Retired Professor Falls Victim to 22,8M Baht Thai Call Centre Scam

[webfact]

 

In an alarming tale of deception, a 76-year-old retired university professor has been swindled out of an estimated 22.8 million baht (approx. £500,000) by a scammer masquerading as a police officer from Mueang Nakhon Sawan Police Station in central Thailand. The victim, known as Su, spoke out about his ordeal in an interview with Channel 7.

 

Su, who worked diligently to amass his savings during his teaching career, lost his entire nest egg in a span of just 11 days. The scam began with a call to Su’s wife, who declined to engage.

 

Persistence paid off for the scammer, who succeeded in reaching Su on June 2. The caller claimed Su was implicated in a crime in Nakhon Sawan and needed to file a complaint to clear his name.

 

When Su mentioned travelling to Nakhon Sawan was inconvenient, a fraudster visited him pretending to be a police officer.

 

This "officer" convinced Su that his personal details had been used to open a bank account linked to the sale of 200,000 methamphetamine tablets. Under the guise of clearing Su's name, the fake officer requested to evaluate Su's assets.

 

 

Threatened with legal repercussions if he disclosed the "investigation," Su was coerced into withdrawing and transferring his savings. Over a series of transactions, Su withdrew nearly 23 million baht.

 

The scam continued until he attempted to withdraw an additional 5 million baht from an account earmarked for his daughter. At this juncture, bank officials intervened, notifying his daughter, who then realised her father had been duped.

 

Still reeling from the betrayal, Su is baffled by how meticulously the scammer understood his routines and preferences, even dropping off supposed police gifts.

 

Su and his daughter have since lodged a formal complaint with the Cyber Police, hopeful of recovering the lost funds. The incident underscores the importance of vigilance in the face of increasingly sophisticated scams.

 

Screenshot: TV Channel 7

 

-- 2024-06-26

 

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[Tropicalevo]

20 minutes ago, webfact said:

Su is baffled by how meticulously the scammer understood his routines and preferences, even dropping off supposed police gifts.

Scammed by a policeman maybe?

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Scammed by a policeman maybe?

There is a very fine line between the two....

[ryxyz]

A tool and his money are soon parted. One would think that at the very least a retired professor would have been reading/listening to/watching the (Thai) news regarding these scams in the last few months.

[brianthainess]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The scam began with a call to Su’s wife, who declined to engage.

Well she seems to have her head screwed on., my wife is the same and just hangs up, without even talking, as soon as they say we are the police.

[Gottfrid]

Another one who just agree and depart from his money. Moron.

[natway09]

Sad , but stupid

[Dogmatix]

I got calls from scammers pretending to be police with a cock and bull story I had transferred money to someone who was implicated in money laundering and drug dealing. He had my full name, address,I D number and phone number.  They set up background noise to sound like a police station which sounds quite realistic.  I asked the guy to give me his name and rank and the name and location of his police unit, saying I would look up the phone number on the internet and call him back on the fixed line.  He was obviously unhappy at that idea and just kept repeating the name of the unit he claimed to be form but didn't give his name  or rank.  So I hung up. That was about 7 months ago. At first they called several times a day after that but I never answered but blocked all the numbers which were easy to recognise because they will all 06 TRUE numbers, usually with the numbers in series or very close to each other. The numbers are all blocked from receiving calls. The calls still come in a couple of times a week. So they are very persistent.  Must have a supervisor cracking the whip over them, probably somewhere just over the border in Cambodia.

 

There is obviously a lot of complicity with these criminals.  They seem to be able to buy pre-paid numbers in bulk that originate from the mainstream telcos , despite strict regulations requiring ID cards to buy a mobile number. They must be buying lengthy lists of personal data from government departments,  banks and the like. 

[BangkokReady]

It's obviously easy to fall for a scam, and these people are probably very professional, but "we need you to send us your money so we can investigate it" just sounds so unbelievable.  How would they even "investigate" it?  The money doesn't exist physically.

 

This must be the third one of these on here in a couple of weeks.  Don't Thais read the press or pass around information about scams currently going on?

[john donson]

8 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Scammed by a policeman maybe?

 

someone working in the bank checking high value customers (10+ million) + old age 

 

professor did good... 40 years saving 40k+ every month... do they pay well or is there more to the story ?

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:35 AM by john donson