31 Thai and Chinese suspects arrested in Rayong for money laundering
Mule account holders detained to complete financial transactions
Police arrested 18 Thai and 13 Chinese suspects at an accommodation in the eastern province of Rayong for operating a money laundering scheme linked to a scam gang.
Officers raided properties in the Ban Chang district of Rayong on two occasions, April 8 and May 7, and arrested 31 suspects involved in the money laundering operation. They also discovered several victims being held captive at the premises.
The victims were tricked into opening mule accounts for the gang and were detained there to carry out financial transactions for the scammers, using facial recognition or other forms of identity verification.
When funds from scam victims were transferred into the mule accounts, the gang forced the account holders to withdraw the money from various bank branches or ATMs across the province or transfer money to the leading criminal members.
Three of the suspects were identified as ringleaders who handled transactions for multiple scam operations. These scams included fraudulent part-time job offers, bogus gold investment schemes, fake loan applications, and impersonation of government officials to extort money.
Police rescued the mule account holders and searched the house, seizing valuables worth over six million baht.
The arrests followed a complaint lodged by one victim who lost 2.9 million baht in the scam operation and reported the matter to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB).
The victim told police that he encountered an advertisement on an e-commerce platform and expressed interest in selling products via the platform. He clicked the link in the advert, which directed him to a LINE Open Chat group named “Shopping Centre”, with over 700 members.
Group members shared pictures and descriptions of products and encouraged others to purchase them. The victim, wishing to advertise his products so contacted the group administrator.
The administrator assured him that he could begin posting at any time, so the victim shared a product priced at 1,420 baht.
A scammer posing as a customer showed interest in the item. The sale and payment were conducted via a website called “Seller Centre”, but the administrator later claimed the sale was not approved and that the victim needed to complete an official registration on the site.
The victim was subsequently removed from the “Shopping Centre” group and added to a new group. There, he was urged to register and top up funds into the system to continue selling and receive payments. He continued depositing money into the platform until he realised he was scammed.
The CIB reported that this money laundering gang has been linked to 291 other scam cases reported by Thai victims via the Thai Police Online system.
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