Web-based Phone Racket Gang Busted!

Three Thai members of a gang based in China have been arrested for using internet-based telephone services to swindle people throughout Southeast Asia. The gang's victims in Thailand alone have lost about 100 million baht in total, deputy national police chief Gen Wongkot Maneerin said yesterday.

Weerayuth Namjaithong, 20, Sukanya Jaikhan, 17, and Pimporn Sornthanu, 30, were apprehended on Monday and charged with public fraud.

The three confidence tricksters were representing the Chinese gang when they were arrested with the cooperation of Chinese police, he said.

They are among 12 Thai gang members wanted by police who flew in from China recently.

Pol Gen Wongkot said the gang set up a call centre in China and made telephone calls to the victims using the latest Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system.

They claimed they had been assigned to collect debts owed to banks and credit card companies.

They asked their victims, mostly Thais and other Southeast Asian nationals, to transfer the money they owed into accounts with a bank in China.

Pol Gen Wongkot said Chinese police last month raided a building where the call centre was housed and arrested 135 multinational gang members, including 42 Thais.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/02Apr2008_news09.php

They claimed they had been assigned to collect debts owed to banks and credit card companies.