CHONBURI — 15 Chinese nationals who had entered Thailand on tourist visas were arrested as members of a call center scam gang in luxurious mansion in Chonburi Province.
On August 30, Police Lieutenant General Itthipol Itthisarnronchai, Commander of the Immigration Bureau, led Chonburi Immigration Police officers and Nong Prue Police Station officers, armed with a search warrant from Pattaya Provincial Court, to raid a luxurious house in Ban Yai Muk area, Moo 6, Pong Subdistrict, Bang Lamung District, Chonburi Province. The operation aimed to investigate a group of scammers or call center gang.
Upon searching the luxurious two-story mansion situated on over 5 rai (about 2 acres) of land with a surrounding fence and a workspace overlooking a swimming pool, authorities found 15 Chinese nationals from a call center gang.
They were seated in front of computers, chatting to deceive fellow Chinese nationals. The computer screens displayed stock market graphs. The police identified themselves and arrested the group, led by Mr. Hu Xin, age 40. They seized 18 computers, 90 mobile phones, and a customer list of over 1,000 names.
Police Major General Phantana Nutcharat, Deputy Commander of the Immigration Bureau, revealed that the investigation team received information about a suspicious group of Chinese nationals potentially engaging in illegal activities in Thailand.
They had rented a luxurious house for 150,000 baht per month in Pong Subdistrict, Bang Lamung District, Chonburi Province. This group persuaded victims to invest in stocks, with members assigned different roles:
- The first role involved calling Chinese victims and persuading them to download WeChat to recommend good stocks.
- The second role had victims join a new application group called “Work Puls,” where a scammer acted as an admin to advise on stock investments.
- The admin sent daily messages with stock recommendations and had victims install an app for stock trading lessons. The “teachers” recommending stocks were actually members of the same criminal operation.
- Initially, they built trust by allowing victims to receive small rewards (20-100 yuan) through Alipay.
- After establishing trust, they encouraged larger investments and then scammed the victims out of their money.
Hu, the gang leader, claimed they had only set up their operation three days prior. The amount of money involved is still under investigation but is estimated to be in the tens to hundreds of millions of baht. All arrested Chinese nationals had entered Thailand on tourist visas. The police will continue to investigate and expand their operation to uncover more of this network.
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