More victims of The iCon Group pyramid scheme who live abroad have filed a complaint with the Consumer Protection Police Division.
The filings bring the total number of victims to 9,469 as of Saturday, with losses totalling 2.9 billion baht.
Ittidet Thaneswatana, who represents overseas victims of The iCon Group, said victims have been found in nearly 20 countries and territories, including China, Hong Kong, Macau, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Luxembourg, Canada and the United States.
One of the victims from abroad is Nin, a Thai woman who runs a grocery store in Hong Kong, who joined the scheme after seeing one of the company's billboards during a visit to Thailand. Upon joining the scheme, Nin paid 250,000 baht to her recruiter, who then encouraged her to recruit members to upgrade her status within the company.
She convinced several of her friends and relatives to sign up, only to encounter many problems such as missing products, unreasonably high prices, and lower profits and commissions. She and her friends and relatives have not been able to sell the products and ended up losing almost two million baht in total.
Mr Ittidet said another member of the pyramid scheme who lives in the United States also claimed massive losses as she was unable to sell the brand's products, which she had ordered in large amounts. The victim said she has had to give away hundreds of boxes of products from The iCon Group because the company has now lost its reputation and the products will soon be past their expiry dates.
Pol Lt Gen Akkaradet Phimonsri, assistant to the national police chief who leads investigations into the case, said the amount of damages and number of victims means the matter qualifies for special case status and so it will be transferred from the Central Investigation Bureau to the Department of Special Investigation on Monday.
