Seven Nigerians and seven Thais arrested in transnational romance scam sting

A Nigerian romance scam gang has been busted resulting in the arrest of seven Nigerian nationals and seven Thais.

Thai police joined forces with Malaysian counterparts to bust the transnational gang operating online romance scams. Police claim that it is the same gang that fled Thailand a year ago to set up in Kuala Lumpur.

Thai immigration chief Maj-Gen Surachate Hakparn, acting in his capacity as deputy director of the Thailand’s Action Taskforce for Information Technology Crime Suppression, headed to Malaysia to join in the search of seven locations in KL. Thai police concurrently raided three locations in Thailand that allegedly had links to the gang.

The operation in Kuala Lumpur led to the arrest of seven Nigerians, all of whom were wanted for alleged fraud in Thailand, and seven female Thai accomplices.

Officers also seized computers and cell phones showing evidence of chat messages with victims, many of whom were in process of being convinced to wire money, and some scripts to persuade victims.

The romance scams would usually involve criminals using bogus white male identities to woo and later persuade women to wire money to pay an import tariff and fee for the delivery of overseas “gifts”.

Surachate says that earlier investigations into this gang had prompted the criminals to flee to Malaysia about a year ago. The gang set up their new base and resumed the romance scams, he said.

He also claimed that this gang had duped people of nearly 100 million baht in total. Last year, Surachate and the ‘TACTICS’ taskforce co-operated with their foreign counterparts to make nine arrests in seven countries.

SOURCE: The Nation