Click "like" on ads and get free money - Foreigners and Thais fall victim in massive online swindle

[RocketDog]

Greed, gullibility, and poor judgment are a potent cocktail for failure. 

Always some eager takers though. 

[CapeTown]

8 hours ago, J Town said:

The instant you see "just send money" you KNOW it's a scam.

Surely not?

[robsamui]

The reporter needs to get the facts straight.

It was NOTHING in connection with clicking 'LIKE" - that's nonsense - simplistic and uninformed assumption. It's a child-like piece of reporting.

The numbers of people involved and ripped-off were in the hundreds of thousands - possibly even millions.

It's not just Thailand - it's also Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Philippines, Singapore, 
It's now been traced to a website owned and managed by people in China.

The amount of money lost overall was in the many millions of DOLLARS - I know  of thousands of people hit in Thailand alone - some of whom put 1 million baht into the scheme.

Police all over Thailand are being bombarded by people trying to recover their money
News is just beginning to break on this massive fraud.

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/crime/huge-pyramid-scheme-and-scam-uncovered-involving-1000s-of-people
https://www.facebook.com/groups/178136257003415/

Edited February 10, 2021 by robsamui

[Badboldie]

8 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

i have been running a similar scam for decades. 

 

after you have sex with me 100 times we will get married. 

 

one of the reasons i had to leave the US. 

Ah... because they brought in and sex marriage, and you had no more excuses to give him! 55555

[Caldera]

They should have just bought bitcoin instead. Seriously.

 

[mrfill]

If 10 of you doubters want to see how to make a million, just send me 100K each and I'll tell you......

[Anant72]

9 hours ago, keith101 said:

OMG there are suckers everywhere . The story is that if it sounds to good to be true and they keep asking for more money then you're going to be ripped off , a CON is a CON .

Exactly. A fool and his money are soon parted. I cannot feel any sympathy for these people.

[Pique Dard]

13 hours ago, webfact said:

play a few games and click like on ads then they would get 6% on their investment. 

too good to be true!

[Taco]

10,000 victims in Thailand? 555 there are 5000 victims (idiots) just on koh phangan. These guys who put this together made billions of baht. It was very interesting watching people loose all  rational common sense and later their cash. Som naam naa 

[jacko45k]

22 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

I wonder if they initially got money back and it was so good they put more money in

Yes, that was stated.

[jacko45k]

18 hours ago, Caldera said:

They should have just bought bitcoin instead. Seriously.

 

Similar comments came about wrt bitcoin when it came out.... I still don't see why it is a better gamble than what the subject is here!

[scubascuba3]

33 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

Yes, that was stated.

a very sophisticated scam, risk giving money out to get more back. The laundering of the money has already been well thought through, no chance getting it back. Would be a good movie

Edited February 11, 2021 by scubascuba3

[bangon04]

23 hours ago, Pique Dard said:

too good to be true!

but but Thais are normally so careful - they usually consult fortune-tellers and Monks about whether they should give money to unlikely investments in their future, and they collect lucky amulets and lucky numbers and lucky smears of paint to guard against just such ripoffs. Thais are known for their circumspection and caution.

[Leaver]

19 hours ago, bangon04 said:

but but Thais are normally so careful - they usually consult fortune-tellers and Monks about whether they should give money to unlikely investments in their future, and they collect lucky amulets and lucky numbers and lucky smears of paint to guard against just such ripoffs. Thais are known for their circumspection and caution.

 

Yet, all of the things you mention that are supposed to protect them, can not protect them from their own greed.  

[berrec]

There will always be ignorant fools that scammers will take advantage of; that's why scammers continue to be successful!

[xylophone]

On 2/10/2021 at 3:54 PM, Sujo said:

Its time internet providers put in more security on people to prove who they are. 

 

Its sad that anyone can run a scam and be that anonymous.

 

I in no way blame the victims for being naive or gullible.

Interesting that you should say that, because I have just got off of my Facebook "messenger" and on it there was a message from a friend in New Zealand asking if I had received my Covid Financial Assistance payment yet?

 

I asked her how much it was and she said $100,000! So my response was that it would have to be a short-term loan with interest payable, and her reply was that no, it was given to you and she gave me a link to "speak" to the person concerned.

 

On messenger it also had a Facebook page called CFA, including a picture of the team who would decide about the money and it all looked very legit, however I was suspicious.

 

Further enquiring of my friend as to what the procedure was, "she" said that they would send me an account into which I would deposit $5000 and the next day $100,000 would be given to me, either in a bank account or cash – – which immediately rang alarm bells.

 

So I asked "her" a question about her previous address, and the response was about me not trusting "her" and so on, but "she" was unable to answer the question despite me asking it many times.

 

I said it was a scam and signed out, however that reference is still on Messenger, and I telephoned my friend in NZ and she had a couple of other people telephone her today asking after this scheme, so she reckons she's been hacked.

 

Don't know how many people were taken in by it, but it goes to show that there are some very sophisticated operators out there – – beware.