The Man Who Stole $10 Million Worth of Love — Caught in Bangkok
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An Indonesian man allegedly ran a $10 million romance scam from across the world — until Bangkok police caught up with him.
The Man Who Stole $10 Million Worth of Love — Caught in Bangkok
He never had to meet his victims. Working through a network of fake online personas, an Indonesian fugitive spent years cultivating what felt like genuine romantic relationships with Americans — then, once the emotional bond was deep enough, the emergencies started: a medical crisis, a stranded shipment, a once-in-a-lifetime investment. By the time Thai authorities arrested him in Bangkok, victims across the U.S. had collectively lost more than $10 million.
Romance scams follow a predictable script precisely because it works. Scammers spend weeks or months building trust before any money is mentioned. When the ask finally comes, it feels less like a stranger requesting funds and more like helping someone you love. The international dimension — operators based in Southeast Asia targeting Americans — makes prosecution slow and recovery of funds nearly impossible.
If someone you've never met in person, regardless of how long you've been talking, asks for money in any form, that is the moment to stop and call a family member before doing anything else. The FTC's romance scam reporting page is at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
Gobble's Take: The "emergency" always arrives right after the relationship feels real — that timing is not a coincidence, it's the business model.
Source: Bangkok Post via Google News
Emails Threatening to Delete Your Data for "Cloud Storage" — With No Company Name Anywhere
The emails look urgent: your payment method has expired, your cloud storage has been disabled, your photos and videos will be deleted today. But read carefully and you'll notice something missing — the emails never name the company. Not once. The subject line just says "Payment Failed: Subscription Terminated." The body just says "Cloud Storage."
That blank is deliberate. The links inside these emails all go to cloud.googleapis.com with a randomly generated string after the domain — and that string changes with every new email. The poster noted they haven't clicked, specifically to avoid confirming their email address is active and inviting more spam. Commenters confirm this type of email is widespread — one said they receive variants of it roughly three times a day. The apparent goal: get you to click through and enter your credit card details on a fake site.
The clearest defense is the one the poster already used — don't click. Go directly to any cloud service you actually pay for by typing the address yourself. Legitimate billing notices name the company, reference your account, and don't threaten to delete everything you own within hours. If an email can't tell you who it's from, it's not a bill.
Gobble's Take: A real company billing you for a real service will always know its own name.
Source: r/Scams
A Text From a Stranger Who Somehow Knows Your Deceased Friend's Name
The message comes from an unknown number. It mentions someone who has passed away. It feels personal. It isn't.
This is a "wrong number" scam. The scammer isn't targeting you specifically — they didn't pull names from obituaries or memorial posts. The name matching your deceased friend is a coincidence. The scammer wasn't prepared for it either. According to people familiar with the pattern, when a target unexpectedly responds with real grief, the scammer loses the thread — it's not in the script.
The tell is in the language. Commenters on the original post flagged phrases like "like minded mutual exchange information" — stiff, overly formal, nothing like how someone actually talks during a loss. The goal is simply to get you responding. Once you're engaged, the conversation shifts toward whatever the real scam is. If you feel like something is off, trust that instinct. The safe move is to block the number and not reply at all.
Gobble's Take: If the condolences sound like they were translated by a contract, they probably were.
Source: r/Scams
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