A Ukrainian man was arrested Tuesday on charges of using fake electronic cards to steal at least 1 million baht from Siam Commercial Bank ATMs.
Crime Suppression Division police apprehended Ruslan Lazariev, 37, at an ATM outside a 7-Eleven convenient store on Phaholyothin Soi 26 in the Chatuchak area of Bangkok, seizing 48 forged electronic cards, two notebooks full of ATM personal-identification numbers, 200,000 baht in cash, a laptop computer and a mobile phone.
CSD commander Pol Col Akkaradej Pimolsri alleged Mr Lazariev had used counterfeit cards containing stolen bank account information of people in the US and Europe to take out about a million baht from SCB machines at various locations in Bangkok since Saturday. The arrest came after SCB staff alerted police to the theft.
The suspect reportedly confessed that he and two Ukrainian friends entered Thailand on Sept 5, took out money from many local ATMs and planned to flee the kingdom by the end of the month but were caught by police.
Police are checking if the Ukrainian had stolen money from ATMs owned by other banks and trying to locate the two accomplices.