Mae Sot Mule Account Raid: Thai Cyber Police Seize 40 Phones Loaded With Banking Apps Behind a Fake Nail Salon

Thailand's cyber police have arrested three men accused of running a mule-account workshop in Mae Sot, on the Myanmar border, and seized 40 phones with banking apps installed, each tied to an account bought from someone else. Matichon reported that the three, aged 42, 31 and 35 and all from Tak province, had been at it for more than a year.

The raid

Officers from the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau's Division 4 raided a two-storey building on Ban Thung Road at about 11:00 on 7 November, on a Mae Sot court warrant. One room carried a sticker advertising a beauty and nail salon that never served customers. Investigators had watched four or five people come and go at odd hours, with someone inside around the clock.

One man was caught outside. The other two ran in and locked the door, and police forced it.

How the accounts were bought

People who agreed to open a bank account for the group were paid 8,000 to 10,000 baht each, The Thaiger reported. The three then set up each account on a phone. Under questioning, one suspect said he earned 3,000 baht per finished phone, and the other two 2,000 baht a phone each.

He delivered the phones to scam networks or online gambling sites at pre-arranged handover points. Matichon describes the buyers as call-centre gangs still operating from bases along the border. None of the reports gives a loss figure or a count of accounts beyond the 40 phones.

Thai police have also broken up a ring selling company bank accounts to call-centre scammers.

Charges

All three face the charge of jointly arranging or advertising the buying, selling, renting or lending of bank accounts, which The Thaiger notes is an offence under Thailand's emergency decree on technology crime. Police also seized 20 methamphetamine pills, and the 42-year-old faces a drug possession charge. A second man is charged with receiving goods that evaded tax or customs. Investigators say they're now tracing the financiers, the networks that collected the phones and the people hired to open the accounts.