10-6-2024 (BANGKOK) A 27-year-old Chinese woman, initially believed to have been kidnapped in Thailand for a substantial ransom, has been found unharmed by police at a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thai authorities have revealed. The incident, which sparked fears of a high-profile abduction, turned out to be part of an elaborate cyber scam targeting unsuspecting victims.
According to reports from local media, Ms Lu Xinlei, a resident of Shanghai, was located safe and sound on the evening of June 8 at HomePro BangNa, a retail store in Bangkok’s Bang Na district. Her disappearance had been reported a day earlier when her father received a chilling demand for a five million yuan (S$932,000) ransom on the Chinese messaging app WeChat, purportedly for her release.
Alarmed by the ransom demand and unable to locate his daughter, Ms Lu’s father initiated an urgent search. Although Ms Lu had purchased a flight ticket to Singapore on June 7, there was no record of her leaving Thailand, further fuelling concerns about her well-being.
However, as the investigation unfolded, it became evident that Ms Lu had fallen victim to a sophisticated cyber kidnapping scam. According to Thai news outlets, the 27-year-old, who worked for a Japanese property company, had received a call from scammers posing as Japanese authorities, accusing her of violating anti-money laundering laws.
The scammers then instructed Ms Lu to transfer 17 million yen (S$146,000) for “examination,” travel to either Thailand or Singapore, and refrain from contacting her family members. Following these instructions, she arrived in Thailand on June 5 and was subsequently ordered to change her SIM card and frequently move between different hotels, effectively cutting off communication with her loved ones.
Thai police eventually located Ms Lu at the Bangkok shopping mall, and she was promptly taken to the Phra Khanong police station, where she was reunited with her mother and sister, who had flown in from China fearing the worst – that she had been kidnapped.
Addressing the public’s concerns, a spokesperson for the Thai police confirmed that Ms Lu was safe and unharmed, asserting that the incident was a scam designed to deceive both the victim and her family. “We believe the scammers tricked both the victim and her family. There was no real kidnapping involved,” the spokesperson stated, bringing a sense of relief to a situation that had initially sparked fears of a high-stakes abduction.
