Call gang that stole THB9.5bn from Japanese victims busted in Bangkok suburbs: Police
Immigration police have arrested four men – two Japanese and two Taiwanese – suspected of running a call-centre gang in the Bangkok suburbs that defrauded over 17,000 victims in Japan out of 9.5 billion baht in less than a year.
Announcing the arrests on Thursday, deputy national police chief Pol General Surachate Hakparn said investigators tracked down the gang to a house in Samut Sakhon’s Muang district.
Police raided the house and arrested two Japanese nationals, named only as Daisuke, 49, and Taro, 41, and two Taiwanese men Chien, 50, and Ho, 40.
They also found 11 mobile phones, two laptop computers, five credit cards and documents containing victims’ information in the house.
Investigators believed the four suspects were just employees of the gang’s boss, a Taiwanese national.
Surachate said the gang would call victims in Japan claiming to be police officers. They would then tell victims that their bank account information had been breached and ask them to transfer money to a new, “secure” account.
Evidence indicates that over 17,000 people fell victim to the call gang in Japan, which siphoned more than 9.5 billion baht from their accounts in less than a year, Surachate added.
The suspects reportedly confessed that they were paid 200,000 yen per month (about 47,000 baht) plus 10% of the money they gained from victims.
Surachate said police would forward the evidence to the Japanese and Taiwanese embassies to expand the investigation in their respective countries and identify accomplices of the gang.
