Police arrested two Hong Kong men at a prominent shopping mall in Bangkok, finding them carrying devices to send short messages with fraudulent links to scam victims.
Tai Loi, 43 and Man Lok Lee, were apprehended by the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau officers at Siam Paragon shopping mall, along with their belongings, including a portable False Base Station or “Stingray” and four mobile phones.
According to CIB commissioner Pol. Lt. Gen. Worawat Watnakhonbancha, officers acted upon AIS Monitor’s alert that criminals send messages to network users, urging them to redeem rewards or exchange points and tricking them into providing personal and credit card information. Victims who fell for the scam would click links leading to fraudulent websites, resulting in money being siphoned from their mobile banking accounts.
After receiving the information, investigators traced the suspects’ behavior, leading to their arrest at Siam Paragon. Upon search, they found a portable False Base Station from Malaysia.
Subsequently, the suspects’ hotel room in Bangkok’s Bang Rak area was searched, revealing an additional backup battery.
During interrogation, it was revealed that the suspects would carry the Stingray device to several locations, sending SMS scams to phones within a one-kilometer radius. They particularly targeted shoppers at various malls, including CentralWorld and Icon Siam, before being caught at Paragon. The suspects said they traveled to Malaysia last month and met a man named Aken, who told them to pick up a backpack at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok by an unnamed Thai person and instructed them to carry the bag to shopping malls. They said they did not know what was inside the bag. (TNA)
