Thai immigration officers arrested 14 people suspected of involvement in an online gambling and call centre scam network at three rented houses in Bangkok’s Sai Mai district today, October 22. The suspects comprised 10 Chinese nationals, three Myanmar nationals and one Thai national.
Police said the operation followed information provided by a 25 year old Chinese man, Liu, who reportedly escaped from the group and approached officers with evidence of its activities.
Liu told investigators he left after learning that the network planned to relocate to Cambodia amid increased enforcement against criminal operations in Thailand.
Police identified the group as Hong Kuan and said it operated an online gambling website called HGA alongside a call centre scam operation.
Liu alleged that he had been recruited to work in Thailand through a job offer promising a monthly salary of up to 80,000 baht. After arriving, however, he was allegedly forced to target Chinese nationals with scams involving supposed missions or tasks.
According to Liu, victims were pressured into transferring increasingly large amounts of money before contact with them was cut off. He also said he and other workers were required to maintain the gambling website’s back-end systems in 12 hour shifts under close supervision.
Police said the three rented houses were used as both accommodation and offices, with combined monthly rent reportedly reaching 80,000 baht. Officers estimated the properties’ value at more than 40 million baht.
During the raids, officers seized more than 200 items, including 58 mobile phones, 10 computers and more than 100 foreign SIM cards.
According to KomChadLuek, five of the 14 suspects were found to have overstayed their visas, while others were staying in Thailand on student visas. An investigation would be conducted whether education centres or schools had supplied documents used to support the group’s immigration status.
Two Chinese nationals were identified as key figures under investigation. One, named Fu, was reportedly wanted in China over alleged involvement in illegal online gambling.
The other, Han, was reportedly wanted under a Thai arrest warrant for a drug-related offence and had allegedly overstayed his permission to remain in Thailand by more than 1,200 days, or over three years.
Both men denied playing leading roles in the network during initial questioning.
Investigators estimated that more than 100 million baht had circulated through the operation. They planned to examine electronic evidence and financial transactions, as well as determine whether the landlords had complied with legal requirements to report foreign tenants.
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