Dodgy investment scheme was too good to be true
Savings plan cost victims 20 million baht, writes Wassayos Ngamkham
The Crime Suppression Division has had its hands full cracking down on fraudulent investment schemes which prey on people hoping for unrealistically high returns from their ‘’investment’’.
Last week, a team of the Crime Suppression Division police busted a fraud gang led by a lesbian couple from Nan whom the CSD detectives found to have conned more than 400 people, costing them at least 20 million baht in losses.
Prior to the arrests of Sunantha Sornchai, 40, and Thadmalee Kabua, 38, in Pathum Thani, the CSD had received complaints from over 100 victims who decided to seek legal action against the two after realising they had been cheated and lost at least 20 million baht to the alleged fraudsters.
The victims were among some 400 people lured into investing their money in the fake investment scheme offered by Ms Sunantha and Ms Thadmalee who had about 40 million baht going in and out of their bank accounts.
Between February and May, the two women had lured their victims via Facebook into investing with them by promising a return of more than 75% on their money.
Ms Sunantha told the CSD investigators she actually had planned to raise funds to invest in the stock market for profits that would later be paid to the more than 400 people investing with her. However, she claimed she was arrested before she could pay back her customers.
The pyramid fund operators conned victims by offering an impressively hefty return for their money in the beginning. They pull in people whose money will be the starter fund that pays for people who join the scheme later, said Pol Col Arun Wachirasrisukanya, chief of the CSD’s Subdivision 2. “At one point, the fraud scheme ran out of money because it didn’t really invest in anything as claimed. This type of fraud has been on the rise these days,” he said.
The victims of fraud can be divided into three broad groups, he said. The first group is elderly people who became victims of a form of fraud touted as being either a funeral subsidy programme or a co-operatives-style fund-raising programme.
The senior policeman said con artists know most retirees share a common wish to ensure their families are financially stable. They usually lure their potential victims into believing their ‘’investment’’ schemes will ensure financial security for their children and grandchildren.
According to the CSD investigators, the fraudsters claim they can guarantee a considerably higher return than financial institutions or the conventional cooperatives.
The second group of victims is the middle-class income earners who are lured into buying overpriced products or services. Sometimes they were misled into investing in a fake direct-sale scheme.
The last group is the people deceived into investing in currency speculation, gold trade and stock transactions that do not exist. The common tactic used by crooks is the promise of an exceedingly high return on the investment.
“With the advanced [communication] technology at one’s disposal, the fraudsters find it easier to approach their potential victims such as through Facebook or the Line chat application,” said Pol Col Arun.
They normally set up a Facebook group to communicate with potential victims about the fake investment opportunity. People were invited to join the group by friends on the Facebook who persuaded them with photos of a bank statement showing large money transfers which are claimed to be handsome profits received from the investment programme.
After joining the scheme, victims kept pouring in their money into the programme in the hope of making substantial profits from it, only to find the promise of a huge return was a lie, said Pol Col Arun. He said people should not expect too much from a scheme with sketchy ‘’investment’’ details.