Six foreigners, two Thai women arrested in alleged romance scam

Deputy tourist police chief Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakpal paraded the eight suspects at a press conference at the Royal Thai Police head office.
Surachet said the gang used the same old tactic of pretending to be handsome western men seeking to marry Thai women and sent them gifts but the women needed to wire them some money for customs clearance.
He said the suspects were arrested at a rented house in Krathu district, Phuket province, on Wednesday.
The six foreigners were identified as Nigerians Eriri Franklin, 23, Marcelinus Chijioke Mbakwe, 32, Ogochukwu John Obioha, 30, and Nnamdi Barnabas Agubosim, 32, Ugandan Emmanuel Kasujja, 37, and Pedro Da Silva, 28, from Guinea-Bissau.
The two Thai women were identified as Wijittra Amsuek, 25, and Jiraporn Phannarat, 29.
Jiraporn is the girlfriend of Kasujja while Wijittra allowed her bank accounts to be used for the victims to transfer money to, Suraschet said.
Surachet said the two latest victims were women living in Nakhon Ratchasima and Buri Ram provinces, who transferred Bt28,000 and Bt20,000 respectively to the gang.
The six foreigners were also found to have overstayed their visas, Surachet added.