My Best Friend Scammed Me Out of 400000 Dollars in Thailand

I thought he was my friend. I mean, he was my friend. In fact, I would go as far as calling him my best friend. So, that’s why this stings so much. Me and my wife and him and his wife, we’d go out together all the time. We’d go out for meals around Bangkok. Often, we’d go on holiday as well down to the beach or to a different country. And I looked up to him as someone that I wished I could have been. He always came across as being so successful, like he was living life the right way. And I kind of latched on to that and felt like I was a better person when I was with him.

I met him in a bar on Sukhumvit Soi 4. And if you know about the Omni Tower about halfway down the street, there were a few bars just a little bit further than that. And that’s where I met him. I loved the bars around Bangkok. And I mean, I still do, but back then they were a bit different. This was quite a long time ago. I met him first and we just had a chat together. I did that with many people that I met around Bangkok, but I ran into him time and time again and before long we’d already swapped numbers and started talking about business and other ideas.

After that, we would meet up with our wives and it just went from being a normal friendship into being a very special friendship. When I say I looked up to him, it wasn’t that I thought he was better than me. It was just that he seemed to be able to be one step ahead of me at all times. Whereas I was happy with what I had, he wasn’t happy with what he had and he had so much more than me. So that’s all I really have to say. He acted like he knew everything. That’s one thing that I actually looked up to about him. It wasn’t that he actually did know everything, but if we were having a conversation about a particular world event or about Thailand or anything, he would always chime in with little things like he’d researched it beforehand or like he knew exactly what was happening in a particular country at a particular time, like he was connected to the world in a way that I wasn’t.

Finding Love and Retiring Early

Anyway, Thailand. Why did I even go to Thailand? I loved it. There’s nothing really more to say. When I was there first, I was of two minds. Is this great? Is this not great? But the more you spend time there, the more you want to spend even more time there. And Thailand had that effect on me. When I went, I went with a close friend of mine, out of touch with him now, but he didn’t like it. And I couldn’t understand why. I think it was just like in England where I’m from, you’ve got all these problems going around you, all these rules and regulations that you have to follow. Whereas in Thailand, it felt like you didn’t have to follow the rules.

My first time in Thailand was back in 2001, I believe. But I met my wife in 2005. I did. I met her in a bar again on Soi 4, but I loved the bars. And the fact that she worked in one to me was a benefit. It was a positive. And I looked at that as being the reason that I loved her in the first place. Met in 2005, married in 2006, and everything was good. I’m happy to report I’m still with my wife today. It’s been nearly 20 years and we’ve never had any problems. We’ve been through our ups and downs like every relationship, but I’m so happy that I met her and I’m so fortunate that she’s still with me today.

I was 45 years old when I met my wife and 45 was the age that I retired. I retired early and that’s why I was in Thailand. I had a run of success at a few businesses back in England and because of that I had enough money to completely leave and never go back. My wife was 23 when we met and while that is a bit of a difference, this never caused us any concerns. But it felt so good to be able to retire at 45, never needing to work again. I wasn’t loaded in that sense, but I had enough money to live well. I probably had at the time, if I look back, $3,000 a month. Now, I will say this in dollars to make it easier for anyone listening. Apart from that, I had about half a million in cash assets, and that was just for anything I wanted to use it for. I had many plans with the money, buy somewhere to live, do something else, but it was there sat ready and waiting.

I settled into Bangkok though very well when I moved there. I rented a place to start with on Sukhumvit Soi 11. This was back before all the fancier buildings that have come in since then. The thing I liked about that soi so much was it seemed to be a mix of accommodation, entertainment places, and also other businesses. Soi 4 was more all about the bars. And while I loved the bars, I didn’t want to be surrounded by them at all time. I was very tempted at buying a condo at this point. But while I had money available, this was something I would think about later. But I settled into life in Bangkok amazingly, and I was so happy to be there. In terms of what we did on a daily basis, it’s the same as everyone else, getting settled into expat life in a new country. My wife was a bedrock for me.

I should mention that we went and did a village ceremony like everyone else does, and I didn’t want to ever have to return to Isan ever again. I have been. Of course I have because it’s family. But I wouldn’t never live there. Soi 11 back then though it was amazing. Many people might remember Cheap Charlie’s. Unfortunately, that’s not there anymore. Just opposite the road, there was a line of bars that disappeared only a few years after I even got there. I live quite close to there today. And if I look at what it’s become, I still like it, but it’s lost the feel that it had back then. Taco Bell, for example, does that really have a place where there used to be those amazing bars? I would have to say no. But that’s just my opinion.

