Ponzi schemes are nothing new to Thailand. Why is it then that through the years these much publicised cases, which should serve as lessons, haven't deterred the public from falling victim to such scams time and again.
A good portion of the Thai public continues to get duped by these financial scams, opting to see them through rose-tinted glasses, as tactics used in defrauding people have evolved through the years, promising ludicrously unimaginable returns.
The Mae Manee Ponzi scheme is the most recent case to capture media attention.
Wantanee "Mae Manee" Tippaveth, 28, and her partner Metee Chinnapha, 20, have been charged with duping 3,000 people and counting, out of close to over 1 billion baht. They managed to convincingly make investors believe that they would be getting a 93% return in profits.
The elaborate scam was well-calculated. On the first investment many did actually receive the returns they were promised. It was only after they fell hook, line, and sinker that the dream of getting rich quickly began to crumble for many, as it became obvious Wantanee wouldn't be returning their money any time soon.
In a similar case that transpired two years ago, convicted Ponzi scheme fraudster Phudit Kittitradilok was given a jail sentence of a total of 13,275 years for his pyramid scheme which tricked about 2,600 victims out of 574 million baht.
In Phudit's case, he and his accomplices organised seminars to invite the public to invest in what they claimed were businesses involving beauty care, used cars, exports, property development and foreign exchange.
They offered a 1% weekly return to investors, plus 5% of new investment money to those who recruited new members.
The one to pull off one of the most infamous scams in Thai criminal history was Chamoi Tipso, also known as Mae Chamoi, who in the mid-1980s perpetrated one of the most notorious Ponzi schemes.
Her so-called chit fund, which she claimed was founded on oil shares ran for several years, and cheated a whopping 16,231 victims out of an estimated 5-8 million baht.
Needless to say, her pyramid scheme was classic.
Fast-forward to the present day and we see that nothing has really changed when it comes to people ignoring the old dictum that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Watching the daily updates of this ongoing case myself, I often wonder the thoughts running through the minds of victims who invested their hard-earned money into this scheme. I am certain many had once in their lifetime heard or read about such a scam in the media, but decided to go along in the hopes of striking it rich in the shortest time frame ever.
I am confident nobody plans to fall victim to such scams, but when an insatiable longing for material gain is what you live for in life, there is no saying how gullible you can become when presented opportunities that are a classic Ponzi scam.
Let us now find out what psychologists have to say about this matter.
One expert, who specialises in gullibility, notes that with Ponzi schemes, emotions motivate gullible behaviour, bringing excitement at the prospect of increasing and protecting one's wealth.
There are dual motivators at play -- that of greed or an opportunity to have a secure and happy life.
Occasionally the decision to invest is "reflected both in the person's profound ignorance of finance, and their somewhat lazy unwillingness to remedy that ignorance", said another.
Getting duped involves gullibility, and other forms of what they term "foolish action" where the individual goes ahead with a socially or physically risky behaviour despite the danger signs or unresolved questions.
It is believed that every gullible act humans act on happens when an individual is presented with a social challenge that he or she has to remedy.
In the case of a financial decision, they say the challenge is typically whether to agree to an investment decision that is being offered to you as harmless but may pose severe risks or otherwise not be in one's best interest.
To break the chains of gullibility in one's life, I believe, starts with getting one's priorities in life straight. Live by a principal that will make you grow in all areas of your life. One I would like to recommend is that of our late King Bhumibol's philosophy of sufficiency economy, which guides you to financial matters in life.
From the interviews I have conducted through the years with self-made men and women, a couple of things they share in common is they began their journey by working hard at what they did, lived a frugal existence and never gave up on their goals of achieving greatness.
For them there was no shortcut to getting rich. It was perseverance and hard work that rewarded them with money and yes respect in society.
Yvonne Bohwongprasert is a feature writer for the Life section of the Bangkok Post.