The women incurred a total loss worth around B881 million, said the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) on Wednesday, reports the Bangkok Post.
CCIB spokesman Kissana Phathanacharoen said victims had filed reports to police accusing an online matchmaker, whose Facebook page is followed by 150,000 people, of swindling them out of hundreds of millions of baht.
He said that the famous matchmaker provides dating services for Thai women looking for farang partners, a term referring to European-looking people. The excellence of the men’s profiles depends on the package price set by the matchmaker.
The simplest package is B20,000 for farang engineers and office workers, B30,000 for developers and businessmen, B50,000 for doctors and pharmacists and B100,000 for dairy farm owners and vineyard owners.
Pol Col Kissana also added that the matchmaker claims to create profiles on online-dating sites for her customers for B7,000 and provides private coaching on how to get a farang husband at B5,000.
Victims reported that the matchmaker did not introduce them to anyone, and the pictures of the farang men she had sent them were, in fact, of celebrities, athletes or high-profile businessmen.
Pol Col Kissana said that from March 2022 to Sept 17 of this year, there were 2,621 cases related to matchmaking scams, making this kind of romance scam the 12th most reported crime, with a total loss of B881 million.
The investigation followed the case of seven female victims who had paid over B100,000 for the matchmaking service, hoping that the matchmaker would find them high-profile men.
After realising they were scammed, the victims went to well-known lawyer Decha Kittivittayanan to file reports to the police, expecting to bring the case to court.
One of the victims revealed that she is a single mother who wishes to find a Western husband so she can relocate with her child abroad. With the matchmaker’s advertisement boasting many successful matches, she decided to pay for the service.
Mr Decha said that over 10 victims of the scam had contacted him.