Police arrested a Thai woman for posing as a property agent and swindling more than 5 million baht from foreign and Thai nationals, with two Russian tourists among her latest victims.
Police searched a house in Thalang district and arrested the woman, Thanaporn, also known as Yu, at around 6am on August 26. Her arrest followed complaints from two Russian nationals who allegedly lost a combined 2 million baht to her.
According to the Russian victims, Thanaporn introduced herself as a property agent and offered to arrange bookings at several luxury villas across Phuket.
One victim transferred 1.5 million baht to Thanaporn for a villa booking in Cherng Talay, Thalang, while the other transferred 500,000 baht.
However, when the tourists arrived at the booked villa, the owners and receptionists could not find their names on the booking list. They realised they had been scammed and reported the case to the Investigation Division of Police Region 8. Police subsequently tracked down Thanaporn and arrested her at the house.
According to the Phuket Hotnews Facebook page, Thanaporn was wanted in connection with three similar fraud cases.
During questioning, she reportedly confessed to deceiving several other foreign and Thai nationals. The total damage from the alleged scams was estimated at around 5 million baht.
Police took Thanaporn to Thalang Police Station for further legal proceedings. As of publication, details of the charges against her had not been publicly released.
A similar case was reported in May, when a Thai man in Saraburi was arrested for using fake hotel webpages to trick people into making accommodation bookings. Police found that more than 20 million baht had circulated through his bank account.
In 2023, a victim filed a police complaint after being deceived by a fake hotel booking in Khao Yai National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima, losing 14,100 baht. Further investigation uncovered more than 40 victims, although no further public updates on the investigation or the arrest of those responsible were reported.
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