Police in Phuket have arrested a Thai girl and a Nigerian man accused of bilking victims out of no much less than eleven million baht in online romance scams. The pair were taken into custody by officers from the Immigration Bureau and the Cherng Talay Police at a rented room positioned in Srisoonthorn, Thalang.
Police only made public the arrest yesterday though they have been actually taken into custody on Tuesday. The Thai girl is 26 years previous and was already being looked for an excellent warrant from the Chon Buri Provincial Court on Monday. It is unclear if the pair had been hiding out in Phuket for a while or had just left Chon Buri when the warrant was issued and snuck into Phuket inside the final week.
Immigration officers stated of the Nigerian man only that he was staying in Thailand illegally and did not mention any particulars of his involvement in the on-line scams. Well respected is forthcoming to determine if he had a hand in scamming these individuals although.
According to police, the Thai lady had created multiple faux identities on Facebook and different social media platforms including a LINE account. She used these accounts to seduce on-line victims, tricking them into believing that they were in a romantic relationship with the Thai lady. She would then request cash to pay for things like living expenses or ask them to buy her items or ask that they ship money in order for her to send them things by postal mail.
But the Thai woman claimed to be a pawn in the scheme. She confessed to having pulled these online scams repeatedly for the final 6 months and directed payments by all her victims to be transferred to 1 specific account, in total over eleven million baht. She says that she was then instructed to switch the money to other financial institution accounts by an unnamed network in Bangkok. She says that she was paid to participate within the scams however didn’t get to maintain the eleven million baht.
The 2 are being charged for the crimes that the arrest warrant in Chon Buri was issued for and are being held at Cherng Talay Police Station. Unheard of are likely relating to the online romance scams..