The Charismatic Friend

But anyway, when I met this guy, it wasn’t like meeting everybody else that I’ve met in Thailand during the years because I looked up to him almost straight away. And I know that’s weird to say and a strange thing to say in fact, but it’s true. The way he presented himself, the way he felt so confident when he was talking about things, it’s like what I managed to achieve in my life, but times a hundred. He was always paying when we went out. He was always paying for meals and many times he treated us to holidays, and that was something that I looked up to him for because I would never have been able to afford to do that. I suppose I would, but that would have eaten into what I had, and that wasn’t what I was about to do. It was as if he was trying to show off, but I never looked at him like he was trying to show off. I just looked at him like he’s a very confident guy. And that was who I wanted to be.

I met my wife in a bar. Why? Because I wasn’t confident. That’s why I could retire early because I never had a relationship at home. That’s why I saved all my money cuz I never had to waste money on anything. It was all for me. What I’m trying to say is he seemed to be the exact opposite as me. He always seemed to be making money all the time. Every time we’d meet up, he’d be talking about some deal he’s done or how he’s just returned from an overseas trip where he’s made $10,000 just in a day. And I wished I could do that. I was quite successful in my business, but that was years of hard work building up slowly over time. I never had one big deal that made a chunk of money like he seemed to do, and I wanted a part of it. At this point, I’d probably known him for two years, and I thought he was my best friend. I even called him my best friend, and he called me the same.

The First Investment

It was around this time that he started talking to me about a deal he was doing, and he asked me if I wanted to get involved in a small way to start with. I can’t remember exactly what it was. Something to do with an overseas project and he was an investor or a very early investor and it was his job to get it off the ground and then new investors would come in and buy him out and he’d make 10 or 20% in 3 or 4 months time. I looked at him and thought that sounds too good to be true. But then I looked at him and he’s got his Rolex on. He’s got his gold chain on and he’s oozing confidence. So I decided to just invest. It wasn’t a fortune and if things went wrong, never mind, it wouldn’t be a problem.

When I gave him the money, he said he had to leave the country and be back in a few weeks time. And that made me a bit nervous. But at the same time, he was my best friend and he was going to call me every single day, which he did. I can’t remember which country even left at this time because I was just trying to give it to him and let him do it his way without getting too involved. He came back 2 weeks later saying everything’s going ahead. And before long, he’s just handed me back 120,000 baht saying, “Congratulations. That’s how easy it is.” I tried to get out of him what he did exactly. But he never seemed to want to give too much information away. As if he had a secret that if he told me would only make it worse. But it involved investing in different countries on some project or whatever it was. And he invested early and took out later. That’s how he explained it. And as far as I was concerned, that was good enough for me. It made me 20,000 baht. It was almost as if it was risk-free. A few months, 20,000 baht. Not bad.

He was always so confident, though, when he talked about the deals like they’re never going to go wrong, as if they were already predetermined what the outcome was going to be. I didn’t look at it as overconfidence. I looked at it like a guy who was 100% sure what his business is and he’d already ironed out all the creases over the years of doing it. I felt in a way that I was lucky to have met him. I was lucky that he was my best friend and I was lucky that he had allowed me into his world. Many people weren’t allowed into his world and I felt I was special because of that.

A Lavish Trip to Phuket

After that first deal, he said, “Do you want to go away? How about we go down to Phuket? me, you, and our wives.” I thought that sounded like a great idea, but when he said he was going to pay for it, flights and hotels, I snapped his hand off. When I told my wife about it, she was happy as well. We’d been to Phuket probably 3 months prior, but who wouldn’t want to go again? We stayed in a really nice resort. It was about 15,000 baht a night. He paid for his room and our room and the plane tickets. Meals 5 to 6,000 baht a time. And I’m thinking, this is so amazing. I’m so lucky to have a friend like this.

