More than 320 people arrested in pirate goods raids
More than 320 people have been arrested and Bt28.3 million worth of pirated goods and computer software has been seized after a nine-month operation by the Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECSD).
Pol Maj-General Chawalit Sawaengpuet, deputy commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), told a press conference at the ECSD office in Bangkok on Wednesday that the operation ran from October 2016 to Monday.
Authorities netted 324 suspects in 320 cases along with 10,805 pieces of evidence. Ninety-two suspects sold pirated goods, while 12 suspects released copyright films on the Internet and 220 suspects sold pirated computer software.
Chawalit said ECSD officers on Tuesday also raided five locations – three in Chon Buri and one each in Bangkok and Nonthaburi – and arrested four suspects along with goods that carried copyright logos.
The goods were to be sold online via Facebook, Instagram and Line, he said.
He warned people selling illegal goods to stop and urged the public not to buy goods that might be low-quality and harmful to health.
Warunee Ratchatapattanakul, a representative of the software business alliance, said some software-selling websites also sold pirated software at only hundreds of baht cheaper than the original.
“This pirated software cannot be updated and could be a channel for hackers to access your information or cause malware virus issues,” she said.
A study by a Singapore university found 90 per cent of computers in Thailand were infected with malware, she said.