Thai Police Break Up Ring Supplying Company Mule Accounts to Call-Centre Scammers, Losses Over 250 Million Baht

Thailand's Anti Online Scam Operation Center (ACSC) and the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) have taken apart a network that supplied company bank accounts to call-centre scam gangs, with losses put at more than 250 million baht across at least 130 cases. Police obtained 56 arrest warrants, MGR Online reports: 53 for people who held the accounts and three for those who recruited and controlled them. The figures were given at a police briefing on 5 November. When the arrests were made hasn't been reported.

One victim, 122 transfers

The case began with an investment scam. A victim found a stock-trading page on Facebook, was passed to a LINE contact posing as an expert, and made 122 transfers totalling 111.69 million baht. The scammers then demanded fees and "tax" before any money could be withdrawn.

How the gang got company accounts

Police described three routes. People were paid up to 30,000 baht to register as directors of companies that did no business. Struggling firms were bought or taken over. Existing company accounts were rented for a cut of what passed through them.

The same company papers were used to register 40 mobile SIM cards, all now suspended. One of those numbers was used to pose as staff of the retailer HomePro and cheat another victim out of tens of thousands of baht.

Police released only nicknames for the three alleged ringleaders, all women. Komchadluek says one recruited account openers and ordered withdrawals, one took recruits to banks and helped pull out cash, and the third forged documents and claimed she could get frozen accounts released. The suspects arrested so far live in 15 provinces, and 13 of those suspects are from Bangkok.

Charges and police advice

The charges include public fraud by impersonation, entering false data into a computer system, money laundering, and membership of a secret society and a criminal association.

Police tell the public not to set up a company, act as a director or lend their name to a company for someone else, and not to register SIM cards on anyone's behalf. Anyone told to pay a fee or tax before withdrawing investment profits should stop transferring and contact their bank and the police.