It's a 2017 tale of fraud and deception: A 27-year-old woman is accused of setting up a fake charity for sick animals on Facebook, tricking the public out of a million baht, conspiring to impersonate a well-known lawyer on Line, and staging a fake kidnapping to extort money from her uncle.
Lawyer Songkran Achariyasap and Sataporn Ruenkasem, the 59-year-old uncle, filed complaints with the Crime Suppression Division on Thursday against Peerada Sopitnaprang, who is also known by two other names.
Mr Satapon, a tour operator, said that police had arrested his niece Peerada on Nov 25 on fraud charges after she allegedly created a Facebook page with photos of ill cats and dogs to gather donations from the public. She was said to have made off with about 1 million baht.
The uncle later placed the title deed of his condominium as bail for her temporary release.
Mr Sataporn said that on Dec 18 his niece asked him to contact lawyer Songkran to handle her case, saying the competent lawyer would be able to help her.
The woman shared a Line chat contact - purported to be Mr Songkran - with her uncle. In subsequent Line conversations, the person claiming to be Mr Songkran demanded a 65,000-baht fee to handle the case. Mr Sataporn arranged to hand over the money at the Criminal Court.
Instead of Mr Songkran, Mr Sataporn said, it was Miss Peerada who showed up at the court, saying she would take the money to the lawyer herself.
Later on, he said, Miss Peerada phoned him with the news that a gang had abducted her and was demanding a ransom of 100,000 baht. Mr Sataporn said he bargained the ransom down to 50,000 baht and transferred the money.
He was then unable to contact his niece. Fearing for her safety, he went to the Criminal Court to ask for information.
After hearing his story, a voluntary lawyer at the court told him that it was possible his niece might have cheated him, and advised him to contact the lawyer, Mr Songkran - the real one. It was during their meeting that Mr Sataporn realised that his niece had indeed deceived him.
Mr Songkran told police that his name had been used by Miss Peerada in order to trick her uncle. He accused Miss Peerada of computer crime for abusing his identity and of defaming him. Mr Sataporn accused his niece of fraud.
