Chinese woman feared kidnapped found at Bangkok mall
published : 10 Jun 2024 at 07:35
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Online Reporters
A 27-year-old Chinese woman who was believed to have been kidnapped for a 25-million-baht ransom was found at a shopping mall in Bang Na district on Saturday evening.
Police found Lu Xinlei at HomePro Bangna. She was brought to Phra Khanong police station where she met her mother and sister, who had just flown in from China after reports of the suspected abduction.
It was reported that the Chinese woman worked for a property company in Japan and a call scam gang claiming to be Japanese authorities told her that she had violated an anti-money-laundering law.
She was ordered to transfer to them 17 million yen for examination, leave for either Thailand or Singapore and not to contact her parents in Shanghai.
The Chinese woman arrived in Thailand on Wednesday last week. She was ordered to change her SIM card and to regularly move to different hotels.
On Friday last week a man called her parents in China and told them that she had been kidnapped and that they must pay a ransom of 5 million yuan (about 25 million baht) for their daughter's safe release. A Chinese-language interpreter forwarded the parents' complaint to police later on Friday.
Police believed that both Ms Lu and her parents had fallen victim to a call scam gang that had tricked them through a chat application – without any real abduction taking place.
Learn from listening
Vocabulary
- abduction: taking somebody away illegally, especially using force - การลักพาตัว
- examination (noun.): inspection, investigation, looking closely at the facts and details in a case in order to make a decision or judgement - การตรวจสอบ, การพิจารณาอย่างละเอียด
- fall victim to: to be harmed by something - เป็นเหยื่อ
- interpreter: someone who changes what someone else is saying into another language - ล่าม
- kidnap: to illegally take someone away and make them a prisoner - ลักพาตัว
- money-laundering (adj): hiding the origin of money obtained from illegal activities by putting it into legal businesses - การฟอกเงิน
- ransom: the amount of money that someone wants to be paid before they will let a person go or give back a valuable object - เงินค่าไถ่
- scam: a dishonest plan, especially for getting money - กลโกง, แผนร้าย
- suspected: thought to be something - เป็นที่สงสัย
- violate: to do something that is against a law, rule or agreement - ฝ่าฝืน, ละเมิด
