Tourist Police arrest suspects on charges of credit card fraud

The Tourist Police have arrested suspects alleged for credit card fraud, with damages worth more than 100 million baht.

Police Maj General Phanya Mamen (ปัญญา มาเม่น), commander of the tourism police, conducted a press conference announcing the arrest of Mr. Tosapol Chowanawut (ทศพล เชาวนวุฒิ), a Songkla resident, who conspired with at least 4 other accomplices in stealing credit card information for more than 1 month by tapping direct lines to banks in Phuket.

The culprits would obtain analog numbers and convert them to digital format to be stored in mp3 players, before using the numbers to create fake credit cards.

Police have brought charges of stealing electronic information via telephone lines against the suspects, which has caused more than 100 million baht in damages to various banks in Phuket.

Police also seized more than 2000 fake credit cards and will be expanding on their investigations to seek out more suspects.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 25 July 2006

And as Canadians just simply can't resist outdoing everyone else :

Malaysia nabs Canadian 'credit card king'

Malaysian police have detained a Canadian man and his local girlfriend after 2,202 counterfeit credit cards were seized from their house in northern Penang, a news report said Tuesday.

The 32-year old man was believed to have been supplying counterfeit platinum and gold credit cards to the United States, Poland, Turkey, Spain, Brazil and Lithuania, said central police commercial crimes director Ramli Yusuff.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=111204

I am curious as to why it was the Tourist Police that nabbed him and not the "regular" police.