FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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AMLO warns retirees against conmen

AMLO warns retirees against conmen

The Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) yesterday warned retired teachers and civil servants - especially the elderly living on their own - of a number of active "call-centre scam" gangs. Their method is to dupe victims by accusing them of money launder

 

In the latest case of a 68-year-old teacher, who lost some Bt26 million, the gang reportedly blocked her phone, so she could not call out for 10 days. 
 
AMLO will ask the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to look into how the gang can control the phone system, Pol Colonel Sihanat Prayoonrat, AMLO’s acting secretary, said.
 
Members of the gang, claiming to be officials from Kasikorn Bank, AMLO and Office of the Auditor General of Thailand (OAG), duped the teacher into wiring 269 times a total of Bt26,750,185 to 75 Bangkok Bank accounts nationwide, from December 21 to January 4. 
 
It was fortunate the teacher came to the AMLO office on January 9 to ask for her money back, Sihanat said, because she said the gang had once again asked her to borrow and transfer another Bt2.5 million.
 
AMLO will also ask Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank why they failed to report such suspicious transactions, he said. AMLO was late in freezing the 75 accounts because some were empty while others had up to Bt90,000 left in them. 
 
AMLO has helped the victim file a police complaint at the Crime Suppression Division, he said, adding that some members of the gang had been identified and arrests would be made soon. He said that those hired to open the accounts would also face legal action.
 
According to the officials, the victim, whose name is withheld, was told that she had a credit card debt and the Bank of Thailand, AMLO, the Narcotics Control Board and OAG were investigating her for money-laundering. 
 
The caller, claiming to be a senior AMLO official, said that a drug gang had been arrested with a Kasikorn Bank employee as accomplice and that the victim’s name was being used to launder money. 
 
The gang reportedly offered to clear the victim’s name if she “put the money through cash deposit machines into the Bank of Thailand accounts for investigation”. They then told her that they needed her help in nabbing the culprits and even gave her a phone number that she could use to contact them round the clock. 
 
Sihanat said that from last January, 200 cases of call-centre scams had been reported and as much as Bt80 million swindled with many of the callers claiming to be AMLO officials.
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