Phuket –
A woman was arrested in Chalong after she allegedly opened bank accounts for call center scammers whose victims lost more than a million baht.
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) told the Phuket Express that over the past weekend they arrested a woman identified only as Ms. Wiparat at a house in Chalong. She is being accused of opening bank accounts for others to use for online criminal activity, fraud, and importing false information into computer systems causing other damage. She was taken to the Nong Khaem Police Station in Bangkok.
The arrest came after many victims filed reports to officers. Call center scammers allegedly called random victims and claimed that they are police. They claimed they arrested suspects for illegal drugs and money laundering and had allegedly seized bank accounts which they believed belonged to victims.
The fraudsters asked victims to add them via the LINE application. They then video called victims presenting themselves in police uniforms. They asked victims to transfer money in order to verify their bank accounts and that they were not associated with the alleged drug suspects to Ms. Wiparat’s bank account.
There was in total more than one million Baht of damages.
The scammers were obviously not police or associated with them, added CIB officers.
