Cameroonian, Thai woman held in 6 million baht email scam

[webfact]

CRIME
Cameroonian, Thai woman held in alleged email scam
The Nation

Company duped into wiring Bt6 million into gang's account, police say

BANGKOK -- POLICE HAVE arrested a Cameroonian man and a Thai woman for allegedly conspiring to hack a Thai construction company's computer system and send bogus e-mails to get the firm's business partner in Japan to wire Bt6 million into the gang's bank account.

Pol Colonel Somporn Daengdee, deputy Technology Crime Suppression commander, told a press conference yesterday that Tambe Echu Elvis Ako and Nuanchan Charit would be charged with conspiring to forge documents, loading the faulty information into a computer system and violating the Computer Crime Act.

The couple maintained their innocence.

The women claimed the account was opened for their previous business of hiring migrant workers, while the Cameroonian said the money was wired to him by a friend and he had no idea about the crime.

After the Thai company's complaint, a two-week police investigation found that the juristic person's bank account was opened in April with Nuanchan authorised to withdraw from it.

Surveillance footage showed Ako withdrawing cash from the account at an automated teller machine in the Silom area of Bangkok.

Suspecting that the couple were involved in a gang whose activities involved sending fake e-mails and registering a shell company that would open an account to receive the illicit money, police issued arrest warrants for them.

Police believe there were more foreigners involved because the e-mails came from a Nigerian IP address.

'Always double-check'

Local companies with partners in other countries should check e-mail authenticity every time, have other ways to communicate besides e-mail and promptly report and re-check any change of bank-account details or suspicious money transfers, Somporn said.

Pol Colonel Yothin Tosa-nga from the same division said the month of June saw about 10 similar cases and each victim suffered losses to the tune of hundreds of thousands of baht.

The hacker gang usually changed the targeted company's e-mail address slightly to notify the partner about a change in bank-account details so if the partner didn't look closely it could fall for the scam.

In this case, the partner actually sent an e-mail to check with the Thai company about the account change, but the hacker intercepted the e-mail and replied to confirm the change, so the partner felt confident about wiring the money.

The Thai company didn't get the payment, so it sent an e-mail asking the partner about it and learned that the e-mails were hacked and the money was stolen from them, Yothin said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Cameroonian-Thai-woman-held-in-alleged-email-scam-30238697.html


-- The Nation 2014-07-17

[shirtless]

Its so typical of today s world there is to many scammers.

[shaurene]

I have been in business over 50 yrs with my company in New Zealand, the one main thing to look for in emails regarding business is the email address. There are so many free email providers all over the world offering free email addresses, like @gmail.com or @yahoo.com if it is a provider name you do not recognise check it out with Google, when I get them which I have had many times I completely ignore and do not answere as I believe a genuine company would have an email address with a company that you have to pay for your email service.

[ebean001]

Its so typical of today s world there is to many scammers.

There have always been many scammers in the world but the internet has made it easier or at least more visible.

[petedk]

I have been in business over 50 yrs with my company in New Zealand, the one main thing to look for in emails regarding business is the email address. There are so many free email providers all over the world offering free email addresses, like @gmail.com or @yahoo.com if it is a provider name you do not recognise check it out with Google, when I get them which I have had many times I completely ignore and do not answere as I believe a genuine company would have an email address with a company that you have to pay for your email service.

Not in Thailand.

I am surprised how many big name companies, TV stations and radio stations use Hotmail as their official email address.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[UbonRatch]

Don't these people use recognised internet security suites, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

As far as I know, the likes of webroot and kaspersky, amongst all the others in the top 10, which are all well reviewed, they note IP addresses and mail name changes from the same, or multiple activities using the same methods. They throw the stuff into the junk file, with warnings... well at least mine does. I still get junk offering me 20M $US if I send 20,000 to have my unfound uncle's millions transferred to my bank. But they are highlighted as BIG RED warnings, and sometimes my suite won't even let me trust such a site, to even see what it contains.... ...

[Maestro]

Removed some off-topic and troll posts.

[laobali]

Its so typical of today s world there is to many scammers.

There have always been many scammers in the world but the internet has made it easier or at least more visible.

Especially the Nigerian ones who are past masters. They were using snail mail long before the internet and email came along. I received my first at a UK company in 1987! The format of all upper case and Christian slant is still in use. Many more variations on the theme now though.

[wabothai]

Nigerians are super scammers, many years of experience in the trade.

[lostmebike]

 

Nigerians are super scammers, many years of experience in the trade.

 

Just knew the Nigerians had to be involved somewhere!