Volume 14, Issue 22
Happy Birthday, Queen Sirikit! On behalf of the staff, management and readership of Pattaya Today, we extend sincere and respectful congratulations to Her Majesty The Queen on this auspicious occasion. Long may she continue to be an inspiration for her devotion to the Kingdom.
1 - 15 August 2015
30 BAHT
Nanny Scams Return O
nline advertisements offering lucrative positions in UK and US to young Thai women wanting to be nannies have again turned out to be fake. The scammers, who appear to be based in Nigeria, pose as genuine British and American families with small children requiring professional help. But the aim of the scammers is simply to extract cash from vulnerable Thais or their benefactors. There have been several cases in Pattaya of fraud amounting to hundreds of thousands of baht. Once anyone replies to the online advertisement, including social media, expressing an interest in working as a nanny abroad, the scammers begin their campaign of lies. Typically, they send photos of the family in question and explain in a personal letter that the job is now open and may well include cruises as the father works for an international company. One Pattaya young woman, Khun Noy, said, “The offer seemed too good to be true and I know now that it was. I was told that it would not be necessary for me to obtain a British visa as nannies were a specially exempt category. I was even advised I did not even need to go for interview at the British embassy in Bangkok because of the shortage of nannies and child carers in England.” The correspondence continued for several weeks and included the revelation that Noy would be nanny to a boy aged 3 and a girl aged 4, but the girl would need special attention as she was a spastic. Pictures of the house where the family was based in one of the most expensive parts of London were also sent, together with fake references from the husband’s supposed boss and a mortgage company indicating
the property was worth two million pounds. At last, the scam was revealed when Noy was asked to send 75,000 baht to the supposed nanny agency in London to cover the costs of the application for the exempt category visa and for her return airfare from Thailand. Of course, once the scammers received the cash then all further contact was suspended. Noy said she did not personally have that amount of money but it was donated by her family and a farang friend who wanted to help her get a really good job in UK. Other victims have been even more unfortunate. Another Thai young woman Khun Tee expressed interest in a nanny’s job in the US and was surprised when the scammer sent a forged money order as advance payment to secure her services. The scammer had said the amount would be 30,000 baht but the sum was actually 200,000 baht. Noy was asked to purchase essential items (such as toys) for the trip to US but to send the excess money to a third party – the scammers in fact. She wired the money to the third party only to find out that
the money sent was fraudulent and that the bank required Noy to pay back all of the money, a total of 200,000 baht. In yet another variation, hopeful Thai nannies have even been invited to meet the nanny agency’s representative, usually in Bangkok and based in an accommodation-address office. After being duped by the elaborate setup, several young women have been persuaded to part with their cash to ensure they can get to the UK or the US to start a new life in luxurious surroundings. Often it seems that farang friends or boyfriends have paid the premium in the belief that it will be a sound investment for the future. Police sources are reminding young women that they were being scammed if a family wanted to hire them without checking their background or even without meeting them. Other suspicious features are transacting money over the internet, being asked for banking information or being told to cash a cheque from someone unknown to them. The bottom line is that if a job offer is too good to be true, then it certainly is precisely that.