NAKHON RATCHASIMA - A 30-year-old woman has been accused of running a pyramid scam on her Facebook page and duping 200 people out of at least 100 million baht.
A group of her "customers" lodged a complaint with the Technology Crime Suppression Division on Wednesday, asking police to take action against Nannapas Sirinanthaset, alias La-orkhae Chimkul, a resident of Nakhon Ratchasima. They accused her of swindling them out of their money.
Lakkhana Somseesaeng, 29, one of the victims, told the TCSD that she had been inveigled into investing in what turned out be a scam in May last year, with a promise of high returns.
The scheme was run via the Facebook page ‘’Siri Nun’’ operated by Ms Nannapas, said Ms Lakkhana.
Ms Nannapas had persuaded over 200 people across the country to invest in her scheme, which had 20 investment groups, each comprising 10 members, according to Ms Lakkhana.
Members had been promised a monthly dividend return of 14%. Those who invested one million baht would receive the monthly dividend plus a 25-satang weight gold ornament.
“I had started investing in the scheme in the middle of last year, and I always received a dividend. Then, I told my relatives and friends to invest in it. We invested about 30 million baht, of which 10 million baht was my money. We learned that we were cheated in December last year, when we lost contact with Ms Nannapas,’’ said Ms Lakkhana.
Those who fell prey to Ms Nannapas had gathered all the information they could about the scam and then formed a group to lodge the complaint, she said.
Ms Lakkhana said about 200 people were believed to have been duped by the woman, with total losses amounting to more than 100 million baht. She called on police to urgently find and arrest the woman.
Pol Col Siriwat Deephor, superintendent of TCSD’s sub-division 2, said police would look into the alleged pyramid scam. If the evidence was adequate, Ms Nannapas would be charged with public fraud.