August 30, 2022, 10:37 AM
Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg
A Thai female YouTuber has apparently fled the country after she allegedly cheated thousands of victims in a forex scam.
Over 6,000 victims
Phaisal Ruangrit, a Thai lawyer who helps fraud victims, told local news outlet The Nation that the YouTuber, Natthamon Khongchak, has allegedly fleeced over 6,000 victims of some two billion Thai baht, or nearly S$77 million.
He added that a victim had reportedly deposited about 18 million baht (S$690,000) with Natthamon.
The lawyer has brought 30 people to the Economic Crime Suppression Division to file their complaints against Natthamon on Aug. 24.
Used popularity to draw people in
Natthamon, who goes by Nutty's Diary on YouTube, is relatively popular and has some 847,000 followers on her channel, at the time of writing.
She has some 310,000 followers on her Instagram page, where she claims to be a trader and has highlighted several Instagram Stories of her forex trading experiences.
She also claims to be a singer, dancer, YouTuber and lastly a chief executive officer.
Phaisal accused the YouTuber of leveraging on her star power to draw in potential "investors", promising them of lucrative returns within a short time period.
Natthamon apparently told people who were interested that they would receive a 25 per cent capital return for a three-month time period, 30 per cent for six months and 35 per cent for 12 months when they deposit into her account and promised them a monthly payout.
Claimed to have lost all money after mistake
However, Natthamon's investors noticed something was amiss when they stopped receiving their payments in April 2022 and began complaining.
This was followed by two Instagram posts on May 25, where Natthamon claimed to have lost all of her investors money after making a mistake while trading.
However, she promised to repay her investors as soon as possible and asked them for some time.
On the run
Nearly a month later on Jun. 24, Natthamon announced that she was being sued in two cases and would not be able to repay other investors if she was jailed, according to The Nation.
Sanook News reported that a male victim, who reportedly lost 37 million Thai baht (S$1,418,350) and goes by Nok, has put a one million Thai baht (S$38,333) reward to anyone who has information on Natthamon's whereabouts.
This bounty was subsequently doubled to two million Thai baht (S$76,667) by a group of Natthamon's victims, according to a local television show, who spoke to some of the victims.
Separately, an arrest warrant has been issued for Natthamon.
Citing a popular Thai Facebook page Drama-addict, The Nation reported that Natthamon had apparently fled to Malaysia.
However, Channel 7 HD checked with the Thai immigration office and reported that Natthamon's name could not be found in recent immigration records.
Top image screenshot from Nutty's Diary/YouTube and from Sanook News
If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Telegram to get the latest updates.