My wife was a bit cautious to start with anyway, thinking that he was hiding something. But when she got to know his wife, they became good friends and she warmed to him very quickly. His wife was 10 years younger than him. They were around a similar age and he always said that was one of his keys to success in his marriage. He got married before apparently to someone in Thailand who was 30 years younger than him and that lasted 2 years. His reasoning behind it was I had a good time while it lasted and she didn’t get any money out of me. So what’s the problem? I admired how he could say something like that and be so brash about it yet so matter-of-fact at the same time like he knew exactly what he wanted and no one was going to get in his way.

The Cambodia Deal

After we returned from Phuket, that’s when he talked about the Cambodia deal, as he put it. Something to do with the early stages of a telecommunications project. That’s how he worded it. Apparently, he was going in heavy with quarter of a million dollars and he was going to get about 10% in return after 3 months. I tried to get him to explain exactly what this meant, exactly what it entailed, but he didn’t want to give details away. He said he was going to go in hard and if I wanted to join him, I could. $250,000 was the amount and it was up to me if I wanted to invest 10,000 or more. The way he gave me that option, like he wasn’t asking for a certain amount. It was like I was in control of my money. So, I agreed to give him $30,000 with a promise of $35,000 after 3 months. But the money came back early. After two months, he said the new investors have come in and paid everyone out and he’s made some money. So, I made $5,000 in two months for doing nothing. And I was starting to ask him more and more questions. I want to get involved with this. I want to know what’s going on behind the scenes. I’m interested in this business. I was still in my 40s, so it wasn’t like I was of retirement age. I was drawn to this business because it seemed to be working for him. It was working for me because I’d already made a 20,000 baht increase on the last investment and now $5,000 on this one. It seemed to be getting better and better.

The fact that the money came back earlier than expected as well, I took that as a huge positive. It wasn’t like he was late or he was being fishy or dicey about anything. He was always speaking to me on the phone, saying where about we were in terms of the project, in terms of the timeline all the time. If he wasn’t speaking to me on my phone, he’d be around my place or I’d be around his place. So, it’s like I don’t know. What am I meant to think? It didn’t feel like I was taking a risk when I was investing with him. It felt like he knew exactly what he was doing, exactly what he wanted to do, and he had full control over it. And I had full confidence in him because of it. It wasn’t just a random risk. It wasn’t just throwing money into the dark. Nothing like that whatsoever. That Cambodia project, he showed me websites. He showed me paperwork. He showed me lots of things, but he didn’t give too much away about what was after that. It was like, “This is what the project is, but I’m involved in the middle somewhere, and if you want a piece of it, you’ve got to trust me. Here’s the money to prove it.” So, I was happy.

At the time, in terms of money, as I said, I had about half a million cash and $3,000 a month income. That came from 25 years of breaking my back every single day, 80-hour weeks with hardly any time off. The first holiday I allowed myself was my first time in Thailand back in 2001. And because of that, I wanted to make more money easily because I’d slaved away so hard for what I had.

Buying a Condo

It was around this time that I bought a condo in Thailand for me and my wife to live in. It’s the same condo that we’re living in today. Big three-bedroom unit and I got it for a great price. Don’t want to give you exact locations about where it is because there aren’t many units in the building. So, I don’t think I need to talk about it. But at the time back then, prices were on the rise, but nowhere near as high as they are today, especially in terms of new developments. But what it did mean was having a condo that I could have my own place. I could make it my own way and I felt so much more comfortable being there. I feel safe having my own place as opposed to renting. Now, I know in Thailand many people talk about renting as the only thing you should do, the only sensible thing you should do. And I get where they’re coming from. But to me, owning a place means I can decorate it the way I want. I can change things around the way I want. And if I don’t like something, I can rip it out and put something else in. I can’t do that in a rental. And it’s not like if I lost the condo altogether, I’d be doomed to poverty. It would just be an extremely annoying thing, but I’d still be able to survive. Also, I’d already decided I wanted to spend the rest of my life in Thailand. I’d fallen in love with the country from that first visit. So, it seemed like the next logical step to actually own somewhere there. My wife was very happy having our own place and she was the one who took care of it. She was always cleaning and cooking and really house proud and that made me feel an even bigger connection to her and the country of Thailand. I’m so fortunate to be able to live in Thailand. I love the country. So owning my own place there. Why not? You always got those questions from guys back home saying you are stupid for buying something in Thailand. How can you put your money there? You’re never going to get it back. Someone’s going to rob you. I understood where they got those opinions from. They’d never been to Thailand. They still had this Western mindset towards Thailand that was wrong. It was antiquated and it was completely out of date. So, anytime someone said that to me, I just brushed them off and said, “Mind your own business.”

