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Ten Chinese ‘Scammers’ Arrested for Call Center, Online Gambling

Bangkok authorities have arrested ten Chinese nationals allegedly involved in a call center scam and online gambling operation with a 100-million-baht monthly turnover.

The arrests came during a raid on a luxury condominium in the capital’s Wattthana district on Thursday, when a combined team of officers from the Police Cyber Task Force, the Immigration Bureau and the Tourism Police Bureau raided two properties on Soi Sukhumvit 39.

Pol Maj Gen Phanthana Nutchanart, commander of the Immigration Bureau’s investigation division, said ten Chinese citizens had been detained. The group included six people with arrest warrants issued by Chinese authorities.

Police reports showed that 19 laptops, 79 mobile phones, 167 SIM cards, 300 items for operating online gambling, OTP devices and wi-fi routers were seized. Agents also found 14 luxury watches, ten bank accounts, three cars and a motorcycle.

According to Pol Maj Gen Phanthana, the Chinese embassy in Bangkok had requested support from Thai authorities to track down 17 suspects involved in a call center scam in their country.

Police sought court approval to search four locations in Bangkok after discovering the Chinese suspects were hiding in Thailand.

Those arrested were related to other fraud crimes and had reportedly operated online gambling websites. Several managed to flee, but the police will locate them, Pol Maj Gen Phanthana vowed.

Further investigation showed that the suspects were also behind six gambling websites that had more than 100 million baht in circulation each month, he went on.

According to police findings, some Thais were involved with the suspects and rented the rooms where they lived and operated for 50,000 baht per month. Many victims were Chinese nationals.