News Forum - Criminals pretend to be police, scam Swiss man in Phuket

[Thaiger]

Scammers went after a Swiss national living in Phuket when they pretended to be police, and told him he had to pay a fine for receiving funds through illegal activities. The “police” contacted the man, Alain, saying a FedEx package couldn’t be delivered. Since Alain was expecting a FedEx package, he listened. The story then changed to say Bangkok police were holding a package in Alain’s name. The scammers then told Alain to join them on a LINE video conference. On the video conference, the scammers asked for Alain’s personal details, and bank account information. They showed Alain photos of […]

The story Criminals pretend to be police, scam Swiss man in Phuket as seen on Thaiger News.

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[ThailandBob]

This all happens because the posers' whole MO is similar to existing police procedures that are legal. 

Edited February 10, 2022 by ThailandBob

[DoUKnowWhoIAm]

18 minutes ago, Thaiger said:

Alain urges other foreigners to not give money to anyone, even people who say they are police.

And not to those who really are police.

[Tim]

What an idiot, how could you fall for that...

[Convert54]

So where and what is in the Fedex package the scammers seem to be well aware of ?

[vlad]

Don't think your average Somtam Sam could think up a scam like this. Sounds a bit to clever for your average Scammer.

[Grumpish]

24 minutes ago, Convert54 said:

So where and what is in the Fedex package the scammers seem to be well aware of ?

Opportunistic - they would have just kept contacting people until they got someone that was expecting a package. Same as the calls claiming to be from your ISP and claiming that there was a problem with your  computer or router.  I used to get these regularly at work, always from a South Asian call centre and in very heavily accented English.

[Cabra]

Maybe it's just the media reporting, but there seems to be a lot more of these police impersonator scams happening recently. Does not instill confidence for the intrepid traveler.

[riclag]

Wow thanks Mr. Alain ! It sounded so convincing!

When you have been a victim of fraud ,most of the time ,one is always suspicious in the future  

Good luck getting your money back! Hopefully you weren’t entirely cleaned out after everything is settled!

[JamesR]

3 hours ago, DoUKnowWhoIAm said:

And not to those who really are police.

You have to now and then, 20,000 baht from an ATM machine if you have been caught over the drink driving limit at a road block. 

[JamesR]

3 hours ago, Convert54 said:

So where and what is in the Fedex package the scammers seem to be well aware of ?

Perhaps they have someone working at fedEx who are informing them of parcels destined for people with farang names?

[Guest1]

 After Alain showed the police screenshots, recordings, and call logs of what had happened, the police said this looked like a very experienced group of international scammers.

Perhaps more a very experienced group of local scammers, targeting foreigners, huu?

[Alavan]

4 hours ago, JamesR said:

Perhaps they have someone working at fedEx who are informing them of parcels destined for people with farang names?

My thoughts exactly.