Phuket Raid Nets 40 Foreigners

[Jaggg88]

Mentioned somewhere back in this thread that the UK is a big target.

How does anyone with a Chinese mother tongue manage to scam the Brits? Must be even more stupid than I thought, or are these highly educated Chinese/Taiwanese with well-honed English - I suspect not, lets go with the even more stupid hypothesis!

[signed, a Brit]

All large UK companies use foreign call centres - it's now unusual to speak to anyone English. I am in Manchester at the mo and every shop I go in is staffed by foreigners and 20% of customers are too but that's no excuse for greed which is how boiler rooms work. Just like my Nigerian friend who keeps wanting to put £45 million in my bank account so we can share when he gets to the UK, all I have to do is send my bank details

[george]

Update:

Chinese scam gang banged up in Phuket

Phuket police raided a luxury home in Phuket and

arrested 40 Chinese and Taiwanese nationals who

were believed to be part of an elaborate international

scamming operation.

Some of the items seized in the raid led by Phuket police.

PHUKET: -- Police yesterday arrested 40 Chinese and Taiwanese nationals in Phuket who were believed to be involved in an international extortion and money-laundering scam.

More than 70 police officers from Phuket and Bangkok raided six homes in Bang Tao, Kathu and Phuket City after following the gang for several months on a trail that began in Chiang Mai.

One of the houses raided was a mansion in upmarket Bang Tao, which the gang was using as its headquarters.

Police said the gang rented the house, which came complete with its own swimming pool, for 100,000 baht per month.

Inside the house, police found hardware connected to databases filled with personal information on consumers in China and Taiwan.

A police spokesperson said the consumers’ information was divided into categories of income and location.

The scammers used that information to contact their victims and trick them using a variety of pre-scripted scenarios, pretending to be officials such as bank workers, police officers or debt collectors.

The scammers would then convince the victims to go to banks or ATMs and trick them into revealing account details so money could be taken from their accounts or persuade the victims to transfer funds.

The money would then be withdrawn in Thailand. The scammers used the China Unionpay banking network to access the money and Smart Billing software to track the money transfers in real time.

The phone systems the gangs used disguised the fact they were calling from Thailand and appeared to the victims to be local calls.

Deputy CIB chief, Police Major General Panya Mamen said the gang was believed to have scammed more than Bt1 billion from its victims.

He said the gang used the vast profits from its Thailand operation to purchase bars and properties, using Thai nationals as front men, and large amounts of money had been moved between Thailand, Shanghai, Taiwan and the Chengdu islands.

Police found 79 VoIP telephones, 41 VoIP modems, 65 mobile phones, 12 laptops, 31 passports and 200,000 baht in cash as well as two grams of crystal meth (ice) during the raids.

Rubber stamps similar to those used by Chinese government agencies were also discovered during the raid on the luxury Phuket residence.

Police believe the stamps were used by the scammers to create fake documents to carry out their scams.

Bangkok Tourist Police Commander, Adit Knamjitsuksri, Phuket Police Commander Pikad Tantipong and the Deputy Police Commander of the Central Investigation Bureau Panya Mamen personally led yesterday's raids.

Commander Panya said the gang had been operating in Thailand for some time.

He said police initially planned to arrest the gang last year when they were working out of Chiang Mai.

However, after the gang was tipped off that police were closing in, the gang members fled to Bangkok, and then to Pattaya, before ending up in Phuket.

Those arrested in Phuket were taken to Cherng Talay, Kamala and Phuket City police stations and will be held until a court hearing in about a month’s time.

Police said the 40 gang members were mostly young adults and included 30 men and ten women. They have been charged with extortion and working without work permits.

Maj Gen Panya said further charges of swindling and forgery were likely to be laid when investigations were complete.

Commander Adit said this was an issue of national security and asked the public to be vigilant and contact the police if they knew of houses occupied by large groups of people who are obviously not tourists or residents.

He also emphasized that landlords can be arrested and charged if they allow their property to be used for criminal activity or if they fail to notify authorities of foreign tenants.

-- Phuket Gazette 2009-08-08

[slim]

Thailand is probably a very good place to do these sort of scams. I can see my wife being taken in very easily by these things, she's always buying stuff from people who say it's a great cure for <insert ailment here>. Look at the Brands product! would that sell anywhere else?? (ok, maybe China)

I agree my GF is a sucker for anything with a discount - she doesn't look at the price only the discount.

Couldn't agree more. Where we live in Khon Kaen one of the local department stores has a "sale" at the University every 3-4 months "80-90% off" - my wife has finally understood that this is a scam - the stuffs more expensive than in store yet the place is always mobbed out.

The Thai's seem particularly vulnerable to rackets like this.

