The Phone Call

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This week on the gray area, can we really build our way to happiness?

If we're no longer in a realm of absolutely dire scarcity pushing down on us, how much do we want to devote our time and our energy to making more stuff?

And when do we get something like satiated and turn more or less completely to living wisely and well?

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This episode contains references to suicidal ideation.

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How long had you lived in San Francisco? I moved here July 2022.

This is Beau Suprasard.

It was one of my dream cities to live in. I was in Seattle before and had a few opportunities to come down to San Francisco and fell in love with it.

Beau says that on one visit to San Francisco, she went to Land's End, a park with a view of the water. And she says it was so beautiful that she promised herself she would move there one day.

And she did. She got a job there as a data analyst working in healthcare.
And I'm just glad that this opportunity came up for me to move for work.

And yeah, it just really started the career that I really enjoy and felt like I'm growing and learning. And

yeah, life

good.

Bo moved to the US 11 years ago. She came from Thailand to go to school when she was 18.

I wanted to study psychology and thought that the US is one of the best place to do that.

Then I was going to move back, but then I guess life

never really turned out the way you planned it and I kind of just stick around and the next thing I know I'm here 10 plus year now.

And would you go back to Thailand often to visit?

I haven't really gone back that often.

Once every few years, but my family do come for visits, so we do take turn, and I do get to see them.

It was during the pandemic, though, that was really tough that we didn't get to see each other quite often, and everything was just kind of put on pause.

At the beginning of 2024, right after New Year's, Bo started to plan a trip back. Her passport was about to expire, so she was going to renew it while she was in Thailand.

But her passport was so close to expiring that she got a little worried. She got in touch with the Thai consulate in LA.

They told her she was fine to travel on her passport and that she could renew her passport once she got to Thailand.

So Bo flew to Bangkok in February of 2024.

I was only back there for two weeks, and the first week was getting the paperwork done.

So it wasn't, you know, the most relaxed location and whatnot. But the other half, I did get to spend some time with with my family.
We went to Ayutthaya, which is

our old capital nearby. I grew up in Bangkok, so it was just an hour, an hour and a half drive.
And that was really fun. I get to wear like the Thai traditional cloth.

We took pictures and get to eat all the good food.

That's probably my family's love language. You know, with time you're back, you just get fed with a lot of delicious food.
It was a good trip. It was.

Whenever you would go back to Thailand, were you kind of split? I mean, you loved San Francisco, but did you kind of think,

maybe I should be living back at home? No, that actually never really crossed my mind.

I liked it here so much, and I like my independency here.

Yeah, never really crossed my mind that I would move back.

One day, about three weeks after she got back to San Francisco, she received a phone call. I was at work in my office, and I remember exactly it was 2:3 p.m.
on a Friday afternoon.

The woman on the other end of the line said she was calling from the Thai Embassy in Washington, D.C.

And then she told Bo about a man who had just been detained while trying to enter Thailand. She said that guy

had eight passport in his position

and he was trying to enter Thailand from LA.

And he got caught at the Suwanapum Airport, which is the main airport in Bangkok. And one of the passport was

under my name.

The woman from the embassy told Bo the name of the man who was being investigated and asked if Bo knew him. Bo answered no.

She asked me if I lost my passport

or if anyone had access to it at all. And I said no, it's a new passport.
It's with me and I'm 100% sure because it's due in my suitcase. I haven't really unpacked my suitcase at that point.

The woman recommended that Bo report it to the police in Thailand. It sounded like it could be a case of identity theft.

Bo says she felt a little worried.

I left home

when I was 18, so I don't actually have an identity in Thailand, if you know what I mean. In a sense, like I don't really have a bank account.

Or I did when I was younger, and then I closed it the second time I went back, or something when I was doing college. Like, I don't have a lot of paperwork in Thailand anymore.

All the government knows about me is my passport and my Thai ID. I never own any property.
Nothing is under my name.

So in my head, it makes sense if anyone wanted to,

you know, just take my identity because I do exist.

But the fact that I'm not active citizen of Thailand,

I...

I thought it is possible.

The woman on the phone told her she was transferring her to the Thai police, where Bo spoke with a police officer who introduced himself as Captain Supakon Tipula

and said he worked at the Central Investigation Bureau, or CIB, in Thailand, an agency which handles major criminal investigations.

Bo told him everything she'd just learned and said she'd like to report a case of identity theft. The officer began filing a report for her.
He asked her for her Thai identification number.

He said he needed to look her up in their system to verify some information.

And then Bo says she heard someone in the background say her name and ID number.

And next.

She can be very dangerous. Proceed with caution.

I'm Phoebe Judge. This is criminal.

