A man from Kalasin who used a picture of the Government Lottery Office (GLO) board chairman to con Facebook users out of hundreds of thousands of baht was arrested on Wednesday in Nakhon Ratchasima's Pak Chong district, the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) said yesterday.
Somsak Sukman, 25, was previously arrested but released on bail in another fraud case, said Pol Col Santi Chainiramai, deputy chief of the CSD. Seized for inspection during his arrest included four passbooks, an ATM card, a mobile phone and a notebook, said Pol Col Santi.
In the new fraud case leading to his latest arrest, Mr Somsak admitted to unlawfully using a picture of Gen Apirat Kongsompong, the board chairman of the GLO, as a profile picture for a Facebook account called "Huay Lap Wongnai Huay Pramun" (secret exclusive lottery numbers obtained by means of bidding), said Pol Col Santi.
He admitted to using the Facebook account to lure people into believing that he had two and three-digit lottery tickets which were exclusively distributed to him by the GLO as winning tickets, said Pol Col Santi. The man collected membership fees of 50,000 baht from each of his victims who believed he could really supply them with those two-and three-digit lottery tickets as claimed, said Pol Col Santi.
In the previous case against him, he was arrested in May of last year after he used a picture of Maj Gen Chalongrat Nakarthit as a profile picture for another Facebook account which lured victims to pay him 30,000 baht for a membership fee for similar claim of exclusive lottery tickets. He repeated the crime while on bail fighting his court battle.
