Heart-Breaking Scam

[connda]

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

And your free from greed? Casting the first stone....???

[connda]

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

I'll concur. That happens too. But we have Thai Visa to keep us informed and set us straight.

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

[connda]

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.

Good suggestion. Thanks!

[connda]

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

My wife may be Thai, but she is not a philanthropist. She might bail out family, but she draws the line there. I've been with her for a relatively long time. She's tight with money.

[nikster]

well - better than convinced of a better life somewhere else, shipped there, and sold into slavery

that's all i can say.

things could be worse. lessons learned etc.

it's probably just your same old nigerians behind it, they'll never get caught, and even if they did get caught they're part of criminal gangs that do this as their business.

interesting info, however, and I'll make sure I'll fruitlessly warn my friends should one fall for this.

[connda]

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.

And you have never done anything stupid. Casting the first stone.....???

[nikster]

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.

QFT - that's the best advice, teach the ladies how to use Google image search.

[harryfrompattaya]

well - better than convinced of a better life somewhere else, shipped there, and sold into slavery

that's all i can say.

things could be worse. lessons learned etc.

it's probably just your same old nigerians behind it, they'll never get caught, and even if they did get caught they're part of criminal gangs that do this as their business.

interesting info, however, and I'll make sure I'll fruitlessly warn my friends should one fall for this.

Many of us Black American's believe they really are Old White English Women behind it, that is why they are never caught.

Think about it

Edited April 5, 2013 by harryfrompattaya

[heybruce]

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?

To give another example, perhaps more meaningful to the old geezers, how many parents want their daughter to "follow her heart" into a romantic marriage with some loser? Most parents encourage their children, especially their daughters, to be at least a little bit practical in choosing a partner for life.

[mauGR1]

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

And your free from greed? Casting the first stone....???

Well, i will save my compassion for honest, hard working people, rather than ladies who sit on their ass all day, browsing dating sites in the hope to hit the jackpot

[Thailand]

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.

QFT - that's the best advice, teach the ladies how to use Google image search.

100 per cent!

[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"

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.

In case of the hotel and similar scams it's always good to memorize the Ferengi's First Rule of Acquisition:

"Once you have their money, you never give it back"

[connda]

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

And your free from greed? Casting the first stone....???

Well, i will save my compassion for honest, hard working people, rather than ladies who sit on their ass all day, browsing dating sites in the hope to hit the jackpot

The same sites have farang and Asian guys looking to hook up with gals. Are we to assume that these gents are individuals "who sit on their ass all day, browsing dating sites in the hope to hit the jackpot". Young Asian trophy wife? Pretty broad strokes to assume that methinks.

The gals I know with ads on these sites are middle and lower class women, all of whom work - much harder than any of my Western farang women-friends. Most of these gals work 12 hour days or longer. They just cast the line out there (just like the guys) and wait to see what bites.

I can only assume that you primarily hang out with your own farang friends or maybe hi-so Thais. You don't seem to have much in the way of empathy when it comes to regular, everyday people. Just saying...

[connda]

well - better than convinced of a better life somewhere else, shipped there, and sold into slavery

that's all i can say.

things could be worse. lessons learned etc.

it's probably just your same old nigerians behind it, they'll never get caught, and even if they did get caught they're part of criminal gangs that do this as their business.

interesting info, however, and I'll make sure I'll fruitlessly warn my friends should one fall for this.

Many of us Black American's believe they really are Old White English Women behind it, that is why they are never caught.

Think about it

I'm pretty sure that nikster was making an association between the country of Nigeria and the Internet scams and fraud that originate from that country. I don't see any reference, even subtly Harry, saying anything about the ethnicity of the scam artists.

[Paangjang]

How is this topic Chang mai related?

The recent episode (last month) of this scam was reported in Udon. The guy said he was being held by immigration in the airport. Can't remember how many, but there was a few Nigerians in Bangkok arrested for it.

[connda]

How is this topic Chang mai related?

The recent episode (last month) of this scam was reported in Udon. The guy said he was being held by immigration in the airport. Can't remember how many, but there was a few Nigerians in Bangkok arrested for it.

Because I live in Chiang Mai and this event happened to two of my wife's friends in Chiang Mai.

I've sure this is a world-wide issue. I've just targeting the folks in my immediate community.

[dukeandduke]

As much as I've used Google image search with female names, I don't know how to take an image without words and search from that.

[maprao]

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?

My smoking hot wife married because of this and still looks the same over a decade later after kids. I won she won we are all happy. (there is not much age difference either). I would not have stood a chance after my divorce of getting someone like her back home. 30% romance and s**t loads of money. I can confidently hit like and know this

Edited April 5, 2013 by maprao

[BarnicaleBob]

I have assisted 7 women of various ages who live in my muban
or know me in vetting men that they had become serious with that they met
on-line. In doing so I have found that there are many
scammers out there and what they target.

