Police in Thailand seized $87 million from an international network that used contact centers to scam elderly Americans into sending money.
On Wednesday, Thai authorities announced they had broken up an international network that used contact centers to scam elderly Americans out of more than 3 billion baht ($87 million).
On Tuesday, police raided nine sites across four regions in Thailand, confiscating 162 bank accounts, 61 mobile phones, two vehicles, one pistol, and numerous real estate assets and arresting 21 suspects. On Wednesday, a second suspect from Thailand was apprehended. U.S. operatives participated in the operations.
Five Indians and 15 Thais have been arrested and charged with international crime, impersonation fraud, people fraud, introducing malicious code into computer systems, and money laundering and money laundering conspiracy.
Police say the fraudsters pretended to be law enforcement officials conducting investigations into money trafficking and convinced their victims to move their money to them so that it could be confirmed. In addition to this standard ploy, the suspects allegedly broke into the laptops of some of the victims.
Police said the casualties, who were primarily senior, included medical professionals, academics, soldiers, and people in business.
To trace the gang’s money, covert agents visited gold stores, eateries, and nightclubs in the Chonburi region, located about 125 kilometers (78 miles) southeast of Bangkok. This region has long been suspected of being a haven for international criminals.
Thai, Cambodian, Singaporean, Malaysian, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Peruvian, and Polish properties were allegedly controlled by an Indian crime gang.
FBI and American officials. After identical crimes were discovered to have caused over $3 billion in losses in about 72,000 instances in 2020-2021, Secret Service officers notified Thai police of the gang’s activities, the police said.
