Thai millionaire loses over 63 million baht to romance scammers

[webfact]

 

Police arrested two women and three Thai men for orchestrating a romance scam spanning six years, during which they swindled a millionaire out of more than 63 million baht.

 

The Thai millionaire realised he was being scammed after nearly going bankrupt. He revealed the whole story to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) leading to the arrest of the main romance scammer, 35 year old Nontikarn, on February 27 in the central province of Ayutthaya.

 

According to the victim, he met Nontikarn on a dating website in 2016. Nontikarn approached him with an online profile of a beautiful woman and introduced herself as Ice. The victim continued to talk to Nontikarn for years, even though they had never met.

The victim then planned to marry Nontikarn but their wedding was put on hold because the scammer claimed she was suffering from cancer. Nontikarn asked for money from the victim by claiming that she had to pay for her treatment, pay off her family’s debts, invest in real estate, etc.

The victim was convinced of his girlfriend’s existence, largely due to Nontikarn’s cunning strategy involving other scammers posing as her family members, who visited the victim on multiple occasions.

 

The CIB officers reported that the victim transferred money to Nontikarn 690 times during six years of their contact, and the loss was more than 63 million baht.

 

Scammers arrested

 

Nontikarn admitted to running the romance scam and sharing the money she earned with her family members and other scammers in the gang. They spent the money on luxury houses and cars, designer branded products, land, cruise holidays and other items.

 

Nontikarn’s confession led to the arrest of the other four scammers on March 18 including a 30 year old woman named Krittika, a 34 year old man named Kongphop, a 31 year old man named Jeerasak, and a 30 year old man named Wachira.

 

The five scammers face three charges including:

Section 342 of the Criminal Law: committing fraud by impersonating another person. The penalty is imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to 10,000 baht, or both.

Section 14 of the Computer Act: importing false information into the computer system to cause damage to a person or the public. The penalty is imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to 100,000 baht, or both.

Section 9 of the Act on Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering: entering into a conspiracy to commit money laundering. The penalty is imprisonment from one to ten years, a fine from 20,000 to 200,000 baht, or both.

 

 

by Petch Petpailin

Photo via Facebook/ POLICETV สถานีโทรทัศน์สำนักงานตำรวจแห่งชาติ

 

Source: The Thaiger 2024-03-27

 

 

 

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[2long]

A fool and his money are......

[OneMoreFarang]

12 minutes ago, webfact said:

The victim continued to talk to Nontikarn for years, even though they had never met.

That is the part which I don't understand about many similar stories.

 

How can you trust someone who you never met in real life?

And if you both think you love each other, why don't you meet?

 

If you meet in person the perfect woman, and she makes you happy, and then she scams you, that is bad enough. But at least there is a person who impressed you enough to fall for her.

But some online only contact? Strange! 

[Kaopad999]

What a total dimwit. The lengths some guys will go to for a bit Pu*** 😽

 

[Kaopad999]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

How can you trust someone who you never met in real life?

And if you both think you love each other, why don't you meet?

it's mind- boggling... 
I struggle  to feel sorry for the victim in these cases. 

[JeffersLos]

The police finished the investigation by offering them employment. 

[sammieuk1]

Has he got any money left? just asking for a friend 🤔

[MarkT63]

How did someone so thick become a millionaire in the first place??

[reefsurfah]

Thai romance at its finest 

[simon43]

4 hours ago, Kaopad999 said:

What a total dimwit. The lengths some guys will go to for a bit Pu*** 😽

 

But he never got any pu***!!  He never even met her.....

[Liverpool Lou]

6 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

That is the part which I don't understand about many similar stories.

 

How can you trust someone who you never met in real life?

And if you both think you love each other, why don't you meet?

Because they're scammers and scammers have the skills to avoid those situations, if they didn't, they wouldn't be scammers!

[Elkski]

Guy was going to marry her after 2 years talking but never meeting?  Must have great line sex.   Guy could have afforded fresh giks for 20 yesrs

[JackGats]

Usually the theft of men's money happens through the family court these days.

[CartagenaWarlock]

It is hard to believe that a person with 2 million USD will lose everything for a romance scam. 

[Denim]

8 hours ago, 2long said:

A fool and his money are......

 

And yet somehow he had a lot of money ???  Did he inherit it or what ? If not he must have been either lucky or astute enough to have earnt it ?

