Going online opens many doors of opportunity, but it has also opened the door to a new generation of scammers and fraudsters.
From luxury good scams to phishing via popular apps, it is getting increasingly difficult – even for the most digitally savvy – to avoid getting conned.
The latest scam allegedly involves a popular Thai YouTuber, who has been accused of defrauding investors of a whopping S$77 million.
Source: @nutty.suchataa on Instagram
She first attracted investors by promising high returns via forex trading, but reportedly fled overseas after announcing that she had lost all their money.
According to The Nation Thailand, Thai YouTuber Natthamon Khongchak is said to have defrauded more than 6,000 victims.
Phaisal Ruangrit, a lawyer who helps victims of fraud, provided this shocking figure.
He has helped around 30 people to file complaints against the social media personality with the Economic Crime Suppression Division.
In total, Natthamon allegedly cheated investors out of S$77 million (2 billion baht). One victim even invested as much as S$691,000 (18 million baht) with her.
Natthamon, whose YouTube channel ‘Nutty’s Diary’ has 846,000 subscribers, capitalised on her popularity to lure new investors, Phaisal claims.
In her Instagram bio, she calls herself a trader and even has a LINE ID named @nt.easytrade.
Source: @nutty.suchataa on Instagram
She also offered contracts of various tie-in periods to investors, each with different percentages of returns.
Those who registered for three-month contracts were promised 25% in returns, while six-month and 12-month contract holders were promised 30% and 35% respectively.
Furthermore, she had pledged to pay out the returns on a monthly basis.
In April, investors began complaining about not receiving their returns.
While Natthamon had updated her YouTube and Instagram regularly up until March, she went dark on both after the complaints.
On 25 May, she broke her silence via an Instagram announcement that she had made a trading mistake and lost all the money.
However, she had promised back then to repay her investors.
On 24 Jun, Natthamon declared that she was being sued in two cases.
She also said she would not be able to repay her investors if she ended up in jail.
Last Sunday (28 Aug), Thai news channel Ch7HD News reported that Natthamon has fled the country.
She has allegedly gone to Malaysia, although this information has yet to be verified.
Sanook.com reports that one of the victims was offering S$38,400 (1 million baht) to anyone who could provide any information leading to Natthamon’s arrest.
Other victims started pitching in and the reward has since doubled to S$76,800 (2 million baht).
As the saying goes, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
While high investment returns are tempting and may even pay off for a while, they are more likely than not conducted through illegal channels.
We hope Natthamon’s investors will receive compensation eventually, and that this wards others off from entering into similar schemes.
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Featured image adapted from @nutty.suchataa on Instagram.
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