Thai, Taiwanese call scammers nabbed in Vietnam

Pol Maj Gen Surachate Hakparn, deputy commissioner of the Tourist Police Bureau, explains a police chart featuring the joint Thai-Vietnamese police operation to arrest 18 suspected phone scammers in Ho Chi Minh City during a press conference at Suvarnabhumi airport late Friday night. (Photo by Sutthiwit Chayutworakan)

SAMUT PRAKAN: Sixteen Thais and two Taiwanese have been arrested during a raid by Vietnamese and Thai police in Ho Chi Minh City on a Taiwanese-led phone scam gang targeting Thai victims with more than 50 million baht in damage in two months.

Friday's joint operation followed information that a Taiwanese-led phone scam gang preying on Thai people had been operating in Ho Chi Minh City for about two months and had recruited several Thais to make phone calls from Vietnam, said Pol Maj Gen Surachate Hakparn, deputy commissioner of the Tourist Police Bureau, during a press conference at Suvarnabhumi airport late Friday night.

A total of 18 suspects were apprehended during the raid on four condominiums equipped with security systems, said Pol Maj Gen Surachate, in his capacity as head of the government’s Thailand Action Taskforce for Information Technology Crime Suppression’s operational team. (continued below)

Police raid four condominiums in Ho Chi Minh City to arrest phone scammers. (Photo by the Tourist Police Bureau)

The police found several computers, mobile phones, SIM cards and bank passbooks inside the rooms. Name lists of high-ranking officials at several Thai agencies such as the Narcotics Suppression Bureau and the Anti-Money Laundering Office used by the gang were also seized in the rooms.

Of the suspects, 16 Thais, supervised by the two Taiwanese nationals, were tasked with making phone calls to dupe victims in Thailand into wiring money to the gang, said Pol Maj Gen Surachate.

The investigation found that the gang had operated for about two months and managed to swindle Thai victims out of 50 million baht. The latest victim living in Bangkok’s Hua Mak had transferred over 800,000 baht to the gang, said the TPB deputy chief.

All suspects are being interrogated in Vietnam. The 16 Thai suspects will be sent to face charges in Thailand next week, said Pol Maj Gen Surachate. Authorities would extend the investigation to bring other gang members to justice.

Thai suspects are arrested during a raid on a Taiwanese-led phone scam gang in Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo by the Tourist Police Bureau)