THAILAND (TR) – A man who has been arrested multiple times for defrauding male Japanese tourists by posing as a woman in distress told reporters earlier this week that he is motivated by a negative experience in the past, reports Fuji News Network (Feb. 4).
On February 3, police in Bangkok arrested the man, a 43-year-old Thai national, on suspicion of fraud. Between November of last year and January, he is suspected of swindling 10 Japanese tourists out of a total of 930,000 yen in cash.
Following his latest arrest, the suspect told reporters that he continually swindles Japanese male tourists because they are easy to take advantage of — and due to “a grudge.”
“When I was a college student, I went on a trip with a Japanese man,” the suspect said. “But he abandoned me at a hotel, leaving me to pay the bills. Ever since being tricked, I have held a grudge against Japanese people.”
The ruse is elaborate. According to police, the suspect poses as a female tourist from Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan by dressing in women’s clothing. He then approaches Japanese visitors in shopping districts, explaining that he needs help due to the fact that he has lost his wallet and passport.
The suspect says to a victim that he would like to borrow his telephone in order to contact a Japanese acquaintance. When the suspect claims that acquaintance is not reachable, he shows a troubled expression. He then says that he would like to have a family member send funds to the victim’s bank account.
After receiving the bank account number from the victim, he says that the transfer will take several days. He then wonders whether the victim will be able to advance the money to him on the spot.
“Since Japanese women want to spend money, I targeted Japanese men”
In November, the suspect played out such a scheme upon a 41-year-old Japanese tourist in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok. He told the victim, while saying he was a woman from Taiwan, that his wallet and passport had been stolen on a bus.
The victim then gave the suspect 370,000 yen after he withdrew the cash from an ATM machine with his credit card. The money was not returned to his account, police said.
“Since Japanese women want to spend money, I targeted Japanese men,” the suspect told police.
The arrest on Sunday is the sixth for the suspect. He was most recently released from prison last September. Over the past 10 years, he is believed to have used the same ruse to swindle about 100 Japanese tourists out of around 35 million yen.
