4 Chinese and 22 Thai scammers arrested for operating gold scam

Officers from the Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECD) arrested 26 suspects, four Chinese and 22 Thai, for running a fake gold shop and luring victims to invest in counterfeit stock trading.

The ECD, yesterday, October 31, launched an operation called CIB Anti-Online Scam to arrest 50 suspects involved in the investment scam run by Chinese nationals. Officers raided 21 suspicious locations and arrested 26 suspects, including four Chinese leaders.

Officers seized cryptocurrency worth 28 million baht, bank accounts, mobile phone SIM cards, computers, tablets and documents related to the scam.

Officers reported that the four Chinese gang leaders ordered Thai nationals to create a fake Facebook page of a popular gold shop in Thailand called Aurora.

The page posted an advertisement inviting followers to invest in the stock market, claiming that investors could make profits of 20% to 30% within five to 20 minutes of investing. However, investors were unable to withdraw their investments and the profits they had made.

If someone wanted to withdraw the money, the scammers would ask them to pay the transfer fee, advisory fee or tax. These tricks led some victims to transfer more money to the fraudsters to access their funds.

Four victims filed complaints with the police. They lost over 4 million baht. Officers were confident that there were more victims as the money circulating in the gang over the past two years was over 1.2 billion baht.

Officers discovered that the money was transferred to the bank accounts of Thai nominees before being transferred to the accounts of Chinese nationals. The Chinese leaders were responsible for laundering the money.

They spent the illegal money on consumer goods in Thailand and shipped them to Cambodia and Laos for sale. The profits from the sale would be transferred back to the Chinese gang leaders. They also launder money by buying digital currency, property and various types of goods.

Police believe there were more Chinese leaders in the gang but they managed to flee Thailand before the operation took place. They would investigate the fraud gang to arrest more members.

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