CHIANG MAI - Fifteen members of a foreign call centre scam gang, mainly Malaysian, have been been arrested in San Sai district.
They were allegedly using this northern province as a base to deceive their compatriots into transferring money to them.
The suspects - 10 Malaysian men, four Malaysian women and a Vietnamese woman - have been charged with swindling and working illegally.
They were detained during a police search of a rented house at Kluaymai housing estate in tambon San Sai Noi and taken to a media briefing on Wednesday.
Chin Kiat Yong, 30, a Malaysian national, is the leader, according to police.
Police seized 18 telephones, four internet phone connections, documents detailing names and phone numbers of victims, and a copy of a house rental contract.
Provincial Police Region 5 commander Thanitsak Theerasawat said the raid followed a complaint that a group of foreigners had rented a house at the housing estate and were acting suspiciously.
Police obtained a court warrant to search the house and discovered it was being used as call centre to swindle money from people.
Mr Chin, who can speak Thai, confessed to having run the call centre from the house, said Pol Lt Gen Thanitsak.
The gang members had pretended to be Malaysian bank officials and contacted potential victims, mostly Malaysian nationals, by phone and lied to them that there was a problem with their credit cards. The swindlers convinced their victims to transfer money to them.
Over the past two weeks, the gang had swindled 500,000 ringgit (about 4.3 million baht) from their victims, the Region 5 police chief said.
Police also found 7 speed pills in the gang leader's possession. He faces an additional drug charge.
All suspects were handed over to San Sai police station for legal processing.
Some of the15 members of the call centre scam gang were found contacting potential victims over the phone when police entered their rented house in Chiang Mai's San Sai district. (Photo by Cheewin Sattha)
