A Nonthaburi woman has asked Crime Suppression Division (CSD) police to take action against a member of a call centre gang who she accuses of using her lost ID card to open bank accounts which were used to swindle people, a crime that led to her being arrested for a crime she did not commit.
Nicha Kiartthanapaiboon, 24, sought help Tuesday from the CSD to track down the person she said used her lost ID to open nine accounts with seven banks.
She submitted a video clip showing a woman opening an account at Krungthai Bank's Lat Phrao branch as evidence.
Ms Nicha was accompanied by her elder sister Punyada Kokmas, 33, when she met CSD commander Maitree Chimcherd and deputy chief Chakrit Sawasdee.
She told them she had travelled from Nonthaburi's Bang Yai district to the Lak Song area in Bangkok by bus on Oct 6 last year. On arrival she discovered her purse containing her ID card and other items had vanished.
She immediately advised the bank to block her ATM card and went to a nearby district office to report the loss and apply for a replacement ID card the following day.
She later learned that on Dec 28 she had been summonsed to report to police, but was not at her house or office when police showed up to apprehend her for missing the appointment.
On Jan 6, she decided to go to the CSD after she found out that someone had used her lost ID card to open a total of nine bank accounts at seven banks. Each account showed transfers involving hundreds of thousands of baht.
At that meeting, CSD police informed her she had outstanding charges against her and was wanted on an arrest warrant.
She was handed over to Ban Tak police in Tak province. She was initially refused bail, but was finally released the following day.
She then sought help from the CSD, again.
Ms Nicha insisted she was not involved with the call centre scammers and had reported the loss immediately to district officials so they could cancel her ID card while she obtained a new one.
Ronadol Numnonda, Bank of Thailand assistant governor, said the bank had ordered an urgent investigation into the matter.
"Financial institutions must know who their customers are and be able to authenticate their identities. These checking measures are part of Central Bank requirements which are intended to safeguard commercial banks from incidents of money laundering or other types of fraud," said Mr Ronadol.
Ms Nicha intends to file both civil and criminal suits against the banks involved, according to her sister, Ms Punyada.
- Earlier: Lost ID card used in fraud scheme