Police arrested 24 Chinese and Thai suspects for running a romance scam at a resort hotel in Chiang Mai and they allegedly tricked many Japanese victims.
Police and immigration police arrested 22 men and two women at a resort hotel in Ban Nong Yao village of Fang district and seized a large number of computers and mobile phones from them.
The gang rented the whole resort hotel and turned it into their criminal base.
The suspected scammers used the fake profiles of beautiful women whose pictures were copied via the LINE conversation app. Through dating apps and the LINE app, the suspects approached Japanese men, struck up relationships and lured them into investing through a fraudulent software application.
Many Japanese men fell for the scam. The suspects were charged with illegal assembly and public fraud. (TNA)