About 250 people have complained they were promised work in Australia or Israel by job brokers and then left stranded at Suvarnabhumi airport on Saturday without their promised air flights.
The disappointed job seekers said they paid about 12 million baht in brokers' fees in total.
Fifty of them filed formal complaints with the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) on Monday.
One of them, Narongchai, 42, said they paid 60,000 to 120,000 each to a woman named "Ms Aoy" to arrange a variety of jobs for them in Australia.
Other victims had filed a complaint with Suvarnabhumi airport police on Saturday, and said they were promised work in Israel.
Ms Aoy showed up at the airport on Saturday and said she had transferred the victims’ money to a "Ms Fa", who had claimed to work at a foreign embassy and to be able to find overseas jobs for Thais.
Ms Aoy told them she would take the visas she arranged for them to the Crime Suppression Division on Monday to demonstrate her innocence, but the victims were unable to contact her as of Monday morning.
Government deputy spokesman Karom Ponpornklang said the Department of Employment and the Ministry of Labour were helping the victims file their complaints with the CIB’s Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division.
The Ministry also ordered the airport labour checkpoint to strictly monitor job brokers for illegalities, Mr Karom said.
"Thai people wanting to work aboard need to go there legally, and should check carefully before handing their money over to brokers. Overseas job agencies must be approved by the Department of Labour," he said.
