Woman questioned in ID theft/call scam case

Woman questioned in ID theft/call scam case

Nicha Kiartthanapaiboon, 24, accompanied by her elder sister, asks Crime Suppression Division police to track down call centre scammers who opened bank accounts using her lost ID card, at the CSD headquarters on Jan 9. (File photo)
Nicha Kiartthanapaiboon, 24, accompanied by her elder sister, asks Crime Suppression Division police to track down call centre scammers who opened bank accounts using her lost ID card, at the CSD headquarters on Jan 9. (File photo)

A 30-year-old woman has been questioned for allegedly using the ID card of Nicha Kiartthanapaiboon to open five bank accounts for a call centre gang.

According to an earlier report, officers from Metropolitan Police Division 1 contacted a woman identified as Ms Paveena at a house in Talingchan area on Saturday night.

She was taken to Lak Song police station for processing, since Ms Paveena opened the bank accounts in an area under the jurisdiction of Lak Song police.

Ms Paveena was then taken to Huay Khwang police station for further questioning, the report said, because an ATM card was used to withdraw money from one of the accounts in Huay Khwang area.

The initial report then said that Ms Paveena confessed she had been hired for 10,000 baht by a man identified only as Simon to open five accounts, but said she had actually been paid only 4,000 baht.

The scam was brought to public attention after Ms Nicha on Jan 9 asked Crime Suppression Division (CSD) police to take action against a member of a call centre gang who used her lost ID card to open a total of nine bank accounts with seven banks. She said the accounts were used to swindle people, and led to her being arrested for a crime she did not commit.

According to the latest reports, Ms Nicha, 24, accompanied by elder sister Punyada Kokmas, went to see CSD police to thank them for questioning the woman identified as Ms Paveena in connection with the scam. It was earlier reported that Ms Paveena had been arrested, but a police spokesman later said she was only invited for an interview.

Ms Nicha said she had never been in contact with Ms Paveena nor met her in person. After suffering from sleepless nights, she now felt much relieved, she added.

On a report that she made telephone contact with a group of suspects, Ms Nicha said it might be because her name had been used to apply for four SIM cards in Bang Yai area.

She repeated that she lost her ID three times, once in 2014 and twice in 2017, and had the ID renewed without filing a police complaint.

Ms Nicha explained that the six million baht reported to have passed through her bank account was used to run a family business. She said about 100,000 baht per month had accrued to her account over the past six years, since she was 18. There was not much left in the account now, she added.

She denied knowing anything about a report that on one occasion, one of the victims of the scam had transferred some 300,000 baht into her account.

Pol Col Krisna Pattanacharoen, the deputy police spokesman, said Ms Nicha's case is being handled by the Provincial Police Region 6 and she is still regarded as a suspect in the call centre scam.

As for Ms Paveena, the woman had cooperated with the police, he said, but no information could be disclosed at this time pending further investigation.

He said Ms Paveena was not yet a suspect, contradicting an earlier report that she had been arrested.

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