By Natthamon Khongchak, a 32-year-old Thai YouTuber known as ‘Nutty’, was arrested in Indonesia after fleeing Thailand amid accusations of scamming victims out of £47 million through a fraudulent foreign exchange trading scheme.
Khongchak’s arrest came after Indonesian immigration officials became suspicious of her accent when she attempted to obtain an Indonesian passport. When asked to sing the national anthem and recite the country’s constitution, she failed, leading to her admission of illegally entering the country.
Further investigation revealed that Khongchak was a wanted fugitive in Thailand, where thousands of alleged victims had filed complaints against her in Bangkok. One victim claimed to have lost thousands of pounds that were intended to send her child to university.
Khongchak, along with her secretary Nichapat Ratananukrom and her mother, had fled to Kuala Lumpur before taking a boat to a remote Indonesian island. She was arrested on October 2, 2024, in Dumai City, Riau Province, on the island of Sumatra.
Police Lieutenant General Thatchai Pitaneelabut, Assistant Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police, stated that Khongchak is currently under investigation and will be sent to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) for legal action.
Despite claiming that she had turned herself in and apologizing for her actions, Khongchak and her mother were deported to Thailand, where they now face lengthy jail terms.
Khongchak ran a popular YouTube channel with more than 800,000 subscribers, regularly sharing trading tips while posing as a foreign exchange trader. Her Instagram showcased a luxurious lifestyle, featuring tropical beach snaps and photos of luxury cars.
Lawyers representing the alleged victims claim that Khongchak used her significant social media influence to lure victims into investing money with the promise of quick returns of 35 percent, but failed to pay out. Phaisal Ruangri, a lawyer campaigning to help fraud victims, estimated that there are around 6,000 victims who had allegedly been fleeced of at least £47 million in total.
One mother who lost her child’s university savings told local media she had lost £42,000 in the alleged scam, stating, “I thought that the money Nutty promised would help us live a more comfortable life. Now I am sick with worry as I’ve lost everything.”
Khongchak and her secretary Ratananukrom are accused of “defrauding people together” and “advertising or announcing to the public of money borrowing where the pay benefits rates are higher than the highest interest rate that a financial institution can pay.”
