People who claim they lost money buying brand-name skincare and other products that they never received through social networking sites have lodged two separate complaints with police.
The first group filed a complaint with the Consumer Protection Police Division and the other presented their grievances to the Economic Crime Suppression Division.
University student Suwannarat On-im, who represented 10 victims fooled into buying cosmetics via Instragram, accused a woman, identified only as Duangphon, for failing to deliver products or return their money on Monday.
The victims were not able to say exactly how much money they had lost, but Ms Suwannarat said it was at least one million baht.
According to their complaint, Ms Duangphon claimed she sold skincare products over the counter in a shop, which also allowed her to sell them online at a cheap rate, sometimes 50% lower than normal prices.
Thistempted Ms Suwannarat and other victims to place large orders and transfer money to Ms Duangphon, who only delivered some of the items.
Ms Duangphon responded to complaints by saying there was a glitch causing delays at post offices and promised to help track the goods. However, Ms Suwannarat alleged that there were no products in reality and that Ms Duangphon had provided "fake tracking numbers" to fool victims a delivery was on the way.
They also could not get their money back.
"Unfortunately, scams like this often occur," acting chief of the Consumer Protection Police Division, Pol Col Sithatkhet Khruwatthanaset, said.
Meanwhile, another group of angry people led by Suphani Sukhom gathered at the Economic Crime Suppression Division on Monday to lodge a similar complaint.
Although only 10 people were present on Monday, the actual numbers of victims totalled more than 1,000 with damages of at least 1.3 million baht, Ms Suphani said.
In their complaint, they accused a woman called Wipha Klamcharoen of luring them into buying products that they never received via three Facebook pages.
Ms Wipha's boyfriend, Witthawat Natbun, told police he has not been able to contact her after receiving complaints from angry customers.
He and his mother were questioned after it emerged proceeds from transactions went into an account Ms Wipha had asked Mr Witthawat's mother to open.
Both he and his mother claimed to know nothing about the alleged scam.