The Indonesia Trip

After I moved into the condo, 3 months later, it was. It could have been four, could have been two, it doesn’t really matter. But he invited me on an actual business trip this time to Indonesia. I’d never been to Indonesia before. And I’d always wanted to go and check out Jakarta to see what it was like. I can remember my grandfather talking about how he used to live there a long time ago. It made me interested to think what it was like then compared to now. He used to tell me stories all the time and he was different back then. Of course it was. So it seemed in a way like I was following in his footsteps to go and have a look. So I jumped at the opportunity to go to Indonesia with him. He paid for the business class tickets, paid for the hotel, everything. As if I was his business partner or I wouldn’t go that far. As if I was working for him and he was showing me the ropes. And because he was showing me the ropes, he was paying for it as if to say, I’m going to hand this over to you at some point. These are the things I’m thinking about and the grand visions I’m having at the time. As if I’m going to take over the reins of his business at some point in the future. and he’s letting me into this world step by step. I didn’t even need to be persuaded to take the invitation. He asked and before he even had a chance to finish the sentence, I said yes. I was so excited to think about doing another deal with him and this one may be bigger than the last. I talked about it with my wife, asked if she wanted to go, but she didn’t want to bother. They actually decided, her and his wife, to go down to Koh Samui together. So, we left them to it and we headed to Indonesia ourselves. That was probably the most exciting and strangest experience of my life in Indonesia.

For a start off, we’re picked up at the airport in this fancy limousine and taken to a five-star hotel. He’s greeted by name by the hotel staff. He introduces me and they’re all deferential towards me as if I’m a new key player in the city. That’s what it felt like. After we settled in at the hotel, we went out that evening. That was when things started to become even more crazy. Not only did we go out to a nice restaurant, he’s introducing me to about 50 different guys, all of them in this huge company that he said he was a part of. And this was part of the deal, investing in another project. This was to do with another telecommunications project that he was involved with. He didn’t give me much more information other than that, but I’m seeing in front of me all these guys sitting around looking serious. They all spoke English very well and when I tried to ask any questions, they just looked at me and said, “You’ve got to deal with him. We don’t know you.” I respected that. They didn’t want to cut him out. And that’s what I thought it was. They didn’t want to cut him out of the deal. They were talking about the deal, though, what it was for. Apparently, he said he was going to invest a million dollars and he’d get back 20% in 2 months. I still look back and think, how did I believe that? But I did because what he was talking about seemed real when you’ve got all the brochures and the people around and the company and everything in place. I didn’t know what this company was in Indonesia. Didn’t know anything about it. Maybe he was using it as a prop. Maybe it was staged. I have no idea. But he was investing a million and he said, “I can go in for as much as I like.” Before I had chance to think, I threw $100,000 at him. Not literally, of course, but said, “Yeah, I’d happily invest $100,000. see what happens.” It was so exciting. 2 months later after it returned, he gave me $120,000 just like that. 20,000 profit. And then I started to think that this was a sure thing. When I tried to dig a little deeper into what he did, he just said he developed this system over years and he has a lot of money and he starts off things before the actual investors are ready. Something like that. And I still don’t understand what he tried to explain it as, but that’s how I think he tried to talk about it. I don’t know if I’m trying to excuse myself or anything like that as I’m talking about this, but what I’m trying to say is that it didn’t just look like a random guy that I just met a month ago asking for a load of money, promising an amazing return. It looked real, and I felt it was real, and there was nothing telling me it wasn’t.

My wife was quite angry when I told her I invested just over 3 million baht, saying that’s a lot of money. What happens if it goes wrong? But I quickly proved her wrong when we got it back and a big profit. I think she was starting to believe as well. And because of that, I had even more confidence that I was doing the right thing. He was always contactable, never late with payments. If he said he was going to do something, he would do it. It wasn’t like there was anything sketchy going on. He was a really down-to-earth guy.

