Heartbreaking! A 63-year-old woman was tricked by a call center gang into transferring all her money into her account before she even had time to spend ten thousand baht. Another uncle had his ATM card withdrawn by a neighbor, leaving only 5 baht in his account.
Aunt Buathong, 63, from Chum Phae District, Khon Kaen Province, had to go to the police station to ask for help in arresting a call center gang that tricked her into transferring 10,000 baht that she received from a government project, as well as 6,800 baht in senior citizen and village health volunteer allowances. Now, she has no money left in her account, not even a single baht.
Ms. Buathong said that she withdrew the 10,000 baht that the government had distributed since September 26 to prepare to add the fence to her house. Then yesterday morning (September 30), a Line account named ‘Sergeant Sridet’ contacted her and informed her that Aunt Buathong had been involved in an account that had committed illegal acts. He then asked her to add her Lin
e account named ‘Kanchanaburi Police Station’, claiming that a commanding officer would talk via Line and send her the account, court order, and photos of the suspects involved in the case that she had been arrested for. Then he called her and asked her to transfer money for her to check. When the investigation process was complete, the police would transfer all of the money back. Aunt Buathong was home alone, so she was afraid and believed it. The first time, she transferred 6,800 baht in elderly allowances for village health volunteers via a bank app, but that wasn’t enough. The call center gang tricked Aunt Buathong into going to a convenience store and transferred another 10,000 baht that she had just received from the digital money project into the account of Ms. Charunipa. At every step that Aunt Buathong made, the call center gang would talk on the phone the entire time and told her not to tell anyone because it was a government secret, so she didn’t dare to consult anyone. When I realized it, the mone
y in my account was gone. Now I feel both sorry for the money and regret being cheated.
The police said that in this case, they have collected evidence of the conversation, money transfer slips, and have sent a request to freeze the destination account that Aunt Buathong transferred money to. They are in the process of tracking down the account owner to give a statement in order to proceed with legal action.
Uncle laments that a woman took his ATM card and withdrew ten thousand baht.
Another case in Udon Thani, Uncle Somdee, 63 years old, a resident of Na Muang Thai Village, Nam Som District, brought evidence, a bank account book, to file a police report, saying that he was not tricked out of 10,000 baht by a call center gang, but that a neighbor named “Taew” used his ATM to withdraw 10,000 baht from Uncle Somdee. Uncle Somdee said that he was single and lived alone, while Taew and her husband worked in rubber plantations. Since they were neighbors, they were close. When the elderly allowance and state wel
fare payments came out, he usually had Taew withdraw them for him and gave some to Taew to use.
But on September 26, Taew invited him to check the 10,000 baht at the ATM. Since Uncle Somdee didn’t know how to use an ATM, but Taew did, Taew said, “The money hasn’t come in yet.” She went to check at another bank. Taew said the same thing, “It hasn’t come in yet,” and said she would keep the ATM card. If the money came in, she would come and withdraw it for him. At that time, Uncle Somdee didn’t mind at all. He went home normally. Then, on September 28, his younger sister invited him to take his passbook to check if the 10,000 baht had come in. It turned out that “the money had come in since September 26,” and it had been withdrawn on the same day. As for the money in Uncle Somdee’s account, there was only 5 baht left.
Uncle Somdee went to ask Taew. Taew denied it, saying that she did not withdraw the money. Uncle Somdee said that he was very sorry for trusting her, so he decided to report the case to the poli
ce first. If Taew returned the money, he would not press charges. He also wanted the police to check the CCTV footage to confirm that Taew did withdraw the money, so that there would be evidence. When something like this happened, it got to the headman to mediate, but it turned out that Taew closed her house quietly. However, the headman told reporters that this morning the police issued a summons for Taew to meet. When the headman called to tell her, Taew promised to meet the police, but she did not have a car to go with and would go alone, without anyone taking her.
While the reporter tried calling Taew, she confirmed that she did not take Uncle Somdee’s ATM to withdraw 10,000 baht. On the night of September 24, she took Uncle Somdee to register at the ATM. She emphasized that she did not withdraw 10,000 baht from Uncle Somdee and that the ATM had already returned it to Uncle Somdee. If she is arrested for theft, she will confirm that she “did not take the money”.
Source: Thai News Agency