Three Chinese suspects were arrested yesterday for operating Luckking Co, which invited people to buy into lucky draws and then stole their personal information.
Pol Maj Gen Theeradet Thumsuthee, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said the company was based in the Sermsub Building on Ratchadaphisek Road in Huai Khwang district, Bangkok. It stole money and personal data from about 88,000 people, then sold the information to call scam gangs, Pol Maj Gen Theeradet said.
He named two of the Chinese suspects as Ye Wanyou, 29, and Li Weijie, 30. Both were arrested at a gated housing estate near Ratchadaphisek Road on Feb 5.
They were suspected of running a call scam gang in Poipet, Cambodia, and smuggling people out of Thailand through Mae Sot district of Tak, Pol Maj Gen Theeradet said. The third suspect was identified as Zhang Hongxiang. He was arrested at the Sermsub Building yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday that six Thais -- four women and two men -- and four Chinese men were arrested during operations against a Chinese-run investment scam gang in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Prachin Buri, Sa Kaeo, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon and Samut Songkhram that began last week and continued into Monday.
The arrested suspects were identified as Atchara, 27, Porntip, 44, Nopawit, 31, Chonlathee, 21, Pantharee, 26, Supawadee, 39, Gao, 35, Xiong, 30, Mao, 46 and Zhou, 44.
They were charged with public fraud, computer crime, money laundering and illegal assembly.
CIB commissioner Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej said yesterday they were among 32 suspects in the case. The gang comprised 10 Thai owners of mule accounts, two Chinese call scammers and 20 others who were suspected of money laundering -- 14 Chinese, five Koreans and one Thai.
Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop said the gang lured victims through social media by first offering online work involving clicking "likes". Once they had earned money doing that, they were invited to invest with promised returns of 30-50%. Upon signing up, they received the returns for a short time and then heard nothing more. Police said the gang had Thai proxies set up about 10 front companies to own the properties.