Living Large in Singapore

Because of that, we went away to celebrate for another trip. This time, we went even more crazy. He took us to Singapore. 4 days, Orchard Road, expensive hotels, expensive meals, and that’s when you can start spending a lot of money if you’re living large in Singapore. I suppose that trip probably cost him $20,000, but he didn’t care because he just made a lot more than that on his deal. He made $200,000 on that one when I only made 20. And then you think, well, if I put more in, I could make more and more and I could start buying more condos and rent them out and develop another source of income. It was such an exciting time. Returning from Singapore, we went out and partied all the time around Bangkok. Some of the best bars in Bangkok. Now, at the time when I went originally, there were quite a small amount of these fancy bars that you see popping up every now and then in Thailand today. I think the best way that I can describe him is like the character out of Wolf of Wall Street. That’s like who he was, but he wasn’t dodgy. At least I didn’t think he was. And the way he was so confident, he was always on it. He was always looking for the next thing. And that meant that we went to some very expensive places around Bangkok. When I went to Thailand originally back in 2001 and when I moved there in 2005, I didn’t know of these places that were hidden in secret places around Bangkok. It was always the foreigner-focused places that I went to. But he knew the key places that only Thai elites went to. And it’s when you start going to places like that that you start to feel an even bigger connection to the country of Thailand.

He always was talking about his business and how he’s going to expand it without giving away details. After we’d finished partying at nighttime, in the daytime, we’d be just talking about business. One thing that I suppose was quite strange was he’d always talk about his business in detail, but he wouldn’t give anything away about what he actually did. He talked about projects that he was involved in as far as Angola, he said. But he never said exactly what he did. He explained it in a way that was very vague, I think. And I don’t know if he did that deliberately, but it seemed to make sense because I was making money and he seemed to be very rich. He had everything to show he was rich and he spent money like he had so much of it. So, I’m just getting more drawn into this guy thinking he’s the best thing that the world has ever seen.

More Profits and More Confidence

Then came the time to invest in yet another deal. This one was a bit smaller. It wouldn’t make as much. A quick $50,000 getting back 10,000 in four months. Again, I don’t know what the details were of this. He said it’s so small, he doesn’t want to give too much away. So, I gave him the money. Didn’t think anything of it. And 4 months later, I did get the money back. During those 4 months, we’re just living large. He’s just being this guy that I don’t know how he can be. I wanted to be that guy. I wanted to be that guy so badly. But when that money came back from there, huge profits, I thought for only four months, I decided to take that and the profit I’d made from the other deals and put it into my own small condo unit to rent out. While we had our own place that we lived in, I thought it would be good to diversify my income and have a rental unit in Thailand. I spent about 2 million baht on it, which I didn’t think was too bad. And we rented it out almost straight away for 8,000 a month. Now, this wasn’t a lot of money compared to what I was making on these deals. When I told this guy that I’d just bought a condo and I was getting 8,000 a month, he turned up his nose and said, “All that effort for that, you must be wrong in the head.” And then I thought, well, I suppose I am. But I liked it anyway and that’s what I wanted to do. So, I thought if I bought anymore, I just wouldn’t tell him.

When we found the tenant, then we decided we actually wanted to renovate our own place. And I’m actually spending more money than I would usually because of these deals. It was always the idea to do a renovation at some point, but not so soon. But I spent about a million baht renovating the condo exactly like we wanted it. And when it was ready, it was exactly the sort of place I wanted to live in. The unit that we bought to rent out that was good to go as it was, but I was starting to think about doing a few more deals and investing in more condos. Maybe ones that need renovating and then selling them on for a profit or buying them cheap, renovating and renting out. I was having all kinds of ideas. That was something that interested me. The deals were interesting, but I wasn’t involved in them. He never wanted me to be involved with them. And because of that, I wanted to be involved in my own thing, if that makes any sense.

Then out of the blue, another one came. $20,000. 25,000 back after a month. He gave it back in a week. What was I meant to think about that? I’d made $5,000 in a week off a $20,000 investment. He just said this one was a quick fix, something to do with a project in Burma. He’d been to Burma. I’d seen pictures of him in Burma. He’d sent one to me saying, “Look where I am.” And he was quite an old guy. This was still back before 2010. And I don’t think he was very good with computers, so it was a real picture. He was always leaving. He was always going places. So, it didn’t seem weird that he’d managed to turn this around so quickly. I didn’t think twice at that time before giving him that money. It was a question of now I was waiting for the next deals. When’s the next one? And I’m asking him. I’m asking him when’s the next deal? I want to make more. And he’s laughing at me saying, “You need to be patient. We can’t rush these things. We can’t force them.” And because he said that, of course, I’m getting even more confident in his abilities.

