Thais came to know about Ponzi scams back in 1997 after more than 10,000 people were duped out of billions baht in a high-profile oil investment scam, orchestrated by Chamoi Tipso, aka Mae Chamoi, and her accomplices.
Ms Chamoi, who at that time worked for a fuel firm, exploited her job to gain credibility from her victims and financial institutes.
Several were subsequently mired in bankruptcy as they placed hope in the high returns promised by Ms Chamoi and her syndicate members.
At that time, the Emergency Decree on Loans of Money Amounting to Public Cheating and Fraud was put in place to cope with pyramid schemes -- fraudulent investments structured to funnel money put in by new investors back to earlier participants, who act on that incentive to bring more people into the scheme.
Despite Ms Chamoi and gang members being arrested (and released few years ago), pyramid scams are still thriving.
According to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Ponzi scams have caused several billion baht in losses over the past several years.
Authorities say victims lost 729 million baht to the racket in 2013, 316 million baht in 2014, 10.1 billion baht in 2015, 808.6 million baht in 2016 and 1.2 billion baht this year.
DSI deputy director-general Prawut Wongseenin said pyramid scams remain attractive as they offer higher returns than usual.
The people behind them improvise the design to keep up with people's changing lifestyles and new technologies.
A case in point is the Ufun store Ponzi scam which was registered to operate as a direct-sales company and swindled more than 120,000 people out of 350 million baht from 2007 to 2015.
A total of 164 suspects were apprehended in connection with the scam.
"Their plots have been developed to keep up with new technology. The names and positions of acquaintances or influential people were cited to siphon money from victims," Pol Lt Col Prawut said.
Pyramid scam networks often also use social media to pocket money from university students through the online sale of beauty products.
Students are required to pay 2,000 to 3,000 baht upfront to join the scheme and start selling products themselves.
Others lure people into investing in the foreign exchange market, while other networks focus on farmers.
These scammers guarantee high returns for investments in funds involving agricultural products.
Other similar scams defrauded upcountry residents through investments in selling traditional herbs while many victims were duped out of money through making merit in which the swindlers promise falsely that one-third of their donations will be returned to them.
The department has handled more than 100 pyramid scam-related cases in recent years. In many cases, the masterminds behind the racket were arrested and prosecuted.
Recent cases involved Digital Crown Holdings Ltd, which allegedly cheated people out of about 219 million baht, and KS Marine and Governor Service Ltd which allegedly lured victims into purchasing freight containers, resulting in more than 630 million baht in losses.
"It is certain that pyramid scams have caused several billion baht in losses to the country," he said
"Although the money is spent in the country, it is circulated among swindlers."
Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) chief Thitirat Nongharnpitak said he commissioned the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) to take legal action against all types of Ponzi schemes including overseas tour scams as well as investments in fake lotteries and land scams.
"Con men will pose as a credible people to dupe victims by promising high returns. Victims will be forced to make decision in a short period of time because they are afraid to lose a big chunk of money," Pol Lt Gen Thitirat said.
Local police tended to ignore this kind of racket since fraud was a trivial matter in their view despite the huge losses involved for some victims.
"Several victims ended up penniless because of pyramid scams," he said.
"Many victims are retired civil servants officers and elderly people who have saved their entire working lives."
Pol Lt Gen Thitirat said money-laundering charges are often brought against offenders while their assets are also confiscated and put up for auction by the Anti-Money Laundering Office so the money can be returned to victims.
Speaking about pyramid schemes, Bank of Thailand governor Veerathai Santiprabhob recently said keeping interest rates at low levels for prolonged periods has led to search-for-yield behaviour.
Some activities such as pyramid schemes place Thais' savings at risk as the schemes are unregulated or regulations for them remain lenient, he said.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) responsible for determining the country's benchmark interest rate discussed the effect of low interest rates on search-for-high-yield behaviour at a recent meeting.
The meeting recommended the close monitoring of Ponzi scam activities as they contain risks that could build up some vulnerabilities in the financial system in future.
Oranan Paweewun