[Sheps99]

What greedy idiots are you talking about?

Don't get you mate...............this wasn't a boiler room scam and the victims had no possible way to gain.

These people were in debt and threatened to pay up........then conned into making payment into accounts set up by the villans.

When at Chiang Mai Immigration one day I happened to notice a lorry leaving with about 4 tons of waste paper which of course is a bonus for the staff. But have you ever thought where does it go? That has yours, mine bank account details and print outs of how much money we have in our accounts plus our account numbers etc. So it must be quite easy to find out about peoples account details. Think about it.

[asiawatcher]

What did they do???

Ever heard of Boiler Rooms - selling shares that don't exist? Ever hear of mums and dad's who lose their life savings? Thailand is rife with these operations. Usual scam is to tout a top known share that has a market price of $100 at a one only price of $35 but minimum quantity is USD100,000 investment. Story is owner is in deep kuk and needs cash fast - don't miss the opportunity. So the greed factor kicks in, sucker's funds are transferred and boom - no money is ever seen and shares certificates never arrive (of course).

And it is not just Taiwanese - mainly Brits/Irish (about 80%), Aussies and Yanks.

You appear to be extremely knowledgable about boiler rooms. Sounds like you've worked in one yourself.

No - I have taken some down! - in conjunction with certain Thai authorities.

[David Barker]

what did they do

What did they do???

Ever heard of Boiler Rooms - selling shares that don't exist? Ever hear of mums and dad's who lose their life savings? Thailand is rife with these operations. Usual scam is to tout a top known share that has a market price of $100 at a one only price of $35 but minimum quantity is USD100,000 investment. Story is owner is in deep kuk and needs cash fast - don't miss the opportunity. So the greed factor kicks in, sucker's funds are transferred and boom - no money is ever seen and shares certificates never arrive (of course).

And it is not just Taiwanese - mainly Brits/Irish (about 80%), Aussies and Yanks.

I thought most Boiler rooms where in Spain, Barcelona used to have at least 40 that I know of. Most of them run by Americans, Brits or Pakistanis but normally stafed by Brits some of who as closers are taking home 30k a month. With that sort of money its all got to be a racket

[risky11]

Yes when the headline read "foreigners" i said to myself "o my budda"but then chinese, as you say not so newsworthy

A Chinese national is just as foreign as a British national. I found the story interesting and encouraging. Good job Thai police! This type of crackdown is always welcome.

Since this is truly grand theft, I hope they are all sentenced to 10-20 years hard labor in Thailand before being deported. Need to send a massage to other would be scamsters that "it's not worth the risk" - same as smuggling dope.

[tracer0]

I wonder if the victims were Thais?

From all the stories I've read and certain "boiler room workers" I'd run into in various bars, most of the places that employ farang involve the stock investing schemes, the scammers like to call themselves "investment advisors", and they call victims outside of Thailand. I suspect the reason they work out of Thailand is because Thailand doesn't really enforce well and usually don't give a crap....don't screw with Thais, and they pretty much ignore it, unless foreign press or overseas police pressure them.

Also, with so many deadbeat foreigners wanting to stay in Thailand once their cash runs short, it seems quite a few of the self-descibed "expats" who "work in thailand" with "high paying jobs" are involved with some scam like boiler rooms, the "legal scam" of timeshare sales, the totally unregulated "financial advisers" running around in pubs and bars yakking up drunk Westerners, and the business of charging up credit cards back in farang-land to support their life in Thailand...yes, you hear a lot when people are drunk, and that includes drunk con artists.

"farang cannot drink too mut...they crazy"....a drunk bargirl who drank 12 tequila shots and was talking about how her thai "brother" could drink 2 bottles of mekong and hold his liquor better than any punter.

I think that about 7-8 years ago we had a group of them working in Phuket Patong. Not sure what happened but they had expensive telephone lines for computers and seemingly all disappeared overnight.

A friend of mine who owns a Bar in the Philipines lived in the same area and was surprised about all the cables used. I knew one guy out of that period who ended up leaving very quick when he figured out that a famous politician

was involved with the schemes and no, I forgot the name (g).

Whatever, anyone calls you, doesn't mean they call via telephone. Could be internet...

And just assume that anyone wants money could be a crook.

[tracer0]

Mentioned somewhere back in this thread that the UK is a big target.

How does anyone with a Chinese mother tongue manage to scam the Brits? Must be even more stupid than I thought, or are these highly educated Chinese/Taiwanese with well-honed English - I suspect not, lets go with the even more stupid hypothesis!

[signed, a Brit]

Well, I had one time contact with a Nigerian who tried to cheat me... Once we spoke on the telephone (he called) and his English was like he had been to a very good school/university in England.. You had now way of telling it was a foreigner...

