Vendor of cut-price online gold skips with the money

Vendor of cut-price online gold skips with the money

People persuaded to buy gold online that was never delivered file their complaint with Crime Suppression Division police against Facebook user
People persuaded to buy gold online that was never delivered file their complaint with Crime Suppression Division police against Facebook user "Jina Jiraphan" on Wednesday. (Photo supplied)

About 30 people persuaded to buy gold jewellery online at prices below market have asked Crime Suppression Division police to find and arrest a Facebook user for cheating them out of millions of baht.

About 30 people on Wednesday filed a complaint with CSD police against Facebook user “Jina Jiraphan’’, for allegedly swindling them out of millions of baht paid for gold jewellery offered for sale online.

Weerapha Ittharat, 30, an online vendor who led the group, said she had been drawn to a post by Jina Jiraphan offering gold jewellery for sale at prices below the market. She ordered one gold necklace to see whether it would be delivered or not. The necklace duly arrived as ordered.  

As she was already an online seller with many customers, she thought selling gold online as well might yield a handsome profit. So she encouraged her customers to place advance orders for gold, expecting to make a profit of about 1,000 baht per 25 satang-weight necklace.

She started buying gold from Facebook user Jina Jiraphan in May this year, and received everything she ordered -  up until November.

Early last month, she placed orders for gold ornaments worth almost 13 million baht. None of the orders arrived, Jina Jiraphan could not be reached, and the money had vanished too. 

Ms Weerapha said she had since borrowed several million baht to repay some customers who had transferred money to buy gold from her. Realising she had been cheated stressed her out. She even thought of taking poison to kill herself as her customers filed complaints against her for failing to deliver their orders.

Pol Capt Chanachai Phurat, a deputy investigation chief at CSD sub-division 6, said he would question all the complainants and examine whatever evidence they presented before reporting the case to his superior.

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