Police in Phuket have arrested a woman accused of opening bank accounts for call centre scammers, defrauding victims to the tune of 1 million baht. Over the weekend, officers from the Central Investigation Bureau arrested the woman, identified only as Ms Wiparat, at a property in Chalong.
Wiparat is accused of opening bank accounts used for online criminal activity and fraud, and importing false information into computer systems causing other damage. The suspect has been taken to Bangkok’s Nong Khaem Police Station for legal processing.
The CIB was responding to several reports from victims targeted by scammers. According to victims’ testimonies, the scammers would call them, pretending to be police officers. They would claim to have made a number of arrests of drug and money laundering suspects and had seized bank accounts they believed belonged to victims.
The scammers would then ask the victims to add them on the LINE app, after which they would call the victims while wearing police uniforms. Victims were then asked to verify their bank accounts and prove they were not associated with those arrested by transferring money to Wiparat’s bank account.
In total, the fraudsters conned their victims out of more than a million baht. The CIB have confirmed the scammers were not police officers or in any way associated with the police.
SOURCE: The Phuket Express
