Two suspects have been arrested for allegedly defrauding a businessman out of more than 300 million baht through an online scam investment in cryptocurrency.
Officers from the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) apprehended a woman, Athima, 32, in Chon Buri’s Nong Prue district and her male alleged accomplice, Atthaphol, 38, in Nong Kung Si district of Kalasin.
They were charged with colluding in public fraud, putting false information into a computer system and laundering money, Pol Col Adichart Amornpradit of CCIB division 3 said on Wednesday. He declined to give the suspects' full names.
He said a businessman had earlier filed a complaint with police, saying he had been duped into investing in a cryptocurrency trading scheme in July last year. He had been approached by Line chat account user “Oil”, who used a profile photo of an attractive woman and added him as a friend on the Line chat app via phone number.
They had chatted frequently and he felt they had become close. "Oil" had then talked about investment in online trading in shares and crypto currency and had later sent him a link, to ecadia.bio, for him to invest in USDT cryptocurrency (known as tether).
He had transferred money to invest in it. The woman informed him about investment returns. He kept transferring more money to invest in this scheme.
He only much later learned that he had been swindled, when he wanted to withdraw profits but could not do so, Pol Col Adichart said. The businessman said he had been defrauded out of more than 300 million baht.
Pol Lt Gen Worawat Watnakhonbancha, commissioner of the CCIB, ordered an investigation and two suspects were later tracked down and both arrested.
Ms Athima and Mr Atthaphol were held in police custody for legal action.