Heart-Breaking Scam

[connda]

"There's a sucker born every minute" - P. T. Barnum

I hate scammers. But it's amazing at how gullible so many people are in this world.

A 'hot' scam that is targeted at single Thai females is on the rise. It goes like this:

Thai woman finds a male friend online. It might be though any of the various social media sites or dating sites. The man is rich, handsome (he sends his 'picture'), but he has a problem. He has inherited millions of baht from a recently deceased family member, but he needs 100K baht to pay for a lawyer and banking fees to get the money 'release' to his account. Oh BTW, he has fallen madly in love with the gal and wants to get married as soon as possible, but he needs that 100K so he can brings those millions of baht with him before the marriage.

Two of my wife's friend have fallen for this BS, heartless scam. One borrowed money to send to her rich husband to be, and she is now in serious debt to some not very nice people. She's got screwed coming and going. The other friend was talking it up with my wife about how rich she was about to become, and my wife said, "STOP!!!". She only lost 40K out of 110K she was going to send. I told my wife she should report it, but she said the friend would not because she would loose face. So the scam goes on....

If you have any single, female Thai friends, please warn them of this heartless, savage scam. Please!

[uptheos]

"If you have any single, female Thai friends, please warn them of this heartless, savage scam. Please!"

What was the organisation they met through?

Knowing this would be more beneficial to pass on and you can pm me if you don't want to publish the name.

[Jdietz]

It's the standard Nigerian scam, repackaged for a new audience.

People seriously still fall for that?

"I'll pay you back everything if you can just lend me some more money"

[BookMan]

"If you have any single, female Thai friends, please warn them of this heartless, savage scam. Please!"

What was the organisation they met through?

Knowing this would be more beneficial to pass on and you can pm me if you don't want to publish the name.

From what I have heard it can happen on any dating site

[uptheos]

"If you have any single, female Thai friends, please warn them of this heartless, savage scam. Please!"

What was the organisation they met through?

Knowing this would be more beneficial to pass on and you can pm me if you don't want to publish the name.

From what I have heard it can happen on any dating site

Yes, but as two of the OP's friends have fallen for it, probably from the same agency.......it could be useful information.

Nothing wrong in sharing where they came across it.

[soi41]

Do you really want us to feel sorry for those poor ladies?? Why are they on a number of datingsites themselves? To find true love, yeah sure. In 99% of the cases, they are there to find another sponsor. If they end up scammed by someone smarter than them, serves them right!!

[elektrified]

"If you have any single, female Thai friends, please warn them of this heartless, savage scam. Please!"

What was the organisation they met through?

Knowing this would be more beneficial to pass on and you can pm me if you don't want to publish the name.

From what I have heard it can happen on any dating site

This has been happening for about 10 years that I know of.

[amexpat]

Do you really want us to feel sorry for those poor ladies?? Why are they on a number of datingsites themselves? To find true love, yeah sure. In 99% of the cases, they are there to find another sponsor. If they end up scammed by someone smarter than them, serves them right!!

Regroup, recover, and try to get back to a brighter attitude.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Rimmer
Flame

[Genericnic]

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." J. Wellington Wimpy

[cycloneJ]

it's a version of the (see thread)

Receiving Package Scam?

from last week, again

[Thailand]

Same old scam going back years,simply repackaged. Just been talking to a friend in HK who was relating a similar scenario.

Sorry to hear people are still getting caught by them,castration would be a good deterrent for those actually caught and as a warning to others. Bit harsh maybe?

[Thakkar]

Several years ago, this happened to the Thai sister-in-law of a Canadian friend of mine. She was going on and on about this guy and how her life is going to turn around. She was going to be rich and living in Europe. He was going to build her parents a house, yada, yada.

She showed me the emails. It was so obviously a scam. In spite of Mrs. T's admonishments for me to stay out of it, I couldn't. I warned this woman, pointed to all the inconsistencies in his emails, even called her sister in Canada. Both sisters hated me for my "jealousy". Later, my friend called me, angry that I hadn't tried hard enough to warn her. He too was scammed because his wife had taken some their money to send to the scammer.

And Mrs. T? All she had to say was: "told you"

T

[eek]

It's the standard Nigerian scam, repackaged for a new audience.

People seriously still fall for that?

"I'll pay you back everything if you can just lend me some more money"

Exactly. Ive had those before via Tagged (when i used to be on it), think i had a few random ones on facebook "other" messages too. Im so sorry that your wife's friends fell for this, but honestly so surprised.. i had thought no one ever really fell for these kinds of things.

[Thakkar]

eek, on 04 Apr 2013 - 20:31, said:

-snip- i had thought no one ever really fell for these kinds of things.

Cons work because the victim, albeit unknowingly, is in on it. An objective look will quickly show up the inconsistencies and incongruities in the offered "deal." A properly wide-awake person who is honest with himself will see this and just walk away. The scammers' best coconspirator is the victim himself who works hard to convince himself of the great benefits he'll be getting. I hate to say this, and I hate to see the scammers succeed, but it is often a case of Som nam na.

T

Edited April 4, 2013 by Thakkar

[jackr]

Do you really want us to feel sorry for those poor ladies?? Why are they on a number of datingsites themselves? To find true love, yeah sure. In 99% of the cases, they are there to find another sponsor. If they end up scammed by someone smarter than them, serves them right!!

