It's encouraging to hear the New Year's resolution from the Central Investigation Bureau bigwigs about stepping up their battle against crime. The CIB deals specifically with fraud, scams and online tricksters. Last year, such crimes became bigger than ever. Thousands of people admitted falling victim to fraud schemes. CIB chief Pol Lt Gen Thitirat Nongharnpitak says he intends to put those crimes at the centre of his 2018 investigations, and he has outlined positive steps to do it.
Confidence scams are nothing new, either in Thailand or the rest of the world. Many people remember the infamous Chamoy "Mae Chamoy" Thipyaso. In the mid-1980s, she perpetrated one of the most notorious Ponzi schemes. Her so-called chit fund which she claimed was based on oil shares ran for several years, and cheated a court-confirmed 16,231 victims out of an estimated five to eight million baht. In the end, she served less than eight years in prison and her victims were never compensated.
Her pyramid scheme was classic. Without any change, it continues to attract victims who are ill informed, and too eager to ignore the old dictum that if something seems too good to be true, it is untrue. Just last week, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) gave details of a Ponzi scam it said had cheated victims out of more than 300 million baht. The Myanmar-based Supattha Chantarangsi, 68, chairwoman of Hujjee Group Co, and 15 employees used exactly the same template as Mae Chamoy, and with similar success. Several victims are ordinary people who lost their hard-earned money.
Pol Lt Gen Thitirat believes he has the formula to break down pyramid schemes and other crimes involving fraud. If he is to succeed, plans to provide better education to the public are especially important. Pol Maj Gen Itthipol Atchariyapradit, commander of the Investigation Division at the Metropolitan Police Bureau, put it succinctly in an interview with this newspaper. "People fall prey to scams without suspecting anything." Private schemes promising huge profits should cause scepticism in potential investors, rather than enthusiasm.
The CIB chief agrees, saying that he wants to help to make people stop falling victims to such crimes. In addition to the Ponzi, pyramid and chit-fund scams, however, there are others. The internet has caused an exponential rise in scams and con games. International criminals have moved to Thailand to take advantage. So-called "romance schemes" and quick-strike thefts via social media took tens of millions of baht from Thais last year -- and from citizens of every similar, open country in the world.
Romance scams are merely a version of the old "I'm an African prince who needs you to move my money" crimes of the 20th century. The con men search out social media for rich women looking for partners or companions. What police insist on calling "call centres" use social media to call victims on Line and Facebook apps. In far too many cases, they convince people to send them money in the belief the criminals are from government agencies including police and the Revenue Department.
Pol Lt Gen Thitirat is already supervising the creation of a database of such criminals, and tracking their movements. The surveillance information will be passed to local authorities, who can watch criminals more closely, and perhaps warn local communities. These are steps that have worked in other countries.
It must also be noted that while there is no shortage of Thai fraud artists, the country's loose immigration laws continue to attract and accidentally help foreign criminals. A former Immigration Bureau chief began a campaign of "good guys in, bad guys out". That is a healthy attitude that should be adopted across all crime-fighting agencies.