this is also a scammer.
Yeah, I did not click on any links and knew the comment was written with AI
Readit Newssoueuls commented on Ask HN: How would expose a scam involving a powerful figure? · Posted by u/soueuls
soueuls commented on Ask HN: How would expose a scam involving a powerful figure? · Posted by u/soueuls
I am willing to take pretty much any legal risks, I don’t want to give up on my mother, regardless of how it can backfire.
I flee out of Thailand several months ago, because I was receiving some death threats, so I should be safe on that matter.
soueuls commented on Ask HN: How would expose a scam involving a powerful figure? · Posted by u/soueuls
If this happened to my mom, I’d create a YouTube channel and upload several editorial-style or documentary-style videos laying out all the evidence (redacting anything too sensitive), with voice-over, good editing, and a solid script.
I’d also write one or more long-form articles on a dedicated website—PDFs, images, all the evidence laid out clearly so there’s no doubt it’s real. I’d include a contact phone number and email too.
Then I’d buy some backlinks and make it SEO-friendly so it ranks well on Google.
I’d set up a Facebook page, post updates regularly, and drive people to both the site and the YouTube channel. I’d run Facebook ads for months—whatever I could afford, ideally at least $2k, but the more, the better.
I’d reply to every comment and encourage people to share and speak up.
Once that’s all set up, I’d reach out to media outlets—ask them directly how much it costs to feature my site in their digital editions, and from there, figure out what it takes to get something printed in physical form.
Depending on how things go after the first month, I’d even consider renting 1 or 2 billboards.
I used AI to write press releases in every languages I know there are victims.
I am trying to look for someone who can help me shoot / edit short videos, and I will try to use Heygen to translate them.
Posting on TikTok might be useful, but usually the content can only be seen from the country you are posting.
Do you know of any tools where you can feed a bunch of content / documents / pictures / etc and it generates many pages ranking on their names / brand / company / etc?
soueuls commented on Ask HN: How would expose a scam involving a powerful figure? · Posted by u/soueuls
Post starter - there a number of replies on here that are flagged as dead that you may want to read regardless (turn on the dead replies in Settings)
Yes I was also surprised, at least one of those comments looked legit to me, not written with AI or a anything.
I will check the settings
soueuls commented on Ask HN: How would expose a scam involving a powerful figure? · Posted by u/soueuls
One step removed would be a site like those visa sites that list each country and give insights into the real estate market. What to watch out for. Your legal protections. Is it safe.
Sounds like Thailand may not have the legal protections required to make real estate investment safe. Sounds like you did everything carefully and still got scammed. This makes me think Thailand may not be a wise place to buy property.
The site would help reduce future scams like this by steering people to less corrupt places.
And in any country I think off the plan development is highly risky. You are trusting building companies famous for going bankrupt substantial amounts of money. Plus they may not build what they sold you on.
It's something I am considering, not just talking about whether a country is safe or not, but listening to whistleblowers and listing scammers by name / pictures / estimated amount / connections / and publishing personal information (phone / address / school for the children, etc).
Only after collecting enough hard evidences, of course.
If they plan to scam hundreds of people, they might as well take the associated risks of scamming the wrong people who have nothing else to lose.
soueuls commented on Ask HN: How would expose a scam involving a powerful figure? · Posted by u/soueuls
The easiest thing to do would be to get in contact with foreign people that got scammed, and start putting together a youtube video/blog post, then spam social media with it. This should get picked up pretty easy as rich people hate is at an all time high right now.
Ideally yes, I agree, but it's actually not so easy to get in touch with other victims without any help from the press.
soueuls commented on Ask HN: How would expose a scam involving a powerful figure? · Posted by u/soueuls
I don't think I have any advice for you. :/
But I do think you should think about what you want - do you want to get your mom's money back? Or do you want to punish these people? Those two goals may be mutually exclusive.
Getting the money back would obviously be number 1, I am not crazy enough to enjoy « revenge » above my my mother’s wellbeing.
But I already hired a lawyer, I don’t think there is any way we will win this legally.
The whole thing is rigged when the guy in front of you has been somewhat a fiend of the king when he was young.
soueuls commented on Ask HN: How would expose a scam involving a powerful figure? · Posted by u/soueuls
Wait, what was the scam? The apartment didn't exist? The company didn't have the right to sell it?
We bought during Covid, the building was half-way done, the prices were attractive, and the story telling was that they mostly worked with workers from Burma and Laos, it was a bit slow to get them a working visa during Covid.
Hence, why the construction took a halt during 1 year. They were selling at a discount to break even, the government was indeed talking about opening borders (we were already inside Thailand at that time, not buying from abroad).
We visited the construction site and saw ~10 workers, everything seemed real, like a thing slowly getting back to normal.
I have all the reasons to believe now, that these "workers" were just paid to be here. The company was advertising, getting batches of potential investors, and making a "Potemkin" construction site.
They never had any intention of ever finishing the project.
In the past ten years, I worked with one guy from Nigeria and a bunch of people from Iran. Bitcoin (or rather cryptocurrencies in general) have been more than just mere gimmicks.
Sending money from one side of the world to another, for such a low fees, even when the central bank of Nigeria is blocking USD transfers, even when bank transfers to Iran are being blocked, has been very useful in itself.
As for AI, yes if you use it as a God, you will be disappointed. Yes it can’t do everything. Yes it will hallucinate.
But it’s been a great learning environment for me, I keep asking questions to get an overview of things.
I used to learn concepts such as « clean architecture » because AI is never tired, it can provide endless variations to the same problems, until you better understand the underlying principles and the recurring patterns.
When I work on a project, 20-30% is creative, cutting edge, never seen before. 70% is CRUD, necessary boilerplate.
I know what I am supposed to be doing, I can verify the result, double check the validity of it.
Why would I waste hours typing letters?
Do I rely on AI for everything? No I don’t.
But pretending it’s completely useless, is nonsensical.
Yes it’s just statistically inferring the next token, but it’s actually a very simple, powerful concept.