Japanese expats say they lost 30 million baht in retirement visa investment scam

[mogandave]

Well, my ฿800k drawing 1% at Krungsri is looking better and better.

[the green light]

3 hours ago, natway09 said:

As the saying goes

"If it looks too good to be true, it probably is "

Bit gullible, me thinks

not exactly a total money scam...may be in good time it was transparent.. and they can interest.

when the flow of tourists stopped, they were uncovered an they could not pay the interest.. so they folded an went out of business.

here is my best guess how they operated. : they take Bht 1 million baht and at 10% per year. they will pay Bht 100,000... so it will take them 10 year to repay the loan however their intention is to keep Bht 0.5million for themselves. So in 5 years if they cannot get other suckers in the deal, they just run away to laos 

the money that they took from the Japanese is an investment money and if the business dried up these Japanese get nothing. there is no business and no collateral.

anything over the norm interest rate is risky. money must come in in order money to leave.

 

 

[the green light]

Just now, the green light said:

not exactly a total money scam...may be in good time it was transparent.. and they can get  interest.

when the flow of tourists stopped, they were uncovered an they could not pay the interest.. so they folded an went out of business.

here is my best guess how they operated. : they take Bht 1 million baht and at 10% per year. they will pay Bht 100,000... so it will take them 10 year to repay the loan however their intention is to keep Bht 0.5million for themselves. So in 5 years if they cannot get other suckers in the deal, they just run away to laos 

the money that they took from the Japanese is an investment money and if the business dried up these Japanese get nothing. there is no business and no collateral.

anything over the norm interest rate is risky. money must come in in order money to leave.

 

 

 

[Truth Will Set You Free]

Greed on both ends.......

If you had 800,000 baht, place it in an account and leave it alone. Why use it to invest when you have what you need?

It seems the older they get the dumber they get......... Thailand has always been about scams. 

Money gone, so head back to Japan and get more. 

 

[Bradmeister]

Halle lou ya!!!!

Not, Foreigners ?, not " them"? 

But Thai Visa and Chiang Mai News and Events, and its also the RTP actually called a group of Men, Japanese ExPats???

Finaly, we are calling men, men, and residents, residents, and Japanese, Japanese.....

Its a Miracle! 

[spidermike007]

Two Thai friends of mine, recently paid 80,000 baht each to an agency, for overseas work. They went to Bangkok, to take an english language proficiency test, then never heard back. Later, they found out they were scammed, along with 100 others.

 

My question to them was, what kind of due diligence work did you do? Did you ask for references from people who had already worked overseas, under that program? They claimed it was a govt. program, administered under the department of labor. Did you ever call the department of labor to inquire? Did you ask to see the license, or the contracts first? Why was the money sent by wire transfer? Why was it sent to an individual, rather than an official agency. There were red flags everywhere you looked, yet they were continued to believe, and ended up totally duped.

 

"The investors then visited the office where the woman and her Japanese boyfriend had been working only to find it shuttered, with the couple nowhere to be found". Huh? Wouldn't you visit the office first, if you were investing a million baht? For a mere 20,000 baht, they could have hired a good private investigator, who could have told them it was all a scam, after minimal research. 

 

Why are some people so reckless with their money? What gives? Who transfer large sums of money without doing some diligence work first?

 

 

[Muzzique]

Investing in a criminal enterprise then moaning that they stole your money....  !?

I've never heard of anything so stupid.. 

If you put money into a business that openly plans to finance fraud then why on earth would you think they won't defraud you?

DUH!! 

 

 

[cocopops]

The article says "invest", but I would think that "participating in a criminal conspiracy" would be just as applicable... At least some of them must have been aware that it was an illegal operation.

[gunderhill]

4 hours ago, dabhand said:

The poster was stating that Japan was a well functioning country. I was merely pointing out a possible flaw in his comment.

Do keep up......????

Although I'm sure  the  Japanese law would deal with this way   better than the brown envelope Thai "law"

[gunderhill]

33 minutes ago, Muzzique said:

Investing in a criminal enterprise then moaning that they stole your money....  !?

I've never heard of anything so stupid.. 

If you put money into a business that openly plans to finance fraud then why on earth would you think they won't defraud you?

DUH!! 

 

 

The  biggest criminals  however would be the immigration officers  overseeing  all this.

[kennw]

4 hours ago, easydoor said:

No compassion at all. Investing money in something what is complete illegal??? How stupid can you be? 10% return must make you think if you have a brain.

Totally agree but would like to add that when people are prepared to support an illegal scheme, lending money to those who cannot meet the legal requirements via back door methods, Immigration authorities tighten the rules even further and that causes inconveniences to those of us that do and always have followed the rules. Som Nam Nar

[Thumbs]

So they have gone to the police to report they tried to become involved in visa fraud and in the process were scammed 

[Mayhem11]

Scammers come from all countries. 

[Patong2021]

8 hours ago, Ramdas said:

Oh dear I feel sorry for the Japanese victims to this scam, clearly you’re far better off and safer in  a civilised well functioning country as Japan, I don’t get it,  why wasting your time and money in Thailand’s land of scams and corruption ????????‍♂️

Don't be so quick to blame Thailand. Did you miss the part of the woman having Japanese "boyfriend"?

