Fake Call Centre In Bangkok Stormed, Foreigners Arrested

[webfact]

Fake call centre stormed, foreigners arrested
By English News

BANGKOK, April 4 – Thai authorities arrested operators of a shady call centre when police raided an office in Thonglor on Wednesday.

Police and Department of Special Investigation (DSI) officers broke into the offices of the Capital Consultant Management company on the 17th floor of United Tower. The director, identified as Rofolo Andre Salgado, was at large.

Songsak Raksaksakul, director of the DSI Bureau of Foreign Affairs and Transnational Crime, said the company was launched over two years ago as a front for an illegal call centre.

Many Europeans have been scammed by the gang which police said promoted fake investments in the petroleum business through the call centre.

Police said there were nine foreigners and several Thai nationals in the racket. The nine non-Thai suspects were from Canada, the UK, the US and Latvia.

Police said the group convinced Europeans to make investments and after a transaction was made by the interested investors, the scammers withdrew the money and immediately closed the account.

Police said the group has cheated the victims of hundreds of million baht. The authorities seized documents and computers for further investigation.

The non-Thai suspects were charged with illegal entry. Police said charges will be pressed against them after complaints are lodged by the victims. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2013-04-04

[mrtoad]

That's the second bust in a week - good job, but would be better to see the real King Pins nailed.

[Markaew]

Apparently, they have known about these numerous foreign offenders for some time and ignored them until now. If I was a foreigner doing something illegal here I would be pretty nervous now.

[A_Traveller]

One things puzzles me though, in this report and the ATM one today there is mention of a charge of "illegal entry".

Anyone know what this really is, are they suggesting the foreigners all arrived on fake passports? Or that they failed to enter Criminal Activity on their entry cards?

[chainarong]

With the International business community forming their own fraude investigation office , this in its self sends out a strong message to International business to stay away and the crimes to come on down, you can get anything you want in Thailand,if you pay the price , they've been operating as capital Consulting, a front for two years , now do I smell something or is it just me.

[seminomadic]

So THIS is why the EU's going bankrupt

Edited April 4, 2013 by seminomadic

[cycloneJ]

One things puzzles me though, in this report and the ATM one today there is mention of a charge of "illegal entry".

Anyone know what this really is, are they suggesting the foreigners all arrived on fake passports? Or that they failed to enter Criminal Activity on their entry cards?

would it be simply that they entered illegally by having either the wrong (eg Tourist) visa/or no visa at all - ie working without a permit?

What penalty are they likely to get?

Even eg a month in Immigration Detention Centre may serve as a deterrent - or just a fine and 'don't get caught doing this again'

[NoshowJones]

Apparently, they have known about these numerous foreign offenders for some time and ignored them until now. If I was a foreigner doing something illegal here I would be pretty nervous now.

If that's the way you feel, I hope you always wear underpants.

[thhMan]

Still baffles me how people can be so gullible.

Some govt sponsored ads on tv should be done in each country... It wont be long and these scammers will be out of business.

Educate the people.... !!!

BRB, I have someone calling me about an amazing investment...........

[belg]

do people still fall for this kind of crap ? do people actually give away their money to strangers after a phonecall ???

[thhMan]

In a forum for foreigners in Thailand the arrest of criminal foreigners should be in our interests because the criminal foreigners can give decent and honest foreigners bad names.

And what would that be?

Farang? Kuai? Buffalo? ATM? Ting Tong?. .. All fairly harmless....

Nothing...... could be as bad as the corruption and dealings the thai officiladom do daily with an inbred idea that its ok!

Makes what the scammers have done, look like newbies

Edited April 4, 2013 by thhMan

[mrtoad]

I wish they would also round up the turds from other companies like Holborn Associates, DeVeer,Infinity etc, who keep cold calling as well. Whilst they are legitimate stocks, they aren't in the slightest interested in the customer, only their commissions and there calls are quite frankly tedious.

[Arkady]

Will this slow down the opening of Irish pubs in Bkk and the conversion of Soi Cowboy bars to coyote clip joints for money laundering purposes?

[whiteman]

Never had a phone call and I have been here 10 years. I am carefull who knows my phone number. I suppose if you give it out to some called low life in a bar thinking he is your new found friend when you have had a few drinks.

Then you are a prime target

[Arkady]

"I wish they would also round up the turds from other companies like
Holborn Associates, DeVeer,Infinity etc, who keep cold calling as well.
Whilst they are legitimate stocks, they aren't in the slightest
interested in the customer, only their commissions and there calls are
quite frankly tedious."

Mr Toad, I am not sure these are entirely legitimate. They can't possibly have work permits for all the farang sales people they employ or have investment advisory licences in Thailand, either for the firm or the individual "advisors". Since most of their transactions take place offshore, they are also certainly not paying Thai corporate income tax on the bulk of their business. Is Barclay Spenser still operating in the LoS? They were the biggest cold caller outfit a few years back from an office in Pacific Pace but rumour was that they even ripped off one of their own big rain makers who got too big for his boots. Perhaps they pressed the re-set button on that and have a new name now.

Now that the DSI has got a taste for going after these scumbags, lets hope they see how widespread the business is and start going after all of them for busts or bribes. Definitely time to spring clean this parasitical rubbish out of the Kingdom. It's amazing that the chambers of commerce even accept membership fees from these sort of tossers but the people who manage the chambers aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Arkady

[ZhouZhou]

Never had a phone call and I have been here 10 years. I am carefull who knows my phone number. I suppose if you give it out to some called low life in a bar thinking he is your new found friend when you have had a few drinks.

