Digital gold investment scams target housewives

A scam to trade gold online in foreign market has broken out, targeting housewives, according to interviews with some victims.
Using the name of an official Thailand-based investment company, scammers have created a website and application and from which, they manipulate the investment trade.
“I accepted a friend request from a man on Facebook. He started a chat on messenger to make friends. Later we talked about each other. He said he had started engaging in gold trade after the business was not good since Covid-19. He talked to me about how he was playing the gold trade, about how much the trade could profit or face loss, just a narrow margin. He convinced me every day by saying how much we could make commercial success and gave guarantee that he would help not to lose,” said a woman who was cheated.
The man helped her in opening an account on their application to make gold investment and she gave K3 million by KPay for initial investment and dollars equivalent to the invested amount in kyat was shown entering the account, she said.
“On the day the account was opened, I received $90 profit after playing the trade twice with his help. When I withdrew the profit $90, Myanmar kyat entered my Kpay in equivalent amount. He convinced me totally that it would not be like fraud. That is just one time and later he gave me different kinds of reasons and stopped doing the trade. I felt doubtful and asked him various questions, then he disconnected two weeks later,” she said.
When she attempted to take out the initial investment, another deposit about one fourth of the initial investment was asked to pay again to withdraw all invested money, but couldn’t take out her money and even showed losses when she continued the trade, she said.
She said there were other women who encountered similar fraud and the Facebook account they were using to communicate was actually a fake using other person photo. — Htet Oo Maung/ZS