Scammer tricks Thai woman, 70, into buying gold, she ends up making S$107,000 profit when prices really surged

A Hong Kong national was arrested for his involvement in the case.

A 70-year-old woman in Thailand initially lost over 410,000 baht (S$16,200) after being fooled by a call centre scam.

But in a serendipitous twist of fate, she ended up earning a profit by the time her case concluded — because the scammer got her to buy gold when her bank account got frozen in September just as gold prices were beginning to surge globally.

Tricked into transferring money

According to .

According to police, the man's role was to collect assets from the victims and to hand them to other members in the syndicate.

Elderly woman sells gold for staggering profits in weeks

After the case concluded, the victim sold the gold she had accumulated over weeks — for 16.7 million baht (S$652,900)

At the time of the sale, global prices of the asset had gone up by roughly 15 per cent in a few weeks, given the recent increase in the value of precious metals, including silver, which was believed to have been driven by institutional buyers.

According to Thai media reports, based on a back-of-the-hand calculation, the woman's stash of gold had been increasing in value during the weeks she was accumulating the asset as prices went on a bull run.

 

Her 14 million baht (S$554,000) cash investment became a 15.4 million baht (S$609,000) gold asset holding by the time she was done buying, as she was buying gold as it got costlier throughout September and October.

By the time she sold her gold assets, they were worth 16.7 million baht (S$660,800), it was .

Thai media reported that the woman's realised profit from the sale of her total gold holdings was 1.3 million baht (S$51,400).

But the overall profit was much greater at 2.7 million baht (S$107,000), given that her initial 14 million baht (S$554,000) cash outlay got turned into 16.7 million baht (S$660,800) after the gold was converted back to cash in a matter of weeks.

Even after deducting the 410,000 baht (S$16,200) she had lost to the scam initially, she was still up about 2.3 million baht (S$91,000).

The craziest part of the story is that she likely sold the gold at or near its historic peak, as prices have fallen by more than 6 per cent since.