A 70 year old grandmother in Thailand thought she had lost her life savings after falling for a call centre scam.
Instead, she walked away almost RM300,000 richer in a plot twist nobody saw coming, including the scammer himself.
Told she was linked to money laundering
According to mStar, the scammer contacted the elderly woman and claimed her bank account was involved in a money laundering case.
They told her the account would be frozen and pressured her into cooperating.
Fearing legal trouble, she panicked and transferred more than 410,000 baht (RM52,800) to a Hong Kong account as instructed by the syndicate.
Scammers told her to convert savings into gold
After the transfer, the scammer continued to manipulate the woman by claiming her remaining money would be safer in gold and instructed her to buy gold bars in stages.
Believing them, she used her savings to purchase over 14 million baht (RM1.8 million) worth of gold. However, she eventually became suspicious and lodged a police report on Oct 17.
Suspect caught
Thai police set up a trap with the woman’s cooperation. The syndicate later ordered her to place the gold bars inside a powdered milk tin and bring it to a meeting point.
Officers went undercover as a deliveryman and a motorcycle taxi rider. When a Hong Kong man showed up to collect the gold, they arrested him on the spot.
Investigations revealed that he was a collector for the scam group and had overstayed his tourist visa in Thailand.
Gold prices saved her from disaster
After the case was settled, the woman sold all the gold she bought. By coincidence, global gold prices surged about 15% during that period, making the value of the gold she bought to skyrocket to 16.7 million baht (approx. RM2.1 million).
As such, she gained a profit of 2.7 million baht (approx. RM345,000). Even after deducting her earlier loss of 410,000 baht, she still made a net profit of about 2.3 million baht (approx. RM295,000).
Not many scam stories end well, but this grandmother literally struck gold.
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