Police say the suspect ran both sides of a five-year online romance, playing a girlfriend and her older sister, until the victim recorded the calls and heard one voice.
For five years a Thai businessman believed he was talking to two women. He was talking to one. By the time he worked it out he had sent her more than 7 million baht.
It began on LINE in 2020 when a woman calling herself Ann messaged him. Her profile carried the photograph of an attractive young woman, and the two spent months talking before the friendship turned romantic.
Then Ann introduced someone new. Her older sister, called Oh.
The requests started soon after. Ann wanted help with travel costs, then accommodation, then everyday expenses. The largest and most persistent ask involved an inheritance she said was coming, and she promised every baht would be repaid once it landed.
It never landed. The businessman, known as Pao, kept paying for four to five years, and the total eventually passed 7 million baht.
His doubts surfaced in February. He started recording their phone calls without telling either woman, and when he played the recordings back the voices matched. Ann and Oh were the same person. He went to police soon afterwards with the recordings.
The Central Investigation Bureau said Highway Police arrested 43-year-old Patcharee after a tip-off that she would pass through Lop Buri. Officers stopped her at kilometre 18 of Highway 366 in Tha Wung district. Police withheld her surname in line with standard practice.
She was wanted on two warrants. The South Bangkok Criminal Court issued the first on August 10 for fraud by impersonation. The Criminal Court followed on August 20 under the Computer Crime Act over an altered image of another person.
Officers handed her to Yannawa police station, where she confessed to all charges during initial questioning.
The operation ran under Pol Lt Gen Nattasak Chaowanasai, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau. Pol Maj Gen Pornsak Laorujiralai, commander of the Highway Police Division, oversaw the arrest.
Related news
- Phuket villa booking scam arrest after Russian tourists lose millions
- Chinese fraud suspect arrested in Chiang Mai over 6 billion baht scheme
- Chinese jade vendor allegedly swindles 2 million baht from Thai victims
Source
- Central Investigation Bureau (CIB)
The story Woman posed as two women to swindle 7 million baht from businessman as seen on Thaiger News.
