SAMUT PRAKAN: A Chinese woman and her Thai girlfriend have been arrested at a housing estate in Bang Phli district in connection with romance-investment scams that tricked victims out of 91 million baht.
Zhou Zhou, 29, and Alisa Lamkrathok, a 31-year-old native of Nakhon Ratchasima, were arrested at the Indy 4 housing estate in tambon Bang Kaew on Wednesday, said Pol Maj Gen Theeradet Thumsuthee, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau.
Police also searched their house and found 102 bank passbooks, 70 debit cards, about 1,000 SIM cards, four mobile phones, a laptop computer and a Toyota Yaris car.
According to Pol Maj Gen Theeradet, the gang operated romance scams and then lured victims into investing with them. One victim was lured into investing in a TikTok shop in Singapore but obtained promised returns only for a short time.
The arrested suspects allegedly converted their victims’ money into bitcoin through a well-known digital currency exchange firm in Thailand, police said.
Ms Zhou told police that she recruited people to open mule accounts and digital wallets. Because she cannot speak Thai, she said she persuaded her Thai girlfriend to quit her teaching job and help her recruit people to open mule accounts.
Pol Maj Gen Theeradet said the 102 seized bank passbooks were linked with 132 fraud complaints filed online, representing claimed losses of 91.2 million baht in total.
In the same case, police have also arrested three Thais. Two of them were about to have the third open a bank account at a hotel in Ramkhamhaeng 2 University for the Chinese woman’s gang, the deputy commissioner said.