3 arrested in Taiwanese call centre scam in Chonburi

BANGKOK, Jan 19 -- Thailand's Tourist Police Division arrested three Taiwanese nationals involved in operating a call centre scam syndicate perpetrating their crimes on residents of Taiwan and mainland China.

The three suspects--identified as Chen Jui Lin, Kuo Yu Heng and Yen Yi Chun--were arrested at an apartment in the eastern province of Chonburi’s Bang Lamung distric, southeast of the Thai capital.

The arrest came after a victim informed police that the syndicate had deceived him to transfer Bt500,000 via an automated teller machine (ATM) to them.

The police tracked down and arrested the suspects, seizing five ATM cards, 56 bank passbooks, 10 mobile phones and ATM slips with total transactions of Bt3 million.

According to the Tourist Police Division, the gang had appllied similar methods, making phone calls from Thailand to deceive Chinese and Taiwanese to transfer funds to the gang-operated using various devious methods including tax refunds, credit card debt and the theoretical award of travel bonuses.

The suspects would then withdraw money and transfer the cash to ringleaders in China. They would also hire Thais to open bank accounts to wait for the money transfer from victims.

In another case, the Immigration Bureau arrested a German who had escaped an arrest warrant for embezzlement and money launding in Germany.

Masimo Christian Kappes, 43, was arrested under an outstanding arrest warrant issued in Heidelberg, Germany.

The German embassy in Thailand notified the Immigration Bureau to arrest Mr Kappes who was accused of involvement in 72 cases of embezzlement and 15 cases of attempted embezzlement with Bt4 million in losses.

According to the authorities, Mr Kappes came to Thailand and opened shops to sell various products via the Internet including mobile phones, cars, English Premier League football match tickets, and other products.

When the customers made the payment, he would not send the products to them as promised.

In another case, police arrested a former American lawyer who had worked in the United States using his position to deceive other Americans.

Jan Morton Heger, 68, was arrested at his home in Bangkok's Sukhumvit area after the Thai authorities received a request from the US authorities.

According to police, Mr Heger, who has outstanding arrest warrant from California court, exploited his career of a well-known lawyer to deceive his fellow nationals that he could lobby the banks in the US to give loan to the victims for their investment.

There were 15 victims that were defrauded and lost money totalling Bt60 million. He flew to Thailand in 2007 before the California courts issued an arrest warrant and withdrew his US passport.

He was initially to be charged for overstaying in Thailand. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2011-01-19

Geeezzzz It's no wonder Thai visa and Immigration laws are getting tougher every day. I hate losers like this who make it harder for a law biding expat to stay here.

When I came here 10 years ago it seemed that farangs were at least half welcomed and looked upon like we were at least respectable people whether they were looking at out wallet or not but NOW we are going to be looked upon as complete criminals if all this keeps up.

Yeap, no shortage of foreigners pulling off scams in Thailand....and of course there is no shortage of Thai's pulling off scams in Thailand. Yeap, no shortage of scammers regardless of the nationality.

Three (3) foreigners and not Farangs nice change.

Three (3) foreigners and not Farangs nice change.

It's cause they were Asian and not White/European. Farang is a word reserved for mostly White, Anglo-Saxon.

Edited January 20, 201115 yr by Jayman

softgeorge, on 2011-01-19 21:45, said:

Three (3) foreigners and not Farangs nice change.

It's cause they were Asian and not White/European. Farang is a word reserved for mostly White, Anglo-Saxon.

I believe that was the point softgeorge was making.