Wichayapon Kowarit, 43, an employee at a printing house in Chiang Mai, was cheated out of hundreds of thousands of baht when he attempted to resale a songtaew. Wichayaporn bought the songtaew for 320,000 baht, to be paid in installments. Although he initially intended to supplement his income as a part-time driver, he realized that the job did not bring the revenue he expected. Wichayapon re-sold the songtaew to a man named Tawat, with payments to be made in 50,000 baht installments, the first of which was paid with two checks for 10,000 baht and two for 15,000 baht. Wichayapon would then use the money to make his own installment payments on the original purchase.
Although Wichayapon was able to cash the first check for 10,000 baht, the bank returned the next check for insufficient funds. He stated that he has tried reaching out to Tawat but has not received a response. He also visited the house Tawat listed on his ID card, but found it empty. Wichayapon suspects that the other two checks which will be due this month and next month will also bounce. Unfortunately, Wichayapon is still saddled with paying his own monthly installments on the songtaew, which he no longer has. The case has been reported and is now under an investigation.