Twenty-seven Chinese and Taiwanese have been arrested for allegedly swindling their compatriots out of more than 100 million baht in a call centre scam based at a house in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district.
Officers from the Crime Suppression Division and Pracha Chuen police station, armed with a court warrant, searched a two-storey house on Soi 7, off Thetsaban Nimittai Road, in Lat Yao area on Thursday.
They detained 14 Chinese and 13 Taiwanese nationals - 20 men and seven women - in the house. Another person fled, police said. Two maids, a Thai and a Myanmar woman, were also detained for questioning.
About 30 telephones, many notebook computers and other internet equipment were seized. The house had sound-proofed walls and many closed-circuit television cameras, Thai media reported on Thursday.
Police investigators allege the suspects had used the house as their operations base to swindle Chinese nationals to transfer over 100 million baht to their bank accounts over a period of several months.
Pol Lt Col Thirirat Nongharnpitak, the Central Investigation Bureau chief who led the raid, said the arrests were made at the request of Chinese authorities, who had information the callers had conned money from many Chinese nationals.
Pol Col Jirapop Puridet, CSD superintendent, said the scammers had convinced Chinese and Tawanese victims to transfer money to their accounts. The gang had used Thailand as its base as it was difficult for police in their home countries to arrest them here. Initial damages were estimated at over 100 million baht, he said
Police would summon the Thai national whoowned the house for questioning, he said.