Japanese scam gang boss collared at Bangkok airport
text size

Japanese scam gang boss collared at Bangkok airport

Listen to this article
Play
Pause
Police detain Yu Hamaji, 34, believed to be a former yakuza member. He was arrested in connection with a busted call centre gang in Thailand. (Photo: Immigration Bureau)
Police detain Yu Hamaji, 34, believed to be a former yakuza member. He was arrested in connection with a busted call centre gang in Thailand. (Photo: Immigration Bureau)

One more Japanese man who is believed to be a former member of the yakuza has been arrested in connection with a busted call centre gang in Thailand, the Immigration Bureau said on Wednesday.

The suspect was identified as Yu Hamaji, 34, who police believe to be the deputy chief of the Japanese gang busted around mid-December in Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri, said Pol Lt Col Phanthana Nutchanart, deputy commissioner of the bureau.

This suspect fled along with another Japanese suspect prior to the police raids in the province last month, said Pol Maj Gen Phanthana.

He was detained at Don Mueang Airport on Sunday while attempting to return to Japan, he said.

At the request of the Japanese embassy in Thailand for cooperation in tracking down the members of the call centre gang, which has conned a large group of Japanese retirees in Japan out of more than 300 million baht in total, immigration police began investigating the case, which led to raids on two luxurious pool villas in Chon Buri, he said.

At the time, five suspects were arrested: Kenjiro Kimura, 37, Takahiro Inoue, 34, Katsuhito Yamaguchi, 28, Ukai Takayuki, 42, and Hatakana Hajime, 40.

Seized by police for inspection was the information of 37 victims, as well as pre-written scripts used to deceive people on calls and make them think they were speaking to Japanese state officials handling healthcare welfare and billing, along with a list of more than 50,000 people who were the gang's targets, said Pol Maj Gen Phanthana.

This gang would tell Japanese retirees they had a huge amount of accumulated healthcare reimbursements to collect and persuade them to transfer sums of money starting from 500,000 yen (110,000 baht) to mule accounts, he said.

This gang was found to have caused daily damages of around 24 million yen (around 5 million baht).

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (5)