My wife is also getting quite excited about the amount of money we’re making. She’s saying, “Well, maybe next time we can try a bit more.” She started off as being extremely skeptical and thinking this guy was a crook. But after all these deals and all the times she’d been out together with his wife, all the times we’d been somewhere, she just started to believe. That gave me even more confidence that what was going on was more than above board. I felt very relieved when my wife also was interested in a way like I wasn’t restricted anymore. Like she had the leash on me and I had to be careful now I could go all steam ahead.

The Biggest Deal Yet

I think this takes us to about 2011 and the deal came in that was the biggest one yet. $200,000 promised back $230,000. This was going to be the most money I’d invested so far. And I was a bit hesitant, not because I didn’t believe him or not because I didn’t trust him, but just because it was a lot of money to hand over. I did decide that I would invest. I thought it was worthwhile trying because he said I could travel with him to this business meeting and I could actually be there for the first time. This was in Indonesia again, Jakarta, completely different guys than we saw the time before. And it did. It all felt like it was coming together so well. This project was very hush-hush. And I saw him in meetings with people and he always turned and looked at me and smiled and winked as if to say, “I’m sorting this out. Don’t worry.” But when I asked to join the meetings, he said, “No, I don’t have clearance.” Clearance? I actually asked him what he meant by that, and he just said, “Well, I own this and you don’t, and they own it, and you don’t, and because of that, you’re not allowed in. I’m sorry, but if it was up to me, you were. But there’s many people in this deal, and you’re just a small piece of the pie.” The way he called me a small piece of the pie actually gave me even more confidence. So, I transferred him $200,000. And after that, we’d returned to Thailand. After we got back, we actually went up to Chiang Mai together. I can remember that trip like it was yesterday, staying in a hotel with a look over the river and eating at the restaurants along the riverside, doing the scenic stuff as well, which we tended to do when we went somewhere. And a week later, when we’re back in Bangkok, he calls me up and says, “Same bank?” “Yes.” And he transferred $230,000 in that same day. That was the most amount of money that I’ve made in a single day before. And it was really exhilarating to think. $30,000 just like that. And me and my wife actually went out together. We didn’t usually go out together anymore. We were usually in a friend group with him and his wife, but we went out together to celebrate and decided to talk about the possibility of putting this money into another rental unit. So we did. Same building as our other rental, but this one was actually very rundown and needed renovation work. It was great though. I gave my wife full control of the renovation. And then she had a little project that she could do. Then we’re talking about this could be our business. We make more money from the deals. Get that? Invest in condos. And she has something to do. Renovating them. The way he talked about it was like it was all going to last forever. I thought it was going to last forever. By forever, I was thinking maybe 5 years, not forever. But it was just so exciting to be involved. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have met him and how lucky I was to call him my friend.

He was usually the one that introduced me to new things, to the fancy bars in Bangkok frequented by the wealthy elites in Thailand, the business he was doing, and the people he met in Indonesia when we went there. I was always interested in golf, so I asked him if he fancied coming for a round of golf with me. He’d never played before, but as soon as he picked up that club, he was hooked. He wasn’t very good at it, but it felt good that I brought something to the table that not only I was interested in, but he seemed to pick up and enjoy as well. It didn’t feel ever so one-sided anymore like it did before.

The Final Trip to Jakarta

It was actually when we were playing golf when he brought up another Indonesia trip. This one could be bigger, but he wasn’t giving too much away, but he did ask if I would be interested. He didn’t talk about figures as of yet, didn’t talk about anything, but he just said, “Would you be interested?” I remember saying, “Yes, I’d love to go. Love to be interested.” And I told my wife as well, and we decided we would go all together. We’d make a holiday out of it, as well as doing this deal. We spent two weeks in Jakarta, had an amazing time at some great restaurants, going to great places, and meeting these very interesting characters along the way. He knew exactly what he was doing and the way he held himself and carried himself around these people was like he was the boss and they had to toe the line for him. It was at the end of the trip that he talked about the numbers. He said this was a $2.5 million one and it’s up to me how much I wanted to invest. And because he said I could invest a small amount or as much as I wanted, I thought long and hard about how much I should invest. The way he described this deal was exactly like he described all the others. Money is invested by him and a few other key people. And then after 3 months, more investors come in, they get paid out and the company can increase from there with the actual investors. These are just placeholder investors. I think that’s the word he used.

