Call center crackdown - members of public start to get their money back!

[rooster59]

Call center crackdown - members of public start to get their money back!

 

Images: Daily News

 

Members of the public who have been victims of call center con men have started to get their money back.

 

Yesterday top brass cops were pictured handing over some large checks to the first recipients of money recovered by Thailand's police.

 

The call to get tough on the call center gangs - some preying on Thais but many using Thailand as a base to rip off people abroad - has come from the top levels of government.

 

Yesterday special forces chief Thanitsak Thirasawat was joined by metropolitan commissioner Charnthep Sisawej and tourist police deputy commissioner Surachet Hakpal in announcing the sixth successful operation.

 

So far there have been a total of 98 arrests and 120 million baht has been recovered.

 

Then came the checks - one person in disguise got 990,000 baht another 459,000.

 

A 75 year old woman from the Ratanathibet area of Nonthaburi got 64,000 baht. Daily News reported that she had been told that a package had arrived containing drugs.

 

She was persuaded to transfer money to one of the gangs even though she was innocent. 

 

Police have noted that calls to a hotline number, 1171, have now slowed as the crackdown bites.

 

 

 

Source: Daily News

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-12-23

[jaywalker]

10 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Police have noted that calls to a hotline number, 1171, have now slowed as the crackdown bites.

Thank God for crackdowns.

[ezzra]

As long as the police  treats all those call centers criminals

who prey on the gullible and the unsuspecting with only fines

and slap on the wrist, they will continue to operate and cheat

and scam people....

[Get Real]

That´s actually a really good thing.

[jaywalker]

Just now, Get Real said:

That´s actually a really good thing.

Except that it's a "Crackdown" instead of being enforced 365 days a year.

 

You're right though, at least it's something.

[canuckamuck]

They did it for the photo op, especially the one with Michael Jackson.

Any time the police actually do their job it makes the news.

[ChrisY1]

My bet would be that the BKK boiler room farangs don't ever get nabbed!

[Cadbury]

Doubtless there was some element of "reward" for the recovery of this embezzled money.

[bluesofa]

2 hours ago, jaywalker said:

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Police have noted that calls to a hotline number, 1171, have now slowed as the crackdown bites.

 

That's more than likely because they can't be arsed to answer the phones.

In my neck of the woods, call the police and they don't bother answering after 11pm.

[HLover]

Seems all the money recipients have a similar respiratory problem. 

 

According to Wikipedia, the ailment is called " hide my face when reception of monies occur so the parasites do not leech me"

 

I wish them all speedy recovery.

[alfalfa19]

this is fairly impressive. 

[bluesofa]

7 minutes ago, alfalfa19 said:

this is fairly impressive. 

Perhaps.

 

"The call to get tough on the call center gangs.......has come from the top levels of government."

So the government told the police to do the job they're getting paid for anyway.

 

"So far there have been a total of 98 arrests and 120 million baht has been recovered."

In the report (don't know how accurate it is) the recipients featured received 1.5 million Baht in repayments.

I do hope there are others who have/will receive their cash back.

 

In the meantime, it's just so easy to be cynical (only from bitter experience) that

A) it's a chance for the government/police to earn some money,

a publicity opportunity for the police.

[Nowisee]

2 hours ago, Get Real said:

That´s actually a really good thing.

I agree.  Crackdown or not, a step in the right direction.  
Although, public service announcements advising people to NEVER turn over money would do a lot.  

[Bob12345]

1 hour ago, ChrisY1 said:

My bet would be that the BKK boiler room farangs don't ever get nabbed!

They gotten too big and to many people (police officer and the like) depend on the millions coming in monthly. Sure they will be spared in this crackdown.

[bluesofa]

11 minutes ago, Nowisee said:

I agree.  Crackdown or not, a step in the right direction.  
Although, public service announcements advising people to NEVER turn over money would do a lot.  

I'd go with that idea of public service announcements. I don't really know, but I've never noticed anything like that here.

 

Just to compare it with the UK for a moment, as a kid I remember that sort of information being paid for by the government and shown in the regular advert slots, for things like:

Encouraging kids to cross the road safely.

Showing the dangers of allowing young children near the gas stove in the kitchen, how they might grab hold of the handle of a boiling pan of fat and pull it onto themselves.

"Lock it or lose it" a (police?) sponsored campaign to encourage to people to secure their homes and vehicles.

