Bangkok – Police have arrested members of a call center ring who scammed people into opening accounts for a Taiwanese operation.
Officials arrested Samran Huncharoen and his cohorts for illegally gathering the national IDs and bank books of victims to create recipient accounts for the operation. The arrests followed a report filed by a victim, who was scammed by a call center into transferring money into an illegal account. The suspects admitted to having gathered accounts and claimed that the call center operation was based in the Philippines.
Deputy Commander of the Tourist Police Division, Pol Maj Gen Surachet Hakpan and Commander of the Patrol and Special Operations Division, Pol Maj Gen Panumat Bunyalak called a joint press conference on the case on Wednesday. They revealed that police tracked the call center operation back to Taiwan and that a suspect named Ratchasak Kachontaweecok is still at large. Officials were unable to freeze a transfer of 600,000 baht, but were able follow the money trail.
Pol Maj Gen Surachet disclosed that the case has over 300 Thai accomplices, 100 of whom have been arrested. Officials have begun freezing the assets of various online accounts, including ones in Bitcoin, and will hold a meeting next week with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission regarding preventive measures.
The investigation also revealed that these types of cases are now in decline, due to growing public awareness.