They aren't all like the one that broke your poor, bitter, vengeful, heart.

Though many clearly are. He has a point.

[Sparkles]

Not only the Nigerians and their ilk. Had a lady friend who paid 30,000 baht in Bangkok for life membership of a WOW gym it closed 3 months later, they gave her an option of travelling to another outlet 15 kms away which has also now closed. No refund. Buyer beware.

[nattydread]

heres an intersting website that may interest some Thaivisa members who have free time and a hatred of people who scam others

the website in the link tells u how to bait these scammers and waste their time and resources while having some fun at the same time

http://www.419eater.com/

[heybruce]

It's the standard Nigerian scam, repackaged for a new audience.

People seriously still fall for that?

"I'll pay you back everything if you can just lend me some more money"

This is old stuff in the English speaking world, and probably in all wealthy nations, but it's new here. A similar scam was attempted on a friend of mine who had just opened a guest house ("We want to reserve a lot of rooms at high season prices. We'll send you the credit card information. For vague reasons you should charge a lot of money to the credit card, keep some as a room deposit, and send the rest to a bank in Vietnam." Not an exact quote, but that's basically what the e-mail said). She and her partner had never seen anything like it, but were suspicious enough to ask my opinion. Of course I told them to never fall for something like this.

I think the OP did well by putting this information out. People who aren't familar with these kinds of scams are the ones who will fall for them.

[hellodolly]

"If you have any single, female Thai friends, please warn them of this heartless, savage scam. Please!"

What was the organisation they met through?

Knowing this would be more beneficial to pass on and you can pm me if you don't want to publish the name.

Excellent idea

[hellodolly]

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." J. Wellington Wimpy

Will a McDonald's do?

[PoodMaiDai]

Greed gets the best of them. I can't say I feel sorry for any of them. If it's too good to be true, it usually is, but they can't see past the big bucks they are going to get so they get suckered in. Happens to people all over the world.

[hml367]

Greed gets the best of them. I can't say I feel sorry for any of them. If it's too good to be true, it usually is, but they can't see past the big bucks they are going to get so they get suckered in. Happens to people all over the world.

Las Vegas.

[mauGR1]

Not much sympathy , greedy people victims of smarter greedy people..

[bobl]

These are the same style scammers some of whom got busted in Bangkok recently.

They operate everywhere. Facebook is currently a very popular target. They will engage their victim in a fairly drawn-out 'courtship' which eventually ends with them requiring cash for something - to 'release' funds, to pay customs duties on expensive gifts, etc etc.

I engaged one recently but he gave up after only a month and before I could squeeze enough info out of him to provide any clues as to his real identity. He was posing as the MD of a construction company in the UK who buys materials from Thailand. Claimed to be a widower and even had pictures of his dearly departed in hospital (which a google image search showed them up as stills from the UK series "Holby City" - lol).

My advice to these ladies is to teach them how to use Google image search, for a start. Pretty much all of them use images of people they simply lift off the web, in their fake profiles.

[Lobber]

I thought it was the fat , out of shape Western guy getting scammed by the beautiful Thai lady ?????

[harryfrompattaya]

The scam is telling the Farang they need money to pay off the loan sharks that's the only scam. If some one tell you that watch them ask you for the money

Your wife knows has two friends trying to scam her and you What nice friends

[Berkshire]

Same with any Nigerian scam, this scam requires a victim who possesses two things: greed and stupidity. Must have both. So if someone falls for this...well, can't feel too sorry for them.

[connda]

"If you have any single, female Thai friends, please warn them of this heartless, savage scam. Please!"

What was the organisation they met through?

Knowing this would be more beneficial to pass on and you can pm me if you don't want to publish the name.

In the latter case, Facebook. In the first case, I'd have to talk to my wife's friend. I'm not sure she would tell me though. They are both worried about losing face. Really sad.

[connda]

Do you really want us to feel sorry for those poor ladies?? Why are they on a number of datingsites themselves? To find true love, yeah sure. In 99% of the cases, they are there to find another sponsor. If they end up scammed by someone smarter than them, serves them right!!

Come on. Give them a break. How many Thai women marry for "romantic love"? Pretty darn few. For all you that hit the "Like" button, how many of your girlfriends or wives are with you because of "romantic love".

Even in my 'home country', many women look for 'security' in a spouse. They 'marry up'. In what country is it not common for the average women to consider security and status when selecting a potential spouse?

[connda]

Greed gets the best of them. I can't say I feel sorry for any of them. If it's too good to be true, it usually is, but they can't see past the big bucks they are going to get so they get suckered in. Happens to people all over the world.

I'm not saying this in a bad way, but there are a lot of people in the world (and Thailand) who are rather simple, ignorant, and unsophisticated (as in, not very knowledgeable of the realities of the world). They make good targets (marks). It really unfortunate, which is why I'm saying, take the time to educate your less 'worldly' friends, and in this particular case, your female Thai friends.

My own wife is no rocket scientist, she has never been out of Thailand (well, Laos for a visa run with me), and a decade ago she might have fallen for this too. But she was the one who warned her friend. Scams like these just need to brought to the awareness of the larger community. That all.