Use of a UV marker to write your postcode on personal items, allowing them to be identified, in the case of stolen items being recovered.

 

Yes some might call it a nanny-state mentality, but here in Thailand I think anything that encourages people to think for themselves and take responsibility is a good idea.

[mikebell]

I'm a cynic where Thai police are concerned. I'm suspicious of victims being paraded in disguise showing the police doing their job.  I reckon some are undercover cops.

[dcsw53]

Are they all wearing masks ? Hopefully to prevent scammers recognising them, not the police !

[alfalfa19]

40 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Perhaps.

 

"The call to get tough on the call center gangs.......has come from the top levels of government."

So the government told the police to do the job they're getting paid for anyway.

 

"So far there have been a total of 98 arrests and 120 million baht has been recovered."

In the report (don't know how accurate it is) the recipients featured received 1.5 million Baht in repayments.

I do hope there are others who have/will receive their cash back.

 

In the meantime, it's just so easy to be cynical (only from bitter experience) that

A) it's a chance for the government/police to earn some money,

a publicity opportunity for the police.

I am a cynical bastard by nature, but once in a while, I like to believe that something good has happened. 

[ebean001]

Woooow, I am impressed. I have never seen a government, etc give back money like this. I am sure it has happened but normally after huge legal fees, etc. This is the best police work i have read about for a long time. Scamming will continue but stopping a large group is simply great!!!!

[bluesofa]

1 minute ago, dcsw53 said:

Are they all wearing masks ? Hopefully to prevent scammers recognising them, not the police !

That's a valid point.

As another fellow cynic mentioned earlier, perhaps they are police and it's all a show.

 

I thought he who must be obeyed told the cops already to stop doing these face-making publicity stunts with suspects (and victims?)

Sorry, that was weeks ago, the PM must be hoping he thinks the population won't remember what he even spouted yesterday.

[12DrinkMore]

1 hour ago, HLover said:

Seems all the money recipients have a similar respiratory problem. 

 

According to Wikipedia, the ailment is called " hide my face when reception of monies occur so the parasites do not leech me"

 

I wish them all speedy recovery.

 

Or, "I was so effin stoopid that I don't want anybody to know how stoopid I really am".

 

[bluesofa]

Just now, 12DrinkMore said:

 

Or, "I was so effin stoopid that I don't want anybody to know how stoopid I really am".

 

That very same thought occurred to me.

[Pattaya28]

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

one person in disguise

Glad that was mentioned. Never would have known 

[lvr181]

5 hours ago, jaywalker said:

Thank God for crackdowns.

Too many crackdowns!

 

Police sitting on their backsides doing very little................................. 

[wavemanwww]

I think those disguised women are the wives of the coppers in the photo!

[bluesofa]

4 minutes ago, wavemanwww said:

I think those disguised women are the wives of the coppers in the photo!

Conspiracy theories abound! More than likely with good reason.

At least if they're the coppers wives, they're keeping it in the family, so to speak.

[sammieuk1]

Photo opportunities to look for watches is now my hobby and well done to the people who got some cash back and the cops who must of agonized at the hand over.

[Lemonltr]

A 75 year old woman sends the money to "the gangs" "in spite of her being innocent".

She didn't believe for a moment that she was sending money to the gangs!  Who were the gangs pretending to be? We are not told  and importantly why would she believe that that some organisation would entrap her?

If this happened to me in my home country I would phone the police if innocent. Why don't they do so here?

Maybe I have hit upon the reason why the "gangs" are choosing to operate in Thailand.

Edited December 23, 2017 by Lemonltr
spelling

[bluesofa]

1 minute ago, sammieuk1 said:

Photo opportunities to look for watches is now my hobby and well done to the people who got some cash back and the cops who must of agonized at the hand over.

Now you've mentioned "cops who must of agonized at the hand over", how do we know it's genuine cash and not fake?

Just a question, of course.

[Jonathan Swift]

6 hours ago, ezzra said:

As long as the police  treats all those call centers criminals

who prey on the gullible and the unsuspecting with only fines

and slap on the wrist, they will continue to operate and cheat

and scam people....

These are international cybercriminals operating outside Thailand for the most part, and you can't stop them. You can catch SOME of the ones operating in Thailand, but it won't stop the operations. It's whack a mole, in every country. Best you can do is try to educate the public