Dreams Shattered: 250 Thai Workers Left Stranded in Airport Scam, Losing Over 12 Million

[Georgealbert]

 

Picture courtesy of Khaosod.

 

A total of 250 Thai workers hoping to start lucrative jobs abroad were left heartbroken after discovering they had been victims of a fraudulent recruitment scam. The group, who had collectively paid over 12 million baht, gathered at Suvarnabhumi Airport on the night of 4 January, only to find their flights did not exist.

 

The victims, consisting of men and women from various provinces, had travelled to the airport based on promises of employment in agriculture and industry in Israel. Many had paid tens of thousands of baht to a recruiter known as Ms. Oi, who arranged their travel plans. Upon arrival at the airport, the workers discovered there were no flight reservations in their names.

 

Ms. Salinthip, a resident of Buriram, shared her story: “My son was approached by someone who claimed to know about well-paying agricultural jobs in Israel. We transferred 60,000 baht to Ms. Oi, who said she was the official representative. She instructed us to be at the airport tonight, but when we arrived, we realised there were no tickets. When we questioned Ms. Oi, she claimed she couldn’t contact the person in charge.”

 

Mr. Thanayut, 36, from Sakon Nakhon, revealed that he had transferred 120,000 baht and hired a van to bring him to the airport. “I was promised a monthly salary of 70,000 baht. They said the total fee was over 200,000 baht, with 120,000 baht paid upfront and the rest deducted from my salary. I trusted them because others had apparently gone abroad successfully through this process. I was devastated to find it was all a lie.”

 

Ms. Oi, 28, who acted as the go between, claimed she was also a victim of the scheme. According to her, she was approached by a woman named Ms. Fah, who posed as a diplomat at the Austrian embassy in Thailand. Ms. Fah allegedly convinced Ms. Oi to recruit workers in exchange for a commission of 2,000 baht per person.

 

Ms. Oi explained that after receiving payments from the workers, she converted the money into cheques and handed them, along with the workers’ documents, to Ms. Fah at the embassy. She claimed she had no knowledge of the scam until the victims arrived at the airport. The total amount transferred through her exceeded 12 million baht. Attempts to contact Ms. Fah have since been unsuccessful.

 

Pol. Lt. Chanathun Promraksa, deputy inspector at Suvarnabhumi Airport Police Station, advised the victims to file complaints at their local police stations where the transactions occurred. Due to the number of victims and the large financial losses, the victims were encouraged to file a collective complaint with the Crime Suppression Division.

 

The victims plan to gather on 6 January at 10:00 to submit their case to investigators. The incident highlights the ongoing risks posed by fraudulent recruitment schemes, leaving hundreds of families in financial ruin and calling for stricter oversight to prevent similar scams in the future.

 

-- 2025-01-05

 

 

[Geoffggi]

2 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

The incident highlights the ongoing risks posed by fraudulent recruitment schemes, leaving hundreds of families in financial ruin and calling for stricter oversight to prevent similar scams in the future.

I truly hope these people who scam others instead of working for a living rot in hell for all eternity 

[Briggsy]

The whole thing seems to have been done using word of mouth and nicknames. The amazing thing is Facebook is not mentioned once in the report.

 

Obviously very disappointing for those who have been ripped off.

[Will B Good]

 

 

Absolutely soul destroying for them.........even if the ******** who orchestrated this con are caught, I imagine there is little chance of the victims getting their money back.

[PoorSucker]

6 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

promised a monthly salary of 70,000 baht.

Greed. This should be a red flag.

[Patong2021]

The worst part is that there is no charge to work overseas for legitimate agricultural employers in Europe, Canada or Israel. On the contrary, the workers receive paid transportation and a designated facilitator escort. At the very least, they should call the country embassy to verify if the employer is legitimate. If it is a clean company it will be registered and  aided by the  business affairs consul.  

[Watawattana]

4 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

Greed. This should be a red flag.

No, not true.  They probably did their own research using a simple Google search and learnt that it was about average, so a "too good to be true" red flag would not have been set.    

 

I happen to know that domestic helpers get well paid in Israel, a lot more than in, say, Hong Kong.  So I took a look at the average pay for a farm labourer and found that 7,500 Shekel (70k THB) per month is the average.

 

https://www.erieri.com/salary/job/crop-farm-worker/israel

 

Patong2021's comment above is a different red flag of course.  Then again, Mr. Thanayut, 36, from Sakon Nakhon said that he trusted them because others had apparently gone abroad successfully through this process.  Key word is 'apparently' of course.

[BangkokReady]

3 hours ago, Watawattana said:

Then again, Mr. Thanayut, 36, from Sakon Nakhon said that he trusted them because others had apparently gone abroad successfully through this process.  Key word is 'apparently' of course.

 

Was "this process" the woman in question, or was it simply "this process" as in paying a fee in advance, meeting at the airport, then working abroad?

[hotchilli]

On 1/5/2025 at 5:49 AM, Georgealbert said:

Attempts to contact Ms. Fah have since been unsuccessful

Fah away ?

[loong]

On 1/5/2025 at 5:49 AM, Georgealbert said:

she was approached by a woman named Ms. Fah, who posed as a diplomat at the Austrian embassy in Thailand. Ms. Fah allegedly convinced Ms. Oi to recruit workers in exchange for a commission of 2,000 baht per person.

 

Why would she believe that someone from the Austrian embassy would be recruiting people to work in Israel?

[RichardColeman]

On 1/5/2025 at 5:49 AM, Georgealbert said:

They said the total fee was over 200,000 baht,

Some Thais are just complete, gullible idiots - sorry but its true. That's like a 15,000 baht per month wage for the year ! It's basically the equivalent of someone in my UK paying say £28,000 to work abroad ! Fools

[OneManShow]

On 1/5/2025 at 5:49 AM, Georgealbert said:

Ms. Oi explained that after receiving payments from the workers, she converted the money into cheques and handed them, along with the workers’ documents, to Ms. Fah at the embassy. She claimed she had no knowledge of the scam until the victims arrived at the airport. The total amount transferred through her exceeded 12 million baht. Attempts to contact Ms. Fah have since been unsuccessful.

She did it all, hassle free. Easy 12M

[Peterphuket]

Surely it should be possible to find the fraudsters through the bank accounts to which the money was transferred.

[Ctkong]

On 1/5/2025 at 12:09 PM, PoorSucker said:

Greed. This should be a red flag.

Overseas agricultural jobs of tb70,000 is not that lucrative. I have seen Korean and Japanese jobs by foreigners of tb70,000 to tb 120,000 in agricultural and manufacturing jobs. Accommodation and social life can be better though.