Authorities have nabbed 44 suspects in a crackdown on a transnational criminal syndicate that has been using Thailand as its base in an alleged call-centre scam.
Thousands of victims, including Chinese and Thai nationals, in many countries encountered damages worth more than 100 million baht, according to immigration police.
Among the suspects, 19 are from mainland China and 25 from Taiwan, but investigators believe there are Thais working for the gang who help find areas to carry out the scam, provide them with electronic equipment facilities, and offer to open bank accounts for them, Immigration Bureau chief Nathathorn Prousoontorn said Sunday.
"At least five Thais may be involved," Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn said.
His bureau is in the process of withdrawing the suspects' permission to stay in Thailand, which was granted to them when they entered the country as tourists, as they are a threat to the country.
This is the fastest way to send them out of the country, but if the officers receive complaints over their alleged wrongdoing, they will also be charged under Thai law, Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn said.
The crackdown against the gang, described by the bureau chief as a "large criminal network" from the city of Chongqing in southwestern China, follows successful raids on the gang's hideouts in various areas under a joint investigation by Thai and Chinese police.
The places they carried out the scam included Bangkok and provinces adjacent to the capital as well as Pattaya in Chon Buri.
An initial investigation found the suspects used different places as their workstations and were equipped with facilities used by authentic call centres to cut noise disturbance. Police raids found mobile phones and modem routers at the workstations as well as scripts for dialogues used to con people whose phone numbers were obtained from banks.
The aim was to make international calls to victims via Voice Over Internet Protocol (Voip) to alert them to fabricated problems, exploiting their fears to draw money from them, Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn said.
In one of the tricks used, the caller pretended to be a bank staff telling the victim he or she was accidentally involved in a crime and will have their assets seized. The caller also told the victim to call their cohorts who played the role of anti-money laundering officers to make their lie sound credible.
Alarmed victims who fell for the trick ended up transferring money to the gang, which was then wired to their accomplices in another country to avoid being easily checked by authorities.
"This makes it difficult for police to make arrests as it concerns many countries," Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn said, adding this gang has built a network in six countries.
To make it more difficult to track them down, the suspects in Thailand were also found to have stored food in their houses to avoid going out frequently as that might make them noticeable, he said.
The latest arrests are part of a series of crackdowns by the bureau on call-centre gangs.