Only the older woman 45 and up were targeted and the older
they were the more often they were. The
scam I have seen five times mostly to two women I helped to vet the man they
were falling for. In all cases the men
claimed to me white males between the ages of 45 and 55, who were business
owners or involved in a business that required high education, most of the time
a high end engineer and they all claimed to be British living in England. Some of them even claimed to have a child
living at home with them.

The typical story would be that they had fallen madly in
love with the lady and that wanted to marry them, wanted to be their kid’s
mother and to live together forever. Then they would say that they were coming to
Thailand to meet and marry the lady and that they were bringing their kid with
them. In one case the man who claimed to
own a high end handy craft store said he had to stop in Africa on the way to
Thailand to purchase more hand crafted items for his store and he would fly on
to Thailand from there with his 10 year old daughter. He writes to her from Africa (still not
saying what country he was in) and says the trip is going well and that he has
made many purchases to be shipped back to his store in Great Britton. Then in the next e-mail he says he may be
delayed a day or two because his daughter came down with some sort of
illness. The next day he goes on to say
they are keeping his daughter another night in the hospital. All the time he is playing on the victim’s
feelings for the kid and the love of her life.
The final day he says he is going to pick up his daughter from the
hospital and should be on his way. Then
another e-mail comes and it says the hospital will not take his bank card and
he has already spent all the cash he had on him buying and shipping the items
for his store. He goes on to say it is a
weekend and he can’t get money from the bank and asks her if she to send him
$1,000.00 via Western Union. He gives
his location as Lagos, Nigeria and gives her a phone number to reach him there. This is when the lady came to me, lucky for
her she had enough sense to smell a rat.
I ran his name on the Internet, nothing, I put his phone number in Google
and bingo, comes back as a number used by Nigerian scammers. I looked up the address of the FBI Internet crime
unit that has an office in Lagos and we sent an e-mail to the scammer advising
him she had a friend in Lagos that would give him the money right away so he
would not have wait. Then gave him the
FBI ICU’s address and told him to ask for the unit chief when he gets
there.

The way to spot these guys who all claim to be well educated is to pay attention to their grammer and capitalization in their letters. They alway mess it up a bit. The best way to weed them out is to insist that they talk to you on Skpye or other such service where you can talk to them face to face and see if they are the same person as in their profile photos.

[jbrain]

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.

If nobody bought a car would anybody still bother to sell cars ?

If nobody fell for these scams would they still bother to continue them?

There is one born every minute, and I can assure you that is the most under estimated statement ever made.

[connda]

..The best way to weed them out is to insist that they talk to you on Skpye or other such service where you can talk to them face to face and see if they are the same person as in their profile photos.

That's a great comment. Insist on a Skype chat, and never send money to anyone.

Edited April 5, 2013 by connda

[britgent]

Let's just hope and pray the Nigerian men and Thai ladies don't join forces!

Sent from my i-mobile IQ 6A using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Oscar2]

these are small time scams, 10K Bahts here and there. there are professional cons who target Thai women through on-line relationships, etc. i used to see a lady in C.M. about 8 or 9 years ago. she came from a fabulously wealthy family in Hang Dong. her family was wealthy on both sides and she had considerable assets. after we parted ways she struck up an on-line relationship with an Australian. he came to C.M. to see her. upon arrival he presented her with a diamond ring, professed his love for her and asked her to marry him. he invited her (and her child) to come to Australia to see his beach house. they went and were impressed. upon returning to C.M. he came 3 or 4 more times to visit, meet her family, etc. this girl was terribly naive, sheltered by her father, etc. apparently the Australian convinced her to give him all of her passwords for all her email accounts, on-line banking, credit cards, etc. he also had her drive him around and show him all of the lots she owned in C.M., her P/L statements from her businesses and so forth. he was monitoring all of her activities and convinced her to move her business to Australia where they would run it 'together'. he told her father that he had not been in Thailand before and these were his first visits. something struck the father as odd and he contacted a police friend to do a little digging. turned out the guy had been married for less than 6 months to an older Thai woman (about 45-50 y/o, divorced or widowed). they met on-line and after numerous trips to BKK at her expense he convinced her to buy him a condo in Sukhumvit. he dumped her shortly thereafter, divorced, etc. he had met another divorced or widowed woman in BKK on-line. she was giving him a monthly allowance of about 50K THB plus endless plane tickets to come see her. he had convinced her to let him manage the real estate portfolio that she had inherited and had already liquidated one of her properties at the time. the father found all this out and confronted the daughter and overnight had her and her child 'disappear' from C.M. for years.