These scams have a common way of working - a fellow countryman brings in the customers, wins their confidence because he is Japanese and can be "trusted". The Thai accomplice does the rest. If you think the Thai came up with the scheme all by herself you are mistaken. Almost always, it is the foreigner who talks Thai into doing the crime. Dig deeper and I think you will find a questionable history to the Japanese boyfriend.

[RichardColeman]

4 hours ago, Oldie said:

This does not work anymore. The immigration checks how long you had the 800 and 400 thousand on your account. 

I seriously doubt that, if that were true - using agents - about 90% of my friends around the pool, would have been deported by now for not showing it 90 days later (or even 3 hours later). Which they have not.

 

 

[Rinrada]

Scams R uz...eh..week or 2 ago...  Police in Pattaya are hunting for a 49 year old real estate agent, name removed to protect..., who is alleged to have scammed both Thai and Foreigner Residents in a 45 Million baht property scam. .....etc

 

[EricTh]

What the.... This is really relevant to most of us retirees.

 

 

[EricTh]

2 hours ago, kennw said:

Totally agree but would like to add that when people are prepared to support an illegal scheme, lending money to those who cannot meet the legal requirements via back door methods, Immigration authorities tighten the rules even further and that causes inconveniences to those of us that do and always have followed the rules. Som Nam Nar

 

Yes, that was exactly what happened when they extended to 800K 5 months instead of 3 months. 

Now it might worsen the requirement, they might raise the amount even further or the duration. We have those scammers to blame.

Could somebody post photos of these scammers? I happen to live in Chiang Mai and might meet them.

 

[Rinrada]

10 minutes ago, EricTh said:

What the.... This is really relevant to most of us retirees....                That was a manager in a Thai Bank...no boundries..

 

 

 

 

[Rinrada]

1 minute ago, Rinrada said:

 That was a manager in a Thai Bank...no boundries..

1 minute ago, Rinrada said:

 

 

 

[cardinalblue]

Not too bright on how to invest money...

investing in people who don’t have enough money to meet the minimum financially...

did they not ask themselves how and who is that 10% being generated? 
 

you are loaning/covering monies for persons who don’t have it?

[ctxa]

1 hour ago, cardinalblue said:

Not too bright on how to invest money...

investing in people who don’t have enough money to meet the minimum financially...

did they not ask themselves how and who is that 10% being generated? 
 

you are loaning/covering monies for persons who don’t have it?

I'm sorry to break it for you. But that's the whole point behind loans / credit. And damn right it makes the big ones a hell ton of money. One of the most profitable businesses in the world.

The problem here was not the idea. It was the person running it, they had no intentions of even running any business, they were just running a scam, to try to get as much money as possible. And the boyfriend was Japanese, so even worse. Hope they catch them.

[Mr Dome]

It was likely the presence of her Japanese boyfriend that put them at ease as Japan is the country with the most honest people I have ever seen.

Sadly, even among the Japanese there are bad apples and among expat-Japanese, removed from the strict social controls of their homeland and perhaps under the bad influence of a local partner the % might be significantly higher than at home.

Oh well, you can't go through life without incurring some losses, as I tend to say.

[ross163103]

11 hours ago, Crusader said:

But, yet again, some people are just too eager to try a make a quick profit...without really asking themselves if it is too good to be true.

Exactly! Kind of like the that "guaranteed XX% return" on condo rental" investment scam, sorry, plan. 

[Iron Tongue]

11 hours ago, khunpa said:

Just shows that having lots of money to “invest”, is not equal to having common sense.

They were even investing in something that was illegal.

Idiots!

 

You think multiple people with a combined 30million baht is a lot of money?  

Nice to heap scorn on retired people who have lost a significant portion, if not all of their life savings.  Seniors are preyed-upon in every country of the world.

I'll be sure to play some violin music if anything bad ever happens to you.

[TherealG]

14 hours ago, Crusader said:

Sad...feel a bit sorry for those who lost out to the scammers. But, yet again, some people are just too eager to try a make a quick profit...without really asking themselves if it is too good to be true.

 

14 hours ago, Ramdas said:

Oh dear I feel sorry for the Japanese victims to this scam, clearly you’re far better off and safer in  a civilised well functioning country as Japan, I don’t get it,  why wasting your time and money in Thailand’s land of scams and corruption ????????‍♂️

First off, you have such distaste for thailand, why are you on here? Just too troll?

Secondly, this was their fault and responsibility. There's a sucker born everyday. They broke all the rules of investing, the biggest one being investing money they didn't have to lose or invest.

Hopefully, lesson learned.

[scubascuba3]

Seems easy to scam people in Thailand

[hotchilli]

16 hours ago, webfact said:

The investors then visited the office where the woman and her Japanese boyfriend had been working only to find it shuttered, with the couple nowhere to be found.

30 million baht, they're in paradise city now... 

How does the saying go "no fool like an old fool" ?

[wavodavo]

16 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

Now she can open another agency to help these guys out with a loan...

Old saying...A fool and his money soon do part !

[visarunner]

13 hours ago, Oldie said:

This does not work anymore. The immigration checks how long you had the 800 and 400 thousand on your account. 

Spot on, you are well informed. A couple of Immigration does the cross check. Pattaya and Samut Prakarn for sure.