The police officer started asking Bo a lot of questions. He told her she was a suspect in a criminal case.
Bo was confused.

I mean, you talked to the police officer because you thought you were filing a report about identity theft, and then he says you're a suspect.

That must have been shocking. Very to my core.

She was told that a group of people had been arrested in Thailand for running an international money laundering scheme.

Four Thai nationals and one U.S. citizen.
And the police said they knew that Bo, or someone using Bo's information, had opened various bank accounts to help the group move money around.

Bo tried to explain to the officer that someone must have stolen her identity. She was just calling about a passport.

She explained to him that she'd spent very little time in Thailand over the past 10 years, and that maybe criminals could have been using her identity without her knowing it.

The officer sent her the names and photos of the five people who had been arrested and wanted to know if Bo knew any of them.

One of them was a man who worked at a Thai consulate in the U.S.

Bo says her head was spinning. But when she heard about the consulate employee, she felt like she began to understand what might have happened.

She thought about how she had sent a message to the Thai consulate just a few months ago to ask if she could still travel on a passport that was about to expire.

This consulate employee could have seen her message and realized that she was an ideal target for identity theft, and he would have had access to her new passport information.

Bo explained all of this to Officer Tipula.

He said the police were looking at all the possibilities, but he also made it clear that she was still a suspect, And that if she wanted to get her name off the suspect list, she would need to prove her innocence.

We'll be right back.

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Officer Tipula told Bo that while they continued their investigation into the money laundering scheme, she was free to continue her daily life.

But she needed to be in frequent touch so the police knew she wasn't planning to run away.

The officer told Bo that she would need to send the police several daily updates about her whereabouts. Four times a day

at 9, 12, noon, 5 p.m., and 8 p.m.

with a short description. They asked me to write down my name, the time, and then what I was doing at that time.

They said that this is the

normal procedure that they use

when someone is under an investigation.

If she didn't cooperate with the investigation, she was told she could be arrested and sent back to Thailand.

And I would be put in like a jail or detention center in Thailand waiting for the court date.

And who knows how long that might be. And I could be there in jail or detention center for over a year.

The justice system is not perfect here or there, right? People do

go to jail for

the wrong reason, even for a crime they didn't commit. And I cry myself to bed that night and was like, I don't want to be put in jail.
I'm just so scared.

Bo did as the officer told her. She sent updates four times a day, and she also spoke with Officer Tipula every day.

The officer said he had undercover agents keeping an eye on Bo to make sure she didn't try to interfere with the investigation or escape. She thought that her phone might be tapped.
A week passed.

I started to get scared and paranoia

because they kept saying that, you know, there are people

watching me. I started to look around

and see...

who was looking at me and

then in my head I started making this stories that oh that person who crossed the street they looked suspicious oh everyone looks so suspicious

and you were still going to work and trying to make it seem normal yeah um

that's what they instructed me to do to to seem normal continue living your life continue going to work

but just know that if you know one wrong move and you can be taken away

officer tipula told her not to tell anyone about what was going on because this was a high-stakes international investigation.

He said the Central Investigation Bureau in Thailand was working with the FBI to solve it. I should be very careful about telling anyone

because it's

a national, a matter of national security.

Bo wanted to prove her innocence, and she said she also wanted to help the police catch the people who had put her in this situation.

She had learned from Officer Tipula that the Thai consulate officer had been arrested, along with a U.S.

police officer who was suspected of helping the crime syndicate, and two Thai bank managers and an exchange student. You know, I stay up late and trying to connect all the dots.

Bo says she was having trouble sleeping. Weeks went by.

She kept sending updates to the police four times a day, reporting where she was and what she was doing, talking on the phone with Officer Tipula, sometimes for several hours.

I would be going for a run and I would just be super hyper-vigilant about who's going to,

you know, who's running after me, who's running ahead of me. And I was really trying to figure it out.

And then one day, Officer Tipula called Beau with news.

One of the suspects in the money laundering scheme had confessed that Bo had been working with them. The criminal accused me that I

sew my passport to them so that they can use to like, you know, open bank account or whatever.

And in return, I would get, you know, 5, 10%

of their profit.

Bo said that didn't make any sense. She had a good job in the U.S.

She had no reason to commit a serious crime just to make a little extra money.

She said she could send over her bank statement, but the officer explained that with this kind of investigation involving large amounts of money, it wasn't that simple.

They would need to work with experts.

They are in contact with the FBI here in the U.S.

because this is a...

multinational

money laundering case that they're trying to solve and they would create a bank account for me so that I can deposit my money into that bank account so that they can do the investigation that

all of the money that I made here was

you know legit legal and

so that would be my evidence at the court that that I'm innocent

Bo says she was told that the FBI would set up the account for her through her own bank. She went to look for it.