When we got back to Thailand, I still hadn’t come up with how much I should invest yet, but I sat down and spoke with my wife about it. He said there was a one-week deadline. It wasn’t like he was pushing for an answer straight away, but we decided with the money I had, we should probably invest $450,000. Have about 50,000 left over just in case, but $450,000 should give us back $600,000 in 3 months. We’re thinking about what that could buy us in terms of condos, two more rental units, two more projects for my wife to work on. So, we decided that 450,000 was the right amount. I’m not going to pretend like it was easy handing over $450,000. I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t feel a load of pressure on top of me like this might not be the best idea. I felt like that. I was worried. It wasn’t anything to do with my trust in him. Wasn’t anything to do with that. It was just to do with the fact it was a lot of money. Nearly everything I had. I mean, I still had my investments at home that gave me my $3,000 a month income, but this was my liquid assets. This was my liquid cash available to me to do things. But here’s an opportunity, so I should do it because I’m going to make some money. But to put it all in at once, it felt scary. But I came up with the number myself. He didn’t say we need this much. I came up with the number. And because of that, that’s why I suppose I did it.

The Disappearance

We were out drinking one month later talking about the deal. Everything’s going smoothly, he said. No reason to doubt him because we’re only 1 month in. This is meant to be a 3-month deal. He said everything was on track. He said everything was going well and it should be a bit early, he even said. But he didn’t say exactly when. He didn’t appear different than he did any of the other times. He didn’t appear like he was shady or trying to hide something. He just appeared like he was full of confidence and he couldn’t wait for it to work for him as well because this was a big deal even for him. Got home that evening and was so happy with my wife in our beautiful condo looking out on the cityscape of Bangkok. Went to bed just thinking that I was so lucky to be in this position, so fortunate to have met him. And I went to sleep just thinking this was the best thing that could ever happen to me. I’m so happy and lucky.

The next day, I called him as I usually did. We spoke every day. He called me or I called him. I called him around 10:00 a.m. and he didn’t pick up. That happened from time to time, but usually he answered. I didn’t think anything much. He’ll get back to me when he’s ready. By 5:00 p.m., he hadn’t called, so I tried again and no answer again. Then there’s a knock on the door. It’s his wife asking if we knew where he was. That was a bit of a shock, but still it hadn’t clicked that something had gone wrong. Perhaps he didn’t go home the previous night and he got a bit carried away and he’s drunk somewhere. That’s what at first came to my head. He was known for being a bit of a party animal and so was I. But he took things to the next level. We just invited his wife to come in and spend time with my wife and I called him again a few hours later, but still no response. By the following morning, when we hadn’t heard from him, that’s when I’m starting to panic a bit because I’ve got all my money tied up with him. His wife can’t get in touch with him. She doesn’t know where he’s gone and nobody seems to know where he’s gone. One day though, that’s not enough to jump to conclusions. And while I had that feeling like, could this be the worst thing ever? I still hung on to the six or seven-year history that we had at this point together. We knew each other. Out of those seven years, we probably spent two years together. Not together as in living together, but seeing each other, drinking, going out together with our wives.

Another day goes by. We still don’t know where he is. And his wife is getting upset and worried now. She said that she’s only got 50,000 baht in the bank. No money. He controlled everything. He paid for the rent. They didn’t own their own place. He paid for the car rent. They didn’t own their own car. And then I start to think, hang on. was everything that he had rented when he said he owned it. I didn’t know what to do. After this went on for 5 days, I think it was quite apparent that he’d done a runner. He’d taken all my money. He’d left his wife with nothing. And he’d robbed me. He robbed me blind. He’d taken everything I’d worked for. I didn’t know what to do about it. It wasn’t a question of coming to terms with the situation because what could I do? How was I meant to come to terms with it? It was what it was. It was like someone’s worst nightmare actually happening, but it was my worst nightmare. But it wasn’t a nightmare because it was real.

