Eleven suspects - Taiwanese, Chinese and Thais - involved in a call centre scam enticing people into paying money into their accounts have been arrested in police raids on seven locations in Bangkok and Nonthaburi.
Police from several different units raided the premises on Monday night, acting on information that foreign phone scammers had been staying there.
Six Taiwanese, two Chinese and three Thais were arrested and electronic equipment and telephones seized during the raids on a rented house at Suan Thon 3 housing estate in Nonthaburi’s Muang district, a rented apartment room in Bangkok’s Huai Kwang district and five other premises in the two provinces.
Pol Maj Gen Surachet Hakpan, acting deputy chief of the Tourism Police Bureau, said the raids followed complaints from people who had been swindled into transferring money into accounts nominated by members of the gang.
The Taiwanese and Chinese had entered the country as tourists and then used it as a base for their nefarious activities. They had lured people in their own countries to pay money into their accounts. Thais had also been among their victims.
Thai media reported the three Thai suspects, all men, caught during the raids were employed to take care of the foreign scammers and were each paid 30,000 baht a month.