That bank account appeared on my, you know, phone on my online banking app.

It was there.

But there was a change of plans.

Bo was told that instead of moving her money into this new account, she'd need to wire the money to a bank account in Hong Kong.

where experts in money laundering would hold it while the case was being investigated.

She was told she would get her money back once the investigation was over.

When they first mentioned that you were going to have to wire money, what did you think?

I

I believed them.

I I really thought that that was the the procedure.

That

I can just prove that

that I'm innocent.

Beaux says at this point she was sleep deprived, stressed, and anxious after feeling like she was being followed, reporting her whereabouts and talking to the police every day.

She didn't see this as a red flag.

I think that that thought that I

really want to prove that I'm

that I have nothing to do with the crime that they've been accusing me of is

very strong. That I needed to protect myself and my identity and my reputation.

I came all the way here, um,

you know, been living by myself 10 plus years and I wasn't willing

for anyone or anything to take that away from me.

Bo didn't know it was a scam.

She did as they instructed.

They told me to go to the bank

and just made up a story. Um, if the bank asks, um, where or whom and wearing the money to.

And they made me,

you know, be on the phone and call with them.

As she walked into the bank, she had her AirPods in. She says her long hair covered them, so they weren't noticeable.
So they're like in my ear,

and they can hear everything I said

to the bank teller. So you were on the phone with them secretly while you were at the bank? Yeah.

What were they saying? They didn't say anything, but the fact that they

made me feel like they are monitoring me.

That's... I think that was the tactic

they used to have control over me and my

thoughts.

Beau wired them $81,000.

Pretty much everything.

I had.

In a study published in the British Journal of Criminology, researchers found that the tactics scammers use are often very similar to other types of coercive control.

For example, domestic violence cases.

The scammers establish a relationship with their victim, groom them over time, and manipulate them into believing in a, quote, exploitative reality.

One police sergeant who led a task force investigating scams in Canada said that at one point, he wondered if the scammers he was investigating could somehow be working with psychologists because they seemed so good at getting people to believe their stories.

Once an officer stopped a money transfer that someone had made to scammers, but the scam victim didn't believe them when they tried to explain that the whole thing was fake.

The police sergeant said, It's a form of hypnosis.

At one point, Bo actually received a text message from the Thai consulate in LA warning people that scammers were posing as Thai police.

Bo says that she discussed this with Officer Tipula,

and his explanation made sense to her that the crime syndicate had moles within at least one Thai consulate in the US.

So they could have sent her this text to try and dissuade her from working with the police.

You know, it's like it's it's a whole story that they fed me. And

in my head,

I kept making, you know, connecting the dot by myself. And that's how I

felt so hard for this story. And I just believed in it so much that it felt like a cult

that I couldn't see otherwise. I couldn't believe otherwise.

She says her mind was so fixated on this investigation that she started noticing weird little things that seemed to confirm that she was under surveillance by the authorities.

While she was at work, she noticed a Wi-Fi network that would sometimes pop up on her computer named FBI.

Today, she says someone probably just called it that as a joke. But back then, it felt strange and scary to see that name on her computer in her office building.

Now, looking back, a lot of it is, you know,

when you're so deep into some conspiracy theory or something, it's it's spiral

and it's

hard to get out. And

you see

things you would not normally seen.

I think I was just very consumed by this thought that

I'm a part of this big case. Like I knew like I'm innocent and that I can get myself out of it.
But part of me also wanted to to really help them solve the case.

As the weeks and months passed, Bo was getting more and more anxious, and she couldn't talk to anyone about what was going on.

The scammers had told her not to, and she was afraid of implicating others.

But she decided she had to talk to a friend in case something happened to her.

She asked one of her close friends to come over to her house.

When he arrived, Bo put her phone in his car so no one could listen in on their conversation, pulled her friend into the bathroom in her building lobby, closed the door, and told him the story in a whisper.

My friend

argued with me and trying to check me and be like, Bo, it's a scam.

I remember that day that I argue with him

and we argued for a while, like over an hour, and I kept telling him that it's that is not that it's not a scam.

We'll be right back.

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Bosu Prossert says that over the next few months she still went to work, but otherwise rarely left her apartment. She was afraid of being followed.

I started having these

suicidal thoughts

because

I felt that the

it's not the investigation is not going anywhere and I was tired of having to report myself four times a day and

be very super paranoia about everyone and every single interaction that I have.

Bo told the people she believed to be police officers that she didn't think she could handle it anymore. You know, this

is so overwhelming

that I lost my sense of safety.

