Scammers stole B31bn from victims in one year
published : 14 Mar 2023 at 15:10
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Post Reporters
Online and phone-call scammers stole 31.58 billion baht from 218,210 complainants over the past 12 months, police said on Tuesday.
The figures were collected from March 1 last year to March 11 this year.
The highest damage resulted from investment scams. Victims filed 16,460 complaints and told police they were tricked out of 7.66 billion baht altogether, police said.
During the same period, police received 29,945 complaints about job search scams and complainants said they lost 3.32 billion baht in total.
There were 81,288 complaints about shopping scams, which caused 1.01 billion baht in losses. There were also 24,821 complaints about loan scams, which demanded victims pay "upfront fees" totalling 1.03 billion baht.
Imposter scams led to 7,285 complaints with damage estimated at 254 million baht. Meanwhile, there were 3,201 romance scams, which defrauded victims of 1.56 billion baht altogether.
Police said that many scammers were claiming to be government officials and tricked their victims into giving personal data and clicking links which gave them control of victims' bank accounts.
Vocabulary
- claim: to say that something is true although it has not been proved and other people may not believe it - อ้าง
- complainant (noun): a person who makes a formal complaint - ผู้ร้อง(ทุกข์)
- complaints (noun): when people say that something is wrong or not satisfactory - การร้องเรียน
- damage (noun): physical harm caused to something which makes it less attractive, useful or valuable - ความเสียหาย
- defraud: to get money illegally from a person or an organization by tricking them - โกง, ฉ้อโกง, หลอก
- imposter: someone or something pretending to be someone or something else, in order to trick people - นักต้ม
- investment (noun): the act of giving time or effort to a particular task in order to make it successful - การลงทุน
- loan: an amount of money that a person, business, or country borrows, especially from a bank - เงินกู้
- romance: a love story - เรื่องรักใคร่, นวนิยายรักใคร่
- scam: a dishonest plan, especially for getting money - กลโกง, แผนร้าย
- scammer (noun): a criminal is clever at tricking you out of your money by taking advantage of any weaknesses they can discover - นักฉ้อโกง, นักหลอกลวง
- trick (verb): to make somebody believe something which is not true, especially in order to cheat them; to do something clever to fool someone - หลอกลวง
- upfront: paid before you receive a service or good -
- victim: someone who has been affected by a bad situation, such as a disaster, illness or an accident - เหยื่อผู้เคราะห์ร้าย
