A 39-year-old Singaporean man linked to dozens of high-profile hacking cases in Thailand and other countries has been arrested in Bangkok, police said on Thursday.
The arrest resulted from collaboration between the Singapore and Thai police forces, said Pol Maj Gen Atip Phongsiwaphai, chief of the Technology Crime Suppression Division.
The investigation began after a company informed Thai police that it had received a threat from an X account, 0mid16B Group, to pay a sum of money; otherwise, their customers’ personal data would be revealed which could cause huge damage to the business, Pol Maj Gen Atip said on Thursday.
After investigators contacted the Singapore Police Force, it was found that the account was a well-known hacker, aka Desorden GhostR, who had caused significant data breaches of companies in many countries since 2020.
Police tracking the X account found that the suspect lived in a house in Ramkhamhaeng district of Bangkok. Police arrested him there and seized a luxury car, branded bags and electronic devices used for hacking, worth over 10 million baht.
The suspect, identified only as Chingwei, admitted to hacking database systems of 20 companies in Thailand and over 50 in other countries, according to police. One of the cases in Thailand involved the Black Canyon restaurant chain in 2024.
Police said the suspect told them he earned money from selling the stolen data via an online platform on the dark web, where transactions take place in cryptocurrency. The minimum price was $10,000, he said. The sellers and buyers were anonymous to each other, making it hard to track their identities.
The suspect told police he acted alone, targeting big companies and avoiding government agencies.