Couldn't eat, couldn't sleep. I didn't want to live that way anymore.

And they said, Don't stop. We're almost here.
The case is almost over. You will have all the evidence and you will go to the court.
And the court will rule you innocent very easily.

Because I've been, you know, providing evidence this whole time that I'm being very cooperative and helpful in the whole investigation and I will live a normal life again and that I should not let these criminals win and I believe them.

Bo eventually transferred more money. The scammers kept coming up with new reasons.
Bo had to borrow money from her family, primarily from her aunt, who took money out of her retirement account.

The fake police officer told her that her family's assets could be frozen and that charges could be brought against them too if they got in the way of the investigation.

He sent Bo photos of her brother and her aunt as proof that they were being surveilled.

So Bo told her family that she needed the money to apply for a PhD program.

In total, Bo wired over $300,000.

About three months after Bo had received that first phone call, the fake police officer told Bo that they had presented all the evidence in court. and that Bo had been ruled innocent.

She could finally stop sending them daily updates of her location.

Um and

I would collect the money.

Bo started looking at flights, but she was scared to travel to Thailand.

The police officer had made it clear that the money laundering syndicate had killed people who had talked to the police and provided evidence against them.

She called Officer Tipula.

Her call didn't go through, so she tried again.

She texted him, but got no response.

It started to hit me that there's no one else on the Auto Line.

And that's when I

consulted my friend,

the same one that told me it was a scam. And

he sat down with me,

made me call the FBI.

But it was already late.

It was closer to midnight at that point.

They sat in Beau's friend's car while she tried to call the FBI.

The next day, she decided she needed to see them in person. So I walked myself to the FBI office here in San Francisco

during my, you know, lunch break and I submitted my information to the FBI agent and they asked me to wait.

Then, Bo was taken to see another FBI agent.

I asked him if he knew about me, if he had my information, because the whole time I thought that, you know, the Thai police were coordinating with the US FBI and maybe they already have my information, right?

When Bo explained everything to him, the agent said that's not how the FBI would operate if they had been involved.

And he said that it's likely a scam, but he has not heard about it himself. And he suggested that I make, um, I file an online report.

Bo walked out and went to see another two friends. She told the whole story again.

Her friends made her call a few different agencies in Thailand.

Everyone said the same thing. It was a scam.

Bo says that's when it really started to hit her. She'd lost her own and her family's money.

Bo says she told her brother first.

Then she talked to her father.

They both told her the same thing. It's okay.

Her brother said, quote, don't lose yourself. It was a mistake.
That doesn't define who you are.

Bo's brother and her aunt went to the police in Thailand, but there was nothing they could do to recover the money.

Bo says it's hard to trust people now. When we got in touch with Bo to talk to her for this story, she only agreed after looking up our producer on several several online platforms.

Beau says she's thought a lot about how the scammers were able to pull her in. She says that before all of this happened, she'd heard about romance scams.

But beyond that, she thought scams were mostly quick one-offs.

It never crossed my mind that that the scam would be

would last, you know, months. I was more aware of scams that are more like quick money, right?

Those, you know, USPS scam

or I don't know, like Amazon scam or something.

Bo says she doesn't think the scammers knew that she had just renewed her passport and had been in touch with the Thai consulate when they called her. The scammers probably just got lucky.

But Bo says they might have known that she had just been back to Thailand because she had posted photos from her trip on social media.

The woman who called Bo and said she was from the Thai Embassy in DC was using the actual name of an embassy employee. And the same thing goes for the fake police officer, Officer Tipula.

Bo had looked him up and everything looked legitimate.

Boas contacted her bank to find out how a new bank account could have suddenly appeared in her online banking app, the account that the scammer said the FBI had set up for her.

Bo's bank explained to her that the account was actually an old credit card account that had been deactivated.

And Bo says the scammers may have had access to her bank because she had logged into her account while sharing her screen with them while she was trying to prove that she hadn't received payment from the crime syndicate.

Today, Bo says she's doing a bit better, and she's working on getting back on her feet. Her friends helped her pay off some debt, and she says she's now managed to pay them all back.

She plans to create an installment plan with her aunt.

Bo has participated in a support group for scam victims organized by the AARP.

She says it was great to have support, but also that it made her feel like an outlier. The others were mostly older Americans.
Many of them had been victims of romance scams.

Bo is thinking about starting her own support group, but she says she isn't quite ready yet.

Criminal is created by Lauren Spohr and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer.
Katie Bishop is our supervising producer.

Our producers are Susanna Robertson, Jackie Sejico, Lily Clark, Lena Sillison, and Megan Kinnane. Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Simonetti.

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