When an attractive, US army doctor working in Afghanistan sent a sweet hello message to Chamanun Phetporee on LinkedIn, she was so intrigued she wrote back.
As the chief financial officer (CFO) of a multinational company’s Thailand branch, Chamanun had little time for love, but something about “Dr Andrew Chang” reeled her in.
That initial, brief exchange was the first of tens of thousands of messages and, at the age of 50, Chamanun thought she had finally found her soulmate.
It would take her months to realise the man she thought was “the one” had actually ensnared her in the biggest romance scam in Thailand’s history.
That fateful LinkedIn message marked the beginning of a tangled web of lies that would ultimately lead to Chamanun stealing 6.2 billion baht ($250 million) from her employer, and potentially facing the rest of her life behind bars.
Twenty-two people have been…
