More than 140 victims fell for a bitcoin scam that took place here in Thailand. 30 victims went to The Royal Thai Police and claimed that over 40 million THB was lost to this bitcoin scam.
Workpoint news reported on the 18th of this month that over 39 victims came to report a bitcoin scam to Thailand’s Action Taskforce for Information Technology Crime Suppression (TACTICS).
The victims invested with a website named “cryptominingfarm”. The website is reported to be managed by LIFETIME Technology Co., Ltd. owned by Pimongkol Taopiban (Male). Together, over 140+ victims invested with the website believing that they were investing in the international online currency “Bitcoin”.
Some chose to invest only a few thousand baht but the unlucky ones invested millions with LIFETIME. Together, the amount counts up to over 42+ million THB. One of the victims is Tawin Kunaratawat or as the media industry knows him “Johnson Tawin”. Johnson who is a teenage actor in Thailand reported that before he decided to invest with the country he checked on the history and profile of the company and discovered that they had offices in Muang Thong Thani and in Chiang Mai province. They seemed trustable adding to his experience of investing in similar circumstances before Johnson decided to take a chance in the company.
When he invested in the company, he received the return of the investment as promised so he decided to invest even more with the company. But then around mid-2018, bad signs started to appear when the company didn’t pay him the return of investment as agreed in the contract. Johnson decided to come to report the scam in connection with LIFETIME Technology with the other victims who are in a tough position like him.
Another victim who wishes to remain private reported that someone he knew invited him to invest in bitcoin currency through the cryptominingfarm website in 2017. The contract stated that he would receive 70% of what he invested into bitcoin. Contracts varied from 3 months to a lifetime agreement.
In the beginning, investors were able to withdraw their cash at any time throughout the year. Then in August of 2018 the company started to add more conditions in withdrawing money and bad came to worse on the 1st of February 2019 when the company told investors they would slowly reimburse back investors in 84 installments through a period of 7 years in other currencies that are not accepted by the Thai law in relation to this case (the 7 currencies that are accepted are 1. Bitcoin (BTC), 2. Bitcoin Cash (BCH), 3. Ethereum (ETH), 4. Ethereum Classic (ETC), 5. Litecoin (LTC), 6. Ripple (XRP), and 7. Stellar (XLM)).
