Buri Ram: A shop owner has warned grocers under the Thong Fah (Blue Flag) cut-price scheme about bogus salesmen after they allegedly tricked her into buying soap in return for free use of their freezers and shelves.
Sopha Charoenying, a grocer in Buri Ram's Lam Plai Mat district, told police she decided to buy the bars of soap though they were unusually priced at 83 baht a piece, but once she paid them more than 10,000 baht in total, the salesmen drove off immediately and could not be contacted since last Thursday.
"I suddenly realised I had been deceived," she said. Fortunately, the woman took photos of the gangsters, hoping this will help the police arrest them.
Reportedly the gang, made up of four suspects, targeted shops under the Thong Fah scheme, which sell essentials to the poor who have been granted welfare cards with a monthly allowance to buy products.
Ms Sopha runs a shop in Lam Plai Mat district where many small traditional grocers are listed as Thong Fah shops.
She found that each soap bar only costs between 10 and 20 baht. The gang lured her into buying them, claiming they just wanted to take photos of the soap on a shelf to show them to their company. The gang told her she could later change them to other products if she wanted.
The 47-year-old grocer said she bought the soap because she wanted a freezer and shelf the gang promised to lend free of charge. Buying products from them also helped save travel costs as she did not have to drive 50 kilometres to buy supplies in the city, she said.
