Huge raid nets 166 Chinese nationals using Ubon hotel as base for stock speculation

[webfact]

Huge raid nets 166 Chinese nationals using Ubon hotel as base for stock speculation

 

Picture: Thai Rath

 

A joint raid by many Thai agencies resulted in the arrest of 166 Chinese men and women who were being paid to speculate on stocks in Chinese markets.

 

The raid yesterday by local police, tourist cops, immigration, local bank of Thailand representatives, the Department of Labor and the military was carried out at the Zara Double Tree hotel in Muang district.

 

The Chinese were staying at the hotel but they were not "guests" in the normal sense of the word. They were being paid 15,000 baht a month to engage in stock trading.

 

Most of them had arrived in early April on tourist visas from all over China.

 

They were given mobile phones and had 6-8 sim cards each.

 

They used 119 computers on the ground floor and more upstairs at the hotel to constantly be online - even while having their lunch and dinner.

 

Not surprisingly this aroused the suspicions of locals who called in the authorities.

 

They were staying three or four to a room on the second and third floors of the three story building.

 

Manager Natthapong Somjai, 38, was arrested and fined under the ordinance that requires guests to be registered every 24 hours.

 

Fines totaling 265,000 baht or 1,600 baht per person are being paid before the stock traders will be repatriated back to China, reported Thai Rath.

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-05-10

[colinneil]

Wow this was done without the involvement of that big joke... big joke, amazing as i thought he was the only one catching crooks here now.

Ohh silly me he was busy chastising a young flower seller.

[meatboy]

wow this is unbelievable,this reminds me,i have to do my 90DAY REPORT.

[daoyai]

I don't understand why "stock speculation" must be done from a foreign country, are they buying stocks not listed or outlawed by C.C. P.(igs)?  or avoiding taxes?

[sammieuk1]

Result 166 Chinese boiler room take away.

[Darcula]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

constantly be online - even while having their lunch and dinner

 

Sounds like a lot of hard wok.

 

 

[ExpatOilWorker]

1 hour ago, daoyai said:

I don't understand why "stock speculation" must be done from a foreign country, are they buying stocks not listed or outlawed by C.C. P.(igs)?  or avoiding taxes?

If somebody are paying 166 people 15,000 baht a month + accommodation, hardware and SIM cards, you can be sure it is a money spinning scam. 

Could be something simple as they are registering fake Wechat or Weibo accounts and talk certain penny stocks up (or down), but it is probably more complex than that.

[AsiaHand]

Buying certain stock in China in mass from an outside country(Thailand) ,driving the stock price up then some of them in China sells short just before this groups dumps the stock. Here they would endure ,lets say $1,000,000 while the person in China recoups $50,000,000.It cost for the operation here about $1,050,000. Not a bad weeks work.

[observer90210]

Well in that case 3/4 of all the bankers, wealth asset mangers of the world could be arrested ???!?.....

 

Just another  issue of some scams that are reserved for the locals, so please farangs, don't tred on our mill. Thank you.

[Peterw42]

I cant understand why these guy would need to be physically in Thailand, I know China has internet restrictions but with VPNs etc and they could be virtually in any country. 

 

 

[Lupatria]

It's just the first batch of Ali Baba's 4 million thieves

[BuaBS]

Must be JP Morgan & Goldman Sacks Ubon branch.

[RichardColeman]

Guessing the cue for the bathroom was the giveaway !

 

[asean]

boiler room

[Redline]

Quality tourists no doubt.  Are these zero dollar peeps?

[lkv]

2 minutes ago, Redline said:

Quality tourists no doubt.  Are these zero dollar peeps?

Not at all. Money is flowing into the Thai economy in the form of hotel fees, food consumption and mobile phone usage.

[Redline]

7 minutes ago, lkv said:

Not at all. Money is flowing into the Thai economy in the form of hotel fees, food consumption and mobile phone usage.

True enough.  A little ignorant to conduct such a large operation in Ubon.  Bangkok would have made more sense.

[Sydebolle]

Quality tourists 

[saakura]

4 hours ago, AsiaHand said:

Buying certain stock in China in mass from an outside country(Thailand) ,driving the stock price up then some of them in China sells short just before this groups dumps the stock. Here they would endure ,lets say $1,000,000 while the person in China recoups $50,000,000.It cost for the operation here about $1,050,000. Not a bad weeks work.

I am quite sure that even in China, one would need to have an account with a securities brokerage firm in order to buy & sell stocks online. And to open an account, you need to provide full credentials. So whether you are trading from Shanghai or Udon Thani is irrelevant, they know your identity. There is something else in this scam which we do not quite underdstand.

[Maestro]

Removed an off-topic post.

[Eiva]

My best guess is that these folks were doing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for Chinese sites. Google is blocked in China, but almost all web Advertisement is based on Google engine and servers. 

[Mickmouse1]

????why not?

[ExpatOilWorker]

58 minutes ago, Eiva said:

My best guess is that these folks were doing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for Chinese sites. Google is blocked in China, but almost all web Advertisement is based on Google engine and servers. 

Or an attempt to make China more popular overseas. Could it be related to the Xiaomi IPO, the trade dispute with the US, NK or something else?

[DavidAlexander]

"Pump and dump", first perfected in the US. 

[bluesofa]

23 hours ago, Darcula said:

Sounds like a lot of hard wok.

Just stop stir(-fry)ing things.

 

[mokwit]

On 5/10/2018 at 10:13 AM, daoyai said:

I don't understand why "stock speculation" must be done from a foreign country, are they buying stocks not listed or outlawed by C.C. P.(igs)?  or avoiding taxes?

Looks to me more like a stock manipulation operation.

[mokwit]

2 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Just stop stir(-fry)ing things.

 

"Stir Fry" is the Chinese slang for pump and dump - a great description of the manouvre where they flip it at the top.

[ExpatOilWorker]

15 hours ago, Eiva said:

My best guess is that these folks were doing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for Chinese sites. Google is blocked in China, but almost all web Advertisement is based on Google engine and servers. 

 

Click-fraud.

 

The fraudsters used Thailand because in China only one phone can be linked to a single WeChat account, presumably to prevent click fraud.

 

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/business/2017/06/12/chinese-likes-farmers-arrested-thai-border-town

 

 

[MyFriend You]

On 5/10/2018 at 7:38 AM, ExpatOilWorker said:

If somebody are paying 166 people 15,000 baht a month + accommodation, hardware and SIM cards, you can be sure it is a money spinning scam. 

Could be something simple as they are registering fake Wechat or Weibo accounts and talk certain penny stocks up (or down), but it is probably more complex than that.

I used to work for an American marred to a mainland Chinese - lived in Bangkok - he retired at 36 after making a fortune in the Chinese stock market, somthing to do with K-Mart/WallMart.  He moved to Macau, come to think of it, I haven't seen nor heard of him in a few years.