RATCHABURI: The governor of Ratchaburi has asked police to take action against a person who used his name to open a fake Facebook page and attempted to borrow money from local leaders.
Chaiwat Chuenkosum on Saturday filed a complaint with police at Muang district station against the creator of the account using his name and position.
Mr Chaiwat said the fake Facebook page, with his name and position written in Thai, had been created to swindle people. He said he used his real Facebook page only to inform people about his work, and not for other purposes. He warned people not to fall victim to the swindler.
The fake Facebook acccount claims to belong to "Chaiwat Ratchaburi governor Chuenkosum".
The user of the fake Facebook page sent friend requests to local leaders in the province and followed up with messages to their inboxes asking to borrow money from them. They were asked to transfer money to the bank account of someone named Chawalit Thaosuwan.
An initial police investigation found that a person of that name lived in the southern province of Yala. Police said they would call the man for questioning to find out if he was connected to the fake Facebook page.
Pramot Ounkasem, a village head in Bang Phae district, said he received a friend request sent by the Facebook user with the name of the Ratchaburi governor on Friday night.
He said he was surprised to receive the request but felt happy that the top official in the province wanted to befriend a small village head. He did not hesitate to accept the request despite some scepticism. Shortly afterward, he said, he received a message from his new "friend" asking to borrow money.
He realised then that this Facebook user was not the governor. He subsequently contacted other local leaders and found that several had received similar messages from the same Facebook user.
Mr Chaiwat is not the first governor to have his reputation tarnished because of the actions of an imposter. Mae Hong Son governor Suebsak Iamwicharn recently was accused of being a customer of underage prostitutes from a sex ring run by a senior police officer in the northern province.
However, it turned out that a local official from Nonthaburi, while on a "study trip" to the province, had bought sex and told the girl he was the governor of Mae Hong Son.
Mr Suebsak has since been cleared by the Interior Ministry and received an apology.
Ratchaburi governor Chaiwat Chuenkosum's real Facebook page.