About 20 victims of a stock trading scam yesterday filed a complaint with the Crime Suppression Division accusing a Korean dessert shop owner of defrauding them of more than 70 million baht.
The victims from Prachuap Khiri Khan's Bang Saphan district claimed Athipapha Sappoonperm, the 30-year-old owner of the shop in Bang Saphan, persuaded them to invest in the stock market promising they would receive high amounts of cash dividends in return.
But this turned out to be a scam, the victims told police.
They also brought stock transaction money transfer documentation and records of conversations with a woman on the Line application to police as evidence.
Napaporn Chanthana, 28, one of the victims, told police she got to know Ms Athipapha, aka Oiythip Saila-iead, last year.
When they became more familiar, Ms Athipapha persuaded her to invest in the stock market promising she would receive high returns in a few days, Ms Napaporn said.
Trusting her, Ms Napaporn made an initial investment of 10,000 baht and she received the cash dividend as promised. She then invested nearly 3 million baht, and also persuaded her relatives to invest in stocks.
But Ms Athipapha later could not be contacted, Ms Napaporn said.
She also said the 20 victims who filed the police complaint are among about 100 people in Bang Saphan district who had fallen victim, with damages estimated at about 100 million baht.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) warned people against being fooled by call-centre scammers who allegedly falsely use the Amlo deputy secretary-general's name to get victims to part with their money.
Romsit Weeriyasan said yesterday his name is being exploited by the gang with someone pretending to be him talking victims into believing they are implicated in money laundering-related cases.
The latest report obtained by the Amlo found many people have fallen prey to the gang, losing more than one million baht.
According to an initial investigation, gangsters first make phone calls to victims, deceptively introducing themselves as employees of Thailand Post Company and informing them they have parcels currently left with the company.
The victims are told to press 9 in order to ask for more details but are required to unveil their names, addresses and national identity card numbers.
The gang then deceives the victims into believing there are cash and bank passbooks in the parcel and, in a trick to scare them, suddenly implicates them in wrongdoings concerning violations of the Postal and Anti-Money Laundering acts.
At this stage, Pol Maj Gen Romsit said, the victims are asked to transfer money for inspection by Amlo to prove their innocence.
The gang threatens to freeze their bank accounts if they fail to do so, he said.
If the victims appear reluctant, are not convinced by the false claims, a man pretending to be Pol Maj Gen Romsit tells the victims what they will experience during the course of an investigation.
This plunges many victims into grave worry and eventually causes them to transfer money to the gang, Pol Maj Gen Romsit said.
This call-centre scam is sophisticated so Pol Maj Gen Romsit suggested a way to avoid becoming a victim is to "keep alert [to strange or unusual claims] but stay calm".
"People should also never transfer money," he stressed.