2 Thai men arrested for scamming Cambodian gangs to make millions of dollars, claiming they were forced to do the scam
Thai police arrested two men who joined a Cambodian fraud group. The two were involved in a case involving more than 10 million Thai baht, and the mastermind of the group was a Chinese national.
The Thaiger reported that two Thai men worked in a fraud group in Poipet, Cambodia, and were suspected of defrauding Thai victims of a total of 12 million Thai baht (about 10.56 million Taiwan dollars). They claimed that they were forced to participate in the fraud by the group. The fraud group is based in Pu Li Casino in Cambodia, and the mastermind is a Chinese national.
Yesterday (5th), the Thai police announced at a press conference in Mueang Thong Thani, Bangkok that they had cracked a fraud case. The group used Cambodian casinos as their base and carried out fraud by impersonating government officials and intimidating victims to remit money.
From July 10 to October 16, 2023, the Thai Internet Police received reports from the public through the anti-fraud platform and began to investigate this hybrid fraud case.
A victim was deceived into investing in cryptocurrencies through a fake romance scam by a member of the scam group on social media. In the end, a total of 147 transfers were made, and funds flowed into 79 dummy accounts, with a total loss of more than 308 million baht (about 9.5 million US dollars).
The police issued arrest warrants for 76 suspects, and 46 have been arrested so far. The investigation found that the fraud group was large in scale, with more than 100 members, and its base was located in the Puri Casino in Poipet, Cambodia.
The group’s common tactics include impersonating government officials, demanding payment of “legal clearance fees”, or deceiving victims to remit money on the grounds of investment. At present, the police have issued arrest warrants for 44 people in the group who are responsible for different roles such as liaison, lobbying and money flow fraud, and are continuing to make related arrests.
Recently, Thai police arrested two key suspects in Phuket and Chiang Mai respectively. 37-year-old Somsak was arrested in Phuket on September 27, 2024 on an arrest warrant, and 20-year-old Waramet was arrested in Chiang Mai on August 7, 2024.
Both face charges of organized crime, fraud and money laundering.
Waramet testified that he originally worked legally in Cambodia, but was later forced to join the fraud group, receiving a monthly salary of 25,000 baht (about US$770) and enjoying a 3.5% commission. If he did not receive a fixed salary, the commission could even be increased to 6.5%.
Waramet revealed that he was later responsible for pretending to be a policeman to intimidate victims to remit money, and said that if they did not cooperate, they would be threatened with violence. He had witnessed others being beaten for disobeying.
Songsa also said that he originally pretended to be a police lieutenant to participate in the fraud, but later fled the casino, but was arrested by the Cambodian police and deported to Thailand after being imprisoned for 14 days.
The Thai police are still continuing to track down this transnational fraud group and actively arresting the suspects who are still at large.