Then you are a prime target

they call to oversea.

[bendywire]

Never had a phone call and I have been here 10 years. I am carefull who knows my phone number. I suppose if you give it out to some called low life in a bar thinking he is your new found friend when you have had a few drinks.

Then you are a prime target

The above companies get their contacts from websites for teachers by advertising a job and then browsing the resumes thus getting contact details. I have no time for these scum but in truth I have no time for idiots who fall for this kind of scam.

I also think it is about time a certain member was blocked from this site due to his or her racist views.

[MobileContent]

Then there are the advertisements every Wednesday in the International Herald Tribune that advertises unsecured loans of up to 100 million USD with a phone number and a prestige office address with one of those business centers in Bangkok.

I got a phone call not along ago from an English guy that offered me some great investments. I have absolute no ideas how those guys got my phone number from but I told him great lets meet to discuss your investment proposal and I bring my brother in law who is a general in the Thai police alone the meeting, so that he can check your work permits and all the permits that you need to run a boiler room. Never heard again from that poor bastard.

[MobileContent]

"I wish they would also round up the turds from other companies like

Holborn Associates, DeVeer,Infinity etc, who keep cold calling as well.

Whilst they are legitimate stocks, they aren't in the slightest

interested in the customer, only their commissions and there calls are

quite frankly tedious."

Mr Toad, I am not sure these are entirely legitimate. They can't possibly have work permits for all the farang sales people they employ or have investment advisory licences in Thailand, either for the firm or the individual "advisors". Since most of their transactions take place offshore, they are also certainly not paying Thai corporate income tax on the bulk of their business. Is Barclay Spenser still operating in the LoS? They were the biggest cold caller outfit a few years back from an office in Pacific Pace but rumour was that they even ripped off one of their own big rain makers who got too big for his boots. Perhaps they pressed the re-set button on that and have a new name now.

Now that the DSI has got a taste for going after these scumbags, lets hope they see how widespread the business is and start going after all of them for busts or bribes. Definitely time to spring clean this parasitical rubbish out of the Kingdom. It's amazing that the chambers of commerce even accept membership fees from these sort of tossers but the people who manage the chambers aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed.

Exactly you hit it right on. Sometimes it's the chambers and the member directory where they get the numbers from.

[diehard60]

Ok The foreigners were arrested and are being held , but what about the Thais? were they set free Or what?

[mrtoad]

"I wish they would also round up the turds from other companies like

Holborn Associates, DeVeer,Infinity etc, who keep cold calling as well.

Whilst they are legitimate stocks, they aren't in the slightest

interested in the customer, only their commissions and there calls are

quite frankly tedious."

Mr Toad, I am not sure these are entirely legitimate. They can't possibly have work permits for all the farang sales people they employ or have investment advisory licences in Thailand, either for the firm or the individual "advisors". Since most of their transactions take place offshore, they are also certainly not paying Thai corporate income tax on the bulk of their business. Is Barclay Spenser still operating in the LoS? They were the biggest cold caller outfit a few years back from an office in Pacific Pace but rumour was that they even ripped off one of their own big rain makers who got too big for his boots. Perhaps they pressed the re-set button on that and have a new name now.

Now that the DSI has got a taste for going after these scumbags, lets hope they see how widespread the business is and start going after all of them for busts or bribes. Definitely time to spring clean this parasitical rubbish out of the Kingdom. It's amazing that the chambers of commerce even accept membership fees from these sort of tossers but the people who manage the chambers aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed.

Totally agree on that, spot on post.

[NoshowJones]

That's just the point I am making, the laws should apply to both foreigners and locals.

[tragickingdom]

Those Westerners probably deserved to get scammed. You can't fool an honest person only greedy persons.

[midas]

I honestly can't believe with all the scams that have happened and with events such as The MF Global debacle in USA and Jon Corzine losing $1 billion of investors funds that people are still gullible enough to fall for all this ? No matter how good the sales patter is how could anyone give them the benefit of the doubt in this day and age,?

[craigt3365]

An off topic post has been removed along with some associated replies. Some of which were off topic.

Apologies to the members who made replies to this off topic post.

[saroq]

Ok The foreigners were arrested and are being held , but what about the Thais? were they set free Or what?

If they'll grant you bail on a charge of murder I think the chances that the Thai are out free and walking around are pretty high.

[AdamBangkok]

Never had a phone call and I have been here 10 years. I am carefull who knows my phone number. I suppose if you give it out to some called low life in a bar thinking he is your new found friend when you have had a few drinks.

Then you are a prime target

The above companies get their contacts from websites for teachers by advertising a job and then browsing the resumes thus getting contact details. I have no time for these scum but in truth I have no time for idiots who fall for this kind of scam.

I also think it is about time a certain member was blocked from this site due to his or her racist views.

If I was in that line of business I dont think I'd be targeting teachers.

[bri1guy]

There must be allot more to this then a call center investing in petroleum business? Does anybody know how it was suppose to work??

do people still fall for this kind of crap ? do people actually give away their money to strangers after a phonecall ???

[phil2]

do people still fall for this kind of crap ? do people actually give away their money to strangers after a phonecall ???

Yes, greedy people do!

[candypants]

Never had a phone call and I have been here 10 years. I am carefull who knows my phone number. I suppose if you give it out to some called low life in a bar thinking he is your new found friend when you have had a few drinks.

Then you are a prime target

they don't call people in thailand, they call people from thailand.