[Jimjim]

There are a lot of slimy people doing this kind of thing in Thailand for English speaking countries. Americans, British, Australians, Filipinos. Some of them making quite fantastic money too. One of the American ringleaders of a certain setup was kidnapped and ransomed a year or two back, remember reading in the news. Probably by others in the same business. These people have no morals but they'll argue that at least they're rich.

[LivinginKata]

A number of flippant posts have been removed.

Please keep you posts relevant and on-topic, thank you.

[fred007]

And the scammers just keep on coming .....................

[thaimate]

I never send money to these schemes,especially as there are so many Nigerians that want me to help them get money out of the country

[flyx]

I did investment 1million baht in a real state company where else of the world

now after 1 year, i want go to court and complaint their company

you must trust sometimes and life is risk

i always open my eyes but if you want progress highly you will need to trust

Edited August 9, 2009 by flyx

[backsoon]

what did they do

Swindling, swindlers. Phoning people who did not pay their debts and convince them to pay to them instead. I do not see the Thai authorities punishing them, after a few months they will be send home, because it will be impossible for the Thai authorities to prove that they have swindled people out of their money, unless Thai Nationals were involved of course. Not too good for those with a Chinese passport. We have seen it with the Boiler room operations in Bangkok a few years ago, there is not so much that can be done if non Thai citizens or banks have lost money.

Let me see... 60,000Bt fine, or 2 months in jail, or both? Not bad for $29M pickings.

As long as you are not involved in drugs or lesse mageste,- crime pays in LOS.

Besides, I am sure the people they rounded were not the cookie jar holders.

[banff]

what did they do

What did they do???

Ever heard of Boiler Rooms - selling shares that don't exist? Ever hear of mums and dad's who lose their life savings? Thailand is rife with these operations. Usual scam is to tout a top known share that has a market price of $100 at a one only price of $35 but minimum quantity is USD100,000 investment. Story is owner is in deep kuk and needs cash fast - don't miss the opportunity. So the greed factor kicks in, sucker's funds are transferred and boom - no money is ever seen and shares certificates never arrive (of course).

And it is not just Taiwanese - mainly Brits/Irish (about 80%), Aussies and Yanks.

I doubt there is any Taiwanese involvement they usually have a virtual office in another country (in this case probably) Tiawan.

The people involved are probably all from Western countries

[Time Traveller]

Must be another 'NoNews' day, methinks.

Also thought 'foreigners = farang = Us Lot from Back West'...... a more explicit headlines e.g. Taiwanese/Chinese Billion Baht Scam would have been more (less interesting) informative....

I think if you check again, in Thailand, Taiwanese and Chinese people ARE foreigners.

[Time Traveller]

I thought that these scams had more or less been driven out of Thailand, boiler rooms especially after the Australian governement put huge pressure on Thai Government to do something about it (it was affecting so many people).

I was going to say something sarcastic like of course crime doesn't happen in Thailand anymore, but I realised this was a genuine post.

Actually the boiler room scam is still operating in Thailand, the only difference is that it has gone semi legal. That is, they present actual products they sell, but gouge investors with ridiculously high fees and penalties for withdrawing funds. Another scam that I know of is a "financial company" that is promoting themselves among foreigners in Thailand is a "managed futures fund". The concept is they get an investor to invest usually min. 10 or 20K USD to trade oil futures. The investors sign a power of attorney to the "trader/fund manager" (who is usually someone with no educational qualifications or previous experience) so that the trader will have control of their account, which is located outside of thailand. The trader then makes his money from the commissions the investor pays whenever the trader trades the funds (belonging to the investor).

The scam is the conflict of interest. That is, the incentive is not to make money for the investor, but merely do as many trades in the investors account as possible. Typically the investor will pay about $40 for each traded contract (40 to open the position then another 40 to close it again)of which half goes directly to that company, another quarter will go to the person who is the "account manager" and the remaining is actually the real commission paid to the real licensed cfd broker that is located offshore and from what I can tell operating according to the law in that jurisdiction.

I doubt many investors make any money - I suspect mostly they will lose about half of their money before investors get the option to return the balance of their money to them. Beware such business needs to be licensed by the SEC in thailand. The company I know of is not, so likely if ever they get raided and the organisers flee, I doubt any investors will get their money back.

If in doubt check they are licensed by the SEC in Thailand. The common response by this company is something like their parent company "registered offshore" is licensed in HK or New Zealand or wherever, but that's still illegal as they need to be licensed in Thailand if they are operating in Thailand.

What's more their so called "parent company" has no actual relationship to them other than being the actual broker that they do their trades through.

Edited August 12, 2009 by Time Traveller