As the tail of deception continues it is not only the man and the Thai woman who are scratching their heads and blinking their eyes, there is yet a third unsuspecting person who has yet to make his discovery. Unfortunately for him, it was not just a run across town.
Continued from part 2, the girl from Udon Thani said to the man that he did not look like his picture, and he assured her the picture was recent and properly posted. As he was still in a daze with all of this he did not connect that there was another player in this game of deception.
So as it would be everyone piled into a taxi and headed off to the mans apartment across town. The women checked out the digs and indicated they were hungry. So off for a short lunch and then left leaving the man and the girl from Udon Thani together. So from there it was back to the man’s apartment to sort out what was going on. The girl was on the verge of tears and just as confused as the man. After a few hours it was established that the other woman was totally responsible for the online profiles and encouraged her to leave the outdated photos online as she claimed to have more experience. Apparently the Thai logic was get the man here and then smooth things over later for the deception. So with great reluctance she let it happen.
But with that she also got a taste of what it was like to be deceived. As the man responded to the profile that said she was 20, another man with the same name responded to the profile that said she was 22, and that was who she was expecting to meet. To top it off the other man was to have flown in to Thailand from London the same day, so needless to say that bit of deception was much more expensive than the cost of a cab across town. However she was content with the man if he was willing to overlook the discrepancies in the profile and photo as she was told would happen. Needless to say, he was not in any such mood accident or not. He was not about to be force fed by some Thai scam artist preying on people trying to find love online.
So it was decided the next day to just push the reset button and she would head back to Udon Thani to get her money back. However that is doubtful as before the scamming woman departed she inquired about how to get to a certain shopping area where she could spend some of that money before flying back to Udon Thani.
Seeing as the girl arrived virtually broke with just enough money to eat a few meals, the man shelled out 2000 Baht for her bus fare and giving her some money to live on in the mean time. She had spent every last Baht she had, and borrowed several thousand from others to come up with the 20,000 Baht.
So in short in this one event, this Thai scam artist made a problem for 2 men, and several Thais for an estimated total of 80,000 Baht if you count the second man’s airfare from London. Needless to say this is not something that will go down easy when she gets back to Udon Thani.
Connecting the Dots does not know how wide spread this scam is, but it does point to a peril that may not be deliberate by the women who you think you are chatting with. If you are coming from a distance it certainly would be worth your while to have this investigated. In our series “Finding Thai love on line” in part 6 we talk about an investigation service that may be worth hiring before you spring for airfare. Not to say it is needed every time but if you have doubts then it is one option to set your mind at ease. At the very least they can tell if she looks like the photo.
