed deposits anyway.

At least no "fake ATM" card fraud possible.

 

Are people that naive not to monitor such amounts carefully?

Don't they know about email/SMS alarms?

Don't they use internet banking enabling them to check regularly?

Using more than one bank for such amounts?

 

An alarming number of bank frauds these days.

But the 1.58 billion Baht KMITL scandal (from 2015) remains unbeaten.

 

Should I increase to twice a day check?

 

 

 

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

And those are just the ones that make the news.... not counting all the other ones that we'll never hear or know about.

...you mean those that no one knows about so, by definition, they're just as likely to not exist as exist?

5 hours ago, worgeordie said:

That's why I check my fixed accounts at least once a month,

You have bank robbers and here, robbers inside of the bank.

regards Worgeordie

That's OK, but if you check your account on 1st of the month, and someone nicks your dosh on 2nd............

A good series just started on Channel 5 (UK) called COLD CALL. Similar type of stuff.

Anti defamation laws ? You mean you can,t call a thief a thief ? !!!

20 minutes ago, phantomfiddler said:

Anti defamation laws ? You mean you can,t call a thief a thief ? !!!

You can, but be prepared to be sued - even if they're guilty.

32 minutes ago, phantomfiddler said:

Anti defamation laws ? You mean you can,t call a thief a thief ? !!!

Best calling him a "tea leaf". I sometimes, in moments of anger, call Thai people "noodles". My wife always says, "why you call him doo doo?". Smiles to self.

38 minutes ago, phantomfiddler said:

Anti defamation laws ? You mean you can,t call a thief a thief ? !!!

Ridiculous isn't it? naming and shaming the expat financial advisers that breed in Thailand would have saved a lot of people money! me included.

Slowly but surely there is less and less that it is permissible to have an opinion on, before long people will just be looking at their mobile devices instead on indulging in intelligent conversation. ????

We will always have the weather to talk about though, we will just have to preface any conversation with "climate change" has allowed us a nice day today or ????

47 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

You can, but be prepared to be sued - even if they're guilty.

Friend of me got sued for defamation after a bad google rating. Company was found guilty of scamming him but defamation lawsuit against him is still ongoing. Absolute joke...

2 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

Anti defamation laws ? You mean you can,t call a thief a thief ? !!!

Not in Thailand... apparently!

1 minute ago, hotchilli said:

2 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

Anti defamation laws ? You mean you can,t call a thief a thief ? !!!

Not in Thailand... apparently!

You have to call them an unorthodox opportunity taker.

4 hours ago, DannyCarlton said:

That's why I use monthly transfers. 800k in a Thai bank for 5 months and 400k permanently residing in the bank? Am I stupid?

Please, Thai immigration chief, prevent us retirees from losing our 800,000 Baht (during the 5-month period) and 400,000 Baht (during the 7-month period). Don't give bank criminals the chance to clean us out! May you attain Nirbanna for your merciful compassion of our possible potential plight!

2 hours ago, bluesofa said:

2 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

Anti defamation laws ? You mean you can,t call a thief a thief ? !!!

You can, but be prepared to be sued - even if they're guilty.

but he won't get anymore money out of you, if he's already got it all...

2 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

Anti defamation laws ? You mean you can,t call a thief a thief ? !!!

 

No, because it damages their reputation and they can sue you for that. Even though they might have been jailed for the offence. The fact is that you have damaged their reputation, so they will win the case. Just another way that Thailand is different to the real world.

 

I have often wondered how, for example, you can be an honest restaurant critic in Thailand. I guess the answer is that you can't, because if you write negatively and damage their business they have the right to take you to court, Even if what you wrote is 100 percent true and can be proved.

3 hours ago, Just Weird said:

...you mean those that no one knows about so, by definition, they're just as likely to not exist as exist?

They do exist. I know of a male bank employee in my Amphur who went to prison after stealing 2m bht. Never made the national news. His girlfriend (member of sister-in-laws family) was lucky to escape prosecution as she received lavish gifts out of sync with his bank salary. The g/f's family are well connected with a local Headman. 

 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, joebrown said:

7 hours ago, Just Weird said:

...you mean those that no one knows about so, by definition, they're just as likely to not exist as exist?

They do exist. I know of a male bank employee in my Amphur who went to prison after stealing 2m bht. Never made the national news. His girlfriend (member of sister-in-laws family) was lucky to escape prosecution as she received lavish gifts out of sync with his bank salary. The g/f's family are well connected with a local Headman. 

Ok, that's one, just one, not "all the other ones"!.

I would think that there are more to that story, than revealed here...????

If the robber was a foreigner he would be doing time in thailand ... its time to sell and move on ... thailand is done ...  

10 hours ago, Just Weird said:

Ok, that's one, just one, not "all the other ones"!.

Well then, I'll give you another one for good measure! A middle aged family man stole money from the only bank branch in my Baan. He stole to gamble on the Fixed Price Football Odds, thinking he could win enough to reimburse the accounts he stole from. Never went to prison nor made the newspapers, because his extended family chipped in to pay back all he stole, in order to save face.

I'm one of many thousands of expats in LOS and I'm not a gambling man, but I know of 2 cases of bank employee fraud, so I wonder what the odds are on .........

the postman FAKED my signature on court papers he was supposed to only deliver in person and return to court if not delivered

 

but off course... after a complain , NOTHING happened ... he still has his job