Sixty-one people -- 59 Thais and two Chinese -- have been detained during raids on a phone scam gang working in Preah Sihanouk province in Cambodia, say Thai police.
Twenty-eight were being treated as suspects, five were lured into the operation but had since been rescued, and the rest were still being investigated, Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas, director of the Police Cyber Taskforce (PCT), said yesterday.
Teams of Thai and Cambodian police raided two premises used as offices by the gang in Preah Sihanouk on Sunday, said Pol Gen Damrongsak, a deputy national police chief.
The first building was an abandoned factory on Santepheap Road. Callers operating from there told their victims that parcels had been sent to them by DHL or FedEx, but customs officials had seized them because they contained illegal goods.
Later, a person pretending to be a police officer at Chiang Mai's Muang station would contact them and ask to examine their finances. The victims were lured into transferring money to the bogus officer, Pol Gen Damrongsak said.
Police arrested 28 people at the factory, including three alleged gang leaders -- two Chinese and a Thai man identified as Pornsak Reephol. They were charged with colluding in public fraud, illegal assembly and money laundering.
The arresting team seized 30 iPhones, eight communication radios, four notebook computers, copies of conversations between gang members and their victims, fake arrest warrants and other documents.
The joint police team also raided Diwei Entertainment City Building on 2 Thnou Road, where a casino masked a phone scam operation on the fifth floor. Thirty-three Thais were found talking on phones to intended victims when officers entered the office, Pol Gen Damrongsak said.
A total of 61 scammers were caught at the two locations. Five snared into working for the gang were taken to the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh.