11 charged for allegedly selling fake Bang Sue vaccination appointments

Police in Bangkok have charged 11 people with selling fake vaccination appointments through unauthorised use of the Bang Sue vaccination booking system. According to a Bangkok Post report, Dr Mingkwan Wichaidit, who runs the vaccination centre at Bang Sue Grand station, says the unexpectedly large number of appointments aroused suspicion.

It’s understood up to 2,000 suspicious appointments appeared in the system and officials decided to go ahead with 300 of them so the recipients would turn up and could then be questioned by police. The Bangkok Post reports that from the initial investigation, it appears people paid between 400 and 1,200 baht per person for a vaccination appointment.

11 volunteers from the vaccination centre have been arrested and charged. If found guilty, they face between 3 and 10 years in prison. It’s understood they managed to hack into the booking database through the mobile system operator. 7 of them are understood to include officials from the Department of Medical Services and 1 mobile operator. They are accused of selling appointments to up to 1,500 people a day.

Dr Mingkwan says officials got suspicious when they noticed the bulk appointments, given that the system is not yet open to organisations to block-book their employees. He says police previously uncovered a group of people suspected of plotting to defraud the vaccination booking system. The authorities are continuing their investigation.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post