Police have arrested a 33-year-old woman who is the alleged head of a romance scam gang who used photos of a well-endowed woman to gull men into buying new cars on time payment, and then stole them.
Pol Maj Gen Theeradet Thumsuthee, chief investigator of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said on Tuesday that Dueanpen Jitwimolprasert was apprehended at a house in tambon Tha Chumpol of Photharam district, Ratchaburi province on Monday.
She is the alleged mastermind of the Busarakham romance scam gang. They used pictures of an attractive, well-endowed woman using the name Busarakham on a dating app and lured many men into falling for her and finally buying her brand-new cars through hire purchase agreements. Ms Busarakham promised that she would pay the instalments.
Instead, the gang stole the vehicles and left their male victims with the debt.
Pol Maj Gen Theeradet said the Busarakham gang was notorious. It focused on men in the central plains, western and eastern regions.
He said about 15 victims had already filed complaints with police. The two most recent were in the eastern province of Chon Buri.
Ms Dueanpen was arrested while packing her bags, apparently preparing to flee.
The suspect denied all charges and insisted she had nothing to do with any scams perpetuated by Ms Busarakham, who was arrested earlier.
According to police, Ms Dueanpen admitted to transfers of money between herself and Ms Busarakham, but said they were just normal loans.