Police nab key member of scam gang

Police nab key member of scam gang

Man posed as cop to dupe call centre victims of over B150m

A key member of a call centre scam gang who masqueraded as a senior police officer to dupe three victims into transferring over 150 million baht has been arrested in Ayutthaya province.

Officers from the Police Cyber Taskforce (PCT) and investigators from the Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) caught Chonwicha Pansamut, 32, in tambon Sanabtueb in Ayutthaya's Wang Noi district on Friday, Pol Maj Gen Theeradet Thamsuthee, chief of investigation at the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said yesterday.

The arresting team seized 16 assets from the suspect, including bank accounts, gold ornaments, cash, watches and mobile phones. He was charged with colluding in public fraud, illegal assembly, transnational crime, putting false information into a computer system, money laundering and related offences.

Pol Maj Gen Theeradet said PCT police earlier sought approval from the Samut Prakan Provincial court to issue 58 warrants for call centre scammers preying on victims.

Authorities have obtained evidence that a prime suspect in three major scam cases in which victims had been lured into transferring more than 150 million baht to his scam gang's bank accounts was Mr Chonwicha, who claimed to be the chief of Muang district police in Chiang Rai.

On Oct 17, PCT investigators went to Cambodia's Poipet town to join Cambodian police in raiding a building housing centre scammers.

However, Taiwanese gang leaders fled with their Thai employees, working as scammers, via a secret channel in the building. Mr Chonwicha was among the scammers.

The PCT team later learned the suspect had returned to Thailand. They began tracing his whereabouts, leading to his arrest in Ayutthaya. During questioning, Mr Chonwicha admitted all charges, said Pol Maj Gen Theeradet.

The suspect admitted colluding with other scammers into luring victims into transferring money to his gang.

Before joining the scam gang, he sneaked across the border to Cambodia via a natural border pass to work as an administrator of a gambling website in Poipet town in November last year.

In February this year, he began working as a phone call scammer in the second line of phone scam operations. He posed as a police lieutenant in Muang district of Chiang Rai province.

Taiwanese scam gang leaders were satisfied with his performance and promoted him to be a senior staff in the third line of the scam operation in which he posed as a police colonel.

He would lure victims into wiring 7-8 million baht a month to his gang.

Pol Maj Gen Theeradet said the suspect was also responsible for three major cases. In the first case, he managed to lure Ms Ampha, a retired teacher, into transferring him 11 million baht in April this year.

In the second case, the suspect duped stock investor Wichai into transferring 41 million baht to his gang in July.

The third major victim was a doctor in Chumphon province who was duped into transferring 101 million baht to the gang, said Pol Maj Gen Theeradet. He withheld the surnames of the victims.

The suspect said his gang had about 50-60 Thai staff. During the 1-3 months he was at work, Chonwicha was paid about 20,000 baht per month.

After that his salary rose to 30,000 baht plus 3% in commission fees from the money he deceived from victims.

His commission fees were 2 million baht from swindling the three major victims. Since joining the scam gang, he earned about 4 million baht.

He spent around one million baht to build a house in Thailand and gave his relatives about one million baht.

He bought gold ornaments for about 500,000 baht and the rest financed his personal expenses and online gambling.

The suspect was handed over to cybercrime police. Authorities will seize his assets.

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