Forty-five victims of call centre scams have been saved from losing over 20 million baht in a recent case, says the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo).
They are among 251 people to have lodged complaints with an Amlo operation centre set up late last year to deal with the rapid growth in this type of fraud.
The victims were deceived into handing over a total of 95 million baht.
However, Amlo, banks and police officers only managed to recover 20 million baht belonging to 45 individuals, as victims were slow to come forward, Phiraphat Ingphongphan, chief of Amlo’s Litigation Division 1, said yesterday.
Less than half of the victims lured by the gangs alerted Amlo immediately after they became aware of their losses, he said.
These gangs fabricate elaborate stories to fool people, and in many cases the victims do not realise they are giving their personal information and money to scammers until they check their bank accounts sometime later, observers say. In some cases they know nothing until banks alert them.
Named after their method of defrauding people, these “call centre” operatives often impersonate bank staff, state officials and even police officers to persuade people to hand over money or sensitive information.
“The gangsters usually tell their victims they have been accused of drug offences or money laundering, and then exploit their fear to get what they want,” Mr Phiraphat said.
Many victims are then lured into proving their “innocence” by handing over details of their bank accounts or land title deeds, he said.
No matter what tricks were used, all victims ended up the same way — transferring money to the gangs, added Mr Phiraphat.
National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda also announced that yesterday Amlo and three banks — Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank and Bank of Ayudhya — had returned one million baht to customers after the sums were recently suspended amid suspicions that the money was being wired to gangsters’ accounts.