Thai government helps victims of tour scam

BANGKOK, April 12 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha has ordered agencies concerned to provide assistance to over 2,000 victims of a tour scam after they were left stranded at Suvarnabhumi International Airport on Tuesday night. The prime minister told journalists on Wednesday that he has issued the order for the relevant agencies to look into the case, which will be addressed under legal processes. The prime minister's instruction followed media reports that a direct selling company, Wealth Ever, had promised the victims a trip to Japan after they applied to be members of its network and paid about 9,700 baht each. However, the holidaymakers, who planned to spend this year's long Songkran holidays abroad, found out at the airport on April 11, the travel date, that no charter flight was booked for them and no one from the firm showed up to take responsibility. Meanwhile, Thai Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul cooperated with tourist police at the Suvarnabhumi Airport on the outskirts of Bangkok in gathering the names of the victims, who later filed police complaints. Police Colonel Prateep Charoenkan, an executive at the Office of Consumer Protection Board (OCPB), revealed that the company did not register as a direct selling company, but it had convinced people to join its online marketing network and apparently committed a fraud, vowing that his office will probe the fraud scheme. Police Colonel Prateep noted that his office has initially found the company registered with the Department of Business Development, under the Thai Ministry of Commerce, to run a business as a beverage wholesaler on January 5, 2017 in Nakhon Sawan Province in the Lower Thai North. (TNA)