Seven arrested over alleged call-centre scam
Three Taiwanese men and four Thais were arrested for allegedly running a call-centre scam in which they disguised themselves as state officials to get people to wire them money, officers from Bangkok’s Thong Lor Police Station announced on Wednesday.
The suspects were named as Taiwanese men Fu-Yung Chang, 21, Li-Chun Yeh, 42, and Chin-Wei Nien, 41, and their alleged accomplices as Thais Nopparat Khamwilai, 32, Pornchai Piromsod, 28, Savitree Thongmuangluang, 34 and Udomlak Sirinthanasan, 37.
Officers also seized 13 Thai bank account books and 13 debit cards as evidence.
Thong Lor superintendant Pol Colonel Khajornpong Jitpakphum said Chang, identified by ATM camera footage while withdrawing a victim’s money, was arrested first following a police complaint filed on September 10 by a 53-year-old female Thong Lor resident.
The woman said she received a phone call from someone claiming to be a government officer, who told her that she faced a money-laundering charge. The “officer” said she must wire Bt120,000 to a certain bank account for “inspection”. She did this, but later realised it was a scam.
Two other Taiwanese men were nabbed at a commercial building in Soi Ratchadapisek 3 while the Thais surrendered to police.
Savitree and Udomlak were identified as the persons who were hired to open bank accounts for the gang in exchange for payment.
Police investigations found that the gang had a head office in Taiwan and used Internet calls that displayed a Thai state agency’s phone number to dupe their victims.
They would tell their victims to wire money to bank accounts that gang members in Thailand had opened for them. They would then withdraw the money and wire it back to the gang bosses in Taiwan.
Police said the gang allegedly duped another victim in Songkhla of Bt400,000.