 

Now't so queer as folk

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Because they're scammers and scammers have the skills to avoid those situations, if they didn't, they wouldn't be scammers!

 

Yes, I understand that that is what criminals try to do.

But if I would be interested in a woman, then I would want to meet her. What's the point of having a "romantic relationship" without ever meeting her?

So: no meeting, no relationship, no fraud. 

[BayArea]

makes you wondered this dote became a millionaire in the first place! 

[spidermike007]

Real men might do some online dating but they'll message each other a couple times and then they'll meet. For a guy to continue to become pen pals with somebody over a long period of time and then start sending them sums of money without ever even having met Is the very definition of a SIMP and a half man. Real men don't do this kind of thing. This guy deserves every bit of torture and loss he's endured. 

 

I blame alot of it on social media. And dating sites are great opportunities for scam artists. Alot of people just do not understand how corrosive, damaging, degrading and nasty social media can be. There are an infinite number of scammers, predators and fraudsters out there. Most of us have the good sense to avoid them, and not get taken in by their unwillingness to do actual work for a living. It boggles the mind, to consider the number of people who fall for these scams. Someone calls you, or contacts you online, and you send them money? Someone you have never met? Someone you have not researched? What gives? Where are the survival instincts? 

 

How is a youngster supposed to have the wisdom to know? Granted being asked to send naked pics to a stranger is a bit much. But, I am sure it happens all the time. There is little chance of these people getting apprehended. Very little. And it is a strong indication of just how bent, warped and misguided contemporary culture and society is, that someone can be considered an idol or celebrity just because they have alot of followers on Tik tok, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Personally, I consider social media to be the most corrosive and degenerate force in culture today, and they can be downright dangerous, on multiple levels.

[still kicking]

9 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

That is the part which I don't understand about many similar stories.

 

How can you trust someone who you never met in real life?

And if you both think you love each other, why don't you meet?

 

If you meet in person the perfect woman, and she makes you happy, and then she scams you, that is bad enough. But at least there is a person who impressed you enough to fall for her.

But some online only contact? Strange! 

I agree I met my Thai wife online, but I met her many times in real life before I decided to marry her. We are married for over 20 years now.

[Dolf]

8 hours ago, Kaopad999 said:

What a total dimwit. The lengths some guys will go to for a bit Pu*** 😽

 

Or a bit of typing...

 

 

[Kaopad999]

7 minutes ago, Dolf said:

Or a bit of typing...

 

 

true, but the puss* is the motivation 

[OneMoreFarang]

3 hours ago, Kaopad999 said:

true, but the puss* is the motivation 

I am sure there were enough p not far from him, every day... 

[rwill]

And he only notifited the police after he ran out of money....

[Zack61]

10 hours ago, Elkski said:

Guy was going to marry her after 2 years talking but never meeting?  Must have great line sex.   Guy could have afforded fresh giks for 20 yesrs

I wonder if he ever made video contact with her or was it all audio communication.

[neeray]

This story defies any reasonable explanation.

[mizzi39]

Dumb a#s

[AhFarangJa]

Small head ruling the big head, but, as He never met Her His hands must be well calloused....Hasn't got two brain cells to rub together.

[Brick Top]

16 hours ago, Kaopad999 said:

What a total dimwit. The lengths some guys will go to for a bit Pu*** 😽

 

Lol  , but this poor bloke didnt even get his leg over, he could have just gone to a local massage parlor for a decent shag 3 times a week using the interest on his 65 million 

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

The victim then planned to marry Nontikarn but their wedding was put on hold because the scammer claimed she was suffering from cancer. Nontikarn asked for money from the victim by claiming that she had to pay for her treatment, pay off her family’s debts, invest in real estate, etc.

The victim was convinced of his girlfriend’s existence, largely due to Nontikarn’s cunning strategy involving other scammers posing as her family members, who visited the victim on multiple occasions.

Some really sick people out there.

[jacko45k]

16 hours ago, Kaopad999 said:

What a total dimwit. The lengths some guys will go to for a bit Pu*** 😽

 

And he didn't even get any of that!

I wonder if the police will also pursue the outstanding 1,760,732 cases of foreigners who also  got scammed similarly by their Thai girlfriends/ wives/boyfriends etc etc over the last decade or two.