Missing Chinese woman found at a shopping mall

A 27-year-old Chinese woman who was believed to be abducted for a 25-million-baht ransom was finally found at a shopping mall in Bang Na district on Saturday evening.

According to media reports, police found Lu Xinlei at HomePro Bangna. She was brought to Phra Khanong police station where she met her mother and elder sister who just arrived from China after reports of the suspected abduction.

It was reported that the Chinese woman worked for a property company in Japan and a call scam gang claiming to be Japanese authorities told her that she violated an anti-money-laundering law.

She was ordered to transfer them 17 million yen for examination, leave for either Thailand or Singapore and not to contact her parents in Shanghai.

The Chinese woman arrived in Thailand on Wednesday last week. She was ordered to change her SIM card and to regularly move to different hotels.

On Friday last week a man called her parents in China and told them that she was kidnapped and they must pay a ransom of 5 million yuan or about 25 million baht for the freedom of their daughter. A Chinese-language interpreter forwarded the parents’ complaint to police later on Friday.

Police believed that both Ms Lu and her parents fell victim to a call scam gang which was tricking them through chat application without any real abduction.