Then I thought back to the Indonesia trips. Was it all a setup? Was everyone in on it? But I don’t think they were because they seemed to be talking to him about genuine things. Perhaps he’d arranged business meetings with them and he pretended they were something else with me. But then I thought about all the deals that had come off and how much he had invested in this. It was as if he knew I was going to come up with some money at the end and he was prepared to risk his own money because of it. Was he that confident? Then I’m thinking about his wife. She didn’t have anything. As I said, 50,000 baht in her bank. Then she tells us that they’re not actually married. They just village married which made it a bit harder for her. But I couldn’t believe that he’d left her like that as well. They’d been together as long as we were together, probably longer. He professed love for her and she loved him. So, after another month, she’s got nowhere to live, and she moves in with us. My wife, as you would expect, was furious that we lost all that money or I lost it. But she was supportive of it in the end. She thought it was good as well. She was more furious at him for actually being so good at scamming. How could he have been so good that someone like me who prided himself on being clever and smart and attentive and great at business? How could I have fallen for that? I’m embarrassed to admit.

We got into quite a few arguments, me and my wife did. It was a very rocky patch. His wife is still living with us. Where can she go? It’s not like I want to kick her out. We had a nice place. There was enough room. But even still, it was a very strange experience. And I was lucky that after a while me and my wife just calmed down and got on with it. We still had an income and we still had two rental units. So it wasn’t the end of the world. For his wife though, it seemed to be the end of the world because all of a sudden she went from living this amazing life with anything she wanted to being broke just like that. She had to go and work back in the bar.

My wife suggested we went to the police and we did. But he was long gone. Nobody knew where he was. We put it out there, but if he returned to Thailand, he’d have a problem. But the chances are he probably wasn’t going to return to Thailand. We knew where he lived, what his name was, and everything about him. Was this even real? Was this actually who he was? Nobody knew. It was just one of those we have to accept. I could spend my life looking for him and never finding him. So, I had to accept what happened happened. How much did I lose? I didn’t lose the whole $450,000 because he’d given me profits on quite a few deals beforehand, but it was still about $400,000 that I lost, which was an awful lot of money. $400,000 just gone just like that because of this guy.

My other friends noticed something was wrong with me, but I didn’t want to admit it. I always talked about him as being this great person, but nobody seemed to be as interested. Everyone else, though, they weren’t like me. They were retired, maybe 20 years older than I was. They were living on smaller amounts of money. They’d never been in business. They’d always worked. And for me, this was like my business, apart from it was easier and made more money. So, I understood it was like something that I’d always looked for. But for them, it wouldn’t have mattered how I felt. And because of that, I just didn’t want to tell them. It would have been too embarrassing. I had lots of sleepless nights, as anyone would do in that situation. And it wasn’t one of those, well, get over it, never mind. It took a long time for me to actually come to terms with the fact that I’d lost all that money. I always had to tell myself though when I was feeling really down and depressed that it’s not the end of the world. I’ve got an income and we’ve got the condo we live in and we’ve got two other condos we rent out. I went out often with my wife going back to the bars just as we’d like to do. And his wife was working his wife was working in a bar like she did when she met him. what a fall she had. So, I had to compare myself to her and think, well, it’s not that bad, even though it was really bad.

I didn’t know what to expect moving forwards. I half expected him to just turn up and say it all went wrong or he was doing a deal somewhere in Guatemala and he got absconded by kidnappers and he finally managed to escape. Here’s the money with interest. But that never happened. I was holding on to that romantic notion that he was this guy who went all over the world looking for the best deals.

The Lesson Learned

But in terms of what I learned from this, I suppose not much really apart from you should never trust anybody. Nobody. Not even your wife. Maybe your parents, maybe your kids, but no one else. You can’t trust anybody. You could know someone for 10 years and he could still do that to you. He was my best friend. So, in terms of what I can get from this as a lesson, there’s not really much there, is there? Apart from never trust anyone. It’s a lesson I didn’t want to learn because it’s the most expensive lesson in the world, at least for me, in terms of making sure nothing like that happened again. Well, it wouldn’t because that was the perfect situation for him to do. Then we met, became good friends, became closer friends, our wives became friends, we went away together multiple times to different countries and parts of Thailand. He took me on business trips. I invested small amounts of money and he always returned it. But when the big amount came, he was gone. He was playing me for six or seven years. And it makes me think, was he playing other people at the same time as me? He could have been, but I’ll never know. If you’re in Thailand or anywhere in the world, never trust anyone. I think that’s going to take you a very long way because I still live with this regret. Although I am fortunate I’m still living in Thailand. My investments in my home country have increased in value and my income’s great and I have a fantastic life. But it would have been a lot better if I still had that money because I could have done things with it apart from lose it to that scumbag.