Operation Demolish Criminal Bridges: Thai Police Seize Large-scale SIM Boxes

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Police General Kittirat Panpetch, the incoming National Police Chief and Director of the Technological Crime Suppression Center, leads a press conference on October 11, 2024, announcing the result of the large-scale operation against call center gangs "Operation Demolish Criminal Bridges."

BANGKOK —  Police officials have named their latest large-scale operation against call center gangs “Operation Demolish Criminal Bridges.” The goal is to cut off connection routes between criminals and the public, including phone signals, internet signals, ghost SIMs, money mule accounts, SMS, and social media platforms.

The Technological Crime Suppression Center believes that by cutting off these routes, scammers operating from neighboring countries will be unable to contact or deceive Thai people without SIM boxes or individuals helping to register SIM cards for criminals, or registration systems that facilitate anonymous registration by criminals.

Police General Kittirat Panpetch, the incoming National Police Chief and Director of the Technological Crime Suppression Center, led a press conference on October 11th. He stated that this operation took place from October 1-10, mobilizing police nationwide and receiving data support from the NBTC and network providers.

 

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They searched 647 SIM box locations and small retailers across the country that sell and register SIM cards for criminals. The aim was to gather evidence, issue arrest warrants, and prosecute those who register SIMs for criminals.

So far, police have arrested and charged over 20 shops caught in the act. They seized evidence including 101,068 Thai SIM cards, 113 SIM box devices, 575 mobile phones, 23 computers, and documents such as copies of ID cards, passports, and work permits of foreigners used for phone number registration. These are crucial evidence for issuing arrest warrants for those involved and bringing them to justice.

Police General Kittirat said that the nationwide search of targeted SIM boxes revealed two gaps in the registration process:

(1) Criminals still hold large numbers of SIMs registered before the NBTC’s announcement limiting SIM ownership to 5 per person.

(2) The online SIM registration system cannot detect incorrect registrations, such as uploading photos that aren’t of the actual person or entering any text as a name. The Technological Crime Suppression Center will urgently discuss this with the NBTC and network providers to address these issues.

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Police seize over 100,000 SIM cards.

Going forward, the Technological Crime Suppression Center will investigate phone numbers reported through the Thai Police Online system as being used by scammers to determine which SIM boxes registered them for call center gangs. They will take strict legal action.

“We warn all SIM box shops registering for scammer call centers, SIM card sellers, or anyone involved that this is equivalent to helping foreign scammer groups, supported by some Thai people, to deceive and steal assets from Thai people and send them abroad. Besides being unpatriotic, they will lose their freedom, be cut off from their families, and permanently lose their careers and businesses,” Police General Kittirat said.

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On October 9, Police Lieutenant General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot led a press conference announcing scam equipment seizure, which was part of “Operation Demolish Criminal Bridges.”

The police arrested two suspects: a 68-year-old Thai man named Theeraphat and a 33-year-old Chinese man named Chen. They seized over ten thousand registered SIM cards and a large number of SimBoxes. The equipment found would have allowed criminals to make outgoing calls from approximately 3,000 numbers at a time.

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