[Somnambulist]

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.

I lived in Japan during the bubble days of their economy and extravagantly priced lifetime golf club memberships were all the rage. When they all went out of business it taught me that more often than not "lifetime" refers to the business, not the customer.

[bobl]

As much as I've used Google image search with female names, I don't know how to take an image without words and search from that.

Couldn't be easier. When you're on http://images.google.com there's a camera icon at the right hand edge of the search box. Simply click that and point it to the image you want to search for.(either by the image's URL, or by uploading a picture from your device).

[connda]

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.

I lived in Japan during the bubble days of their economy and extravagantly priced lifetime golf club memberships were all the rage. When they all went out of business it taught me that more often than not "lifetime" refers to the business, not the customer.

Caveat Emptor -- Buyer beware!

Legitimate businesses going out of business if just a fact of life. 80% of small business fail

So back to legitimate businesses. Failures happen!

Edited April 6, 2013 by connda

[wolf5370]

The strong baht and problems in the so-called wealthy countries, coupled together with the protection 'saving face' brings, Thailand is a ripe feeding ground and it can only get worse.

We have all had these emails, or followed up on what seem like legitimate classifieds ads, only to find they are not (see below for an example) - there are always clues, and the longer it goes on, it becomes blaringly obvious - it takes some seriously rose tinted glasses to continue down the slope. Education and awareness is what is needed, it has pretty much killed it in the west (only the really dumb fall for it these days).

I saw an advert a few years ago In one of the Thai classifieds web sites. I was curious because of the ad being in English (most were Thai script or Thinglish) - and because of its content. It went something along the lines of:

"Dr. A Person and his wife, protestant missionary in Krabi are leaving Thailand after 23 years. We have two pet albino royal pythons we are unable to take home to Britain with us. We are looking for good Christian homes. Please contact Mrs Person at [email protected]"

Sounded good, so I dropped an email. I received back two photos of said snakes, and a very short and curt response. The gist was to ensure that I was a Christian and the snakes would go to a good home. Well, being sure the snakes wouldn't really mind too much, I avoided saying I'm not a Christian, or lying, by telling about my Catholic upbringing - blah blah blah. Still on email.

I was already a bit suspicious by this point as the curt note hardly seemed female, though the spelling/grammar was fine something smelled a little off kilter. The email had also asked for my phone number which I gave.

I received a call on the telephone at the same time an email arrived - I handled both at the same time. The voice was certainly not a female, nor British (actually very African). The email stated the snakes were currently in Africa, were CITES cleared and would be sent on receipt of $1000 shipping fees. The guy on the phone was asking me if I had received the email. My response was simple - "Ha ha, good try" and hung up.

I did receive another email saying, "What, you thought they would be free?". Still quite bemused I did some quick research and found dozens of similar adverts going back 5 or more years, different addresses and names, but the same photos! The way I look at it, cost me nothing - cost him the price of the adverts and a long distance telephone call. like anyone with any sense is going to believe this baritone African accented male shipping snakes from Somalia (that was on the shipping request) with CITES clearance was a minister's wife leaving Thailand and looking for homes for her pets - and will not realise that two such snakes could be purchased locally for much less than $1000!

[ianf]

It works both ways.

I met my wife a number of years ago. She was a civil engineer, spoke good English and regarded herself as a good Buddhist.

After 5 or 6 years we moved to Thailand, 2 years here and she was going with other guys and scamming money from our joint account by telling me inflated costs (producing inflated invoices) for things like insurance.

Very cleverly she scammed a few million baht and then went to live with her mother.

Last seen with an American boyfriend where, no doubt, Ami will do the same to him.

I am not a naive person. I believed we had a good relationship and indeed, right until the last minute I suspected nothing.

But clever scammer she was and continues to be.

Lives in Chiang Mai. Avoid.

[elektrified]

It works both ways.

I met my wife a number of years ago. She was a civil engineer, spoke good English and regarded herself as a good Buddhist.

After 5 or 6 years we moved to Thailand, 2 years here and she was going with other guys and scamming money from our joint account by telling me inflated costs (producing inflated invoices) for things like insurance.

Very cleverly she scammed a few million baht and then went to live with her mother.

Last seen with an American boyfriend where, no doubt, Ami will do the same to him.

I am not a naive person. I believed we had a good relationship and indeed, right until the last minute I suspected nothing.

But clever scammer she was and continues to be.

Lives in Chiang Mai. Avoid.

The doctored invoice thing is one the lowest, pathetic scams I've heard of. Good riddance...