A YouTuber is now on the run in Southeast Asia for swindling their viewers.
Viewers of dance YouTuber Suchata Kongsupachak have recently reported to Thai authorities they found her to have stolen their money after she invited them to invest in her foreign exchange trading company.
Thai officials believe that Khongchak's fake foreign exchange trading company could be linked to people arrested for fraud in Malaysia last month, which are both Ponzi schemes.
Natthamon Khongchak Ponzi Scheme Details
Swindled investors mentioned that Suchata Kongsupachak, more popularly known as Nutty to her viewers, previously invited them to invest in her foreign exchange trading company after gaining a significant following on Youtube thanks to her dance videos, per Interesting Engineering.
Nutty has over 847,000 subscribers on YouTube, which was the source of her following. She was also active on Instagram, posting private foreign exchange trading courses for aspiring traders. She even posted pictures of luxury cars, watches, and property on her social media accounts to showcase the gains she made from being a forex trader herself.
Eventually, Nutty supposedly earned enough from her social media accounts and from being a forex trader to invite her viewers and fans to invest in her foreign exchange trading company, Suchata Co Ltd, per Bloomberg.
According to her would-be investors, the 30-year-old forex trader lured people into investing in her forex trading company with promising returns as high as 35%.
The lure worked, enticing as many as 6,000 people to invest in her company come April 2022. As a result, Nutty received a total investment of around ฿2 billion or approximately $55 million.
However, in May, Nutty shared a video on Instagram telling her followers that she had made a trading mistake. Apparently, her broker allegedly blocked her trading account, leading to her being unable to access her funds since March. As a result, she now owes investors ฿1 billion or around $27.5 billion.
Despite this incident, Nutty promises those who invested in her that she will try to repay them.
Unfortunately, Nutty has had little to no social media appearances since June, which led to her viewers believing that she fled Thailand. Although Thai officials said she is still in the country, she has since abandoned her social media accounts, with Bloomberg unable to reach her through her Instagram account on August 30.
Thailand Authorities' Response
Wattana Ketumpai, a police officer under Thailand's Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, mentioned that 102 people filed complaints against the YouTuber, claiming that they had lost a total of ฿30 million or around $822,000.
They also mentioned that more and more people are coming forward every day to report Nutty's scam. However, the number of swindled investors could be higher than reported as some may have chosen to file a complaint with other police offices.
Investigators have also found that Nutty's company could be connected to another Fraud case in Singapore, where a Thai couple was arrested for fraud by defrauding customers over luxury watches and brand-name products.
As a result of these complaints, authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Nutty's arrest, who now faces three charges, including fraud.
Thai publication "The Nation" mentioned that Nutty had changed her name twice before, with Leah Kongchak and Natthamon Kongchak being her aliases.
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