A Thai transgender woman, who was dumped by her boyfriend, created a fraud scheme to take revenge and scammed 73 Japanese nationals of nearly 30 million baht (US$880,000).
She performed the scam for 13 years.
The Thailand Police recently launched a probe after a Japanese man visited the country and reported about the transwoman, who was named as Amy, conned him.
The 36-year-old man met Amy in Thailand in January when she posed as a Hong Kong tourist who had lost her passport and purse, according to the Thai media outlet Thaiger as quoted by South China Morning Post.
The Thai transwoman reportedly paid hotel bills after taking money from him.
The man dated her several times and lent her money for insurance and medical expenses, but she never repaid him, South China Morning Post.
She reportedly even tricked man to buy gold for her which she even exchanged for cash and then disappeared.
Police arrested the transwoman on August 4 in Bangkok.
The identity of the transwoman was revealed as 49-year-old Uthai Nantakhan.
Police said she always pretended to be a tourist from Hong Kong or Taiwan.
She would claim she had lost her purse and needed money to renew her passport, or pretend to have contracted Covid-19 to get cash for treatment, reported South China Morning Post.
Police found all her victims were Japanese men.
Police said she also lured victims into investing in fake businesses and later claimed the business had failed to escape with the invested money.
She told the police that she was dumped by her Japanese boyfriend when she was studying in college.
When I was in college, my Japanese boyfriend abandoned me during a trip, and left me to pay all the bills. I was heartbroken, she told the newspaper.
I was also scammed out of money by another Japanese man I dated before, so I really hate the Japanese and wanted to take revenge on Japanese men, she said.
In Thailand, people convicted of fraud can face up to three years in prison and a maximum fine of 60,000 baht (US$1,800), the newspaper reported.
