Thai hackers target high-ranking official in 200,000 baht swindle
Cyber police yesterday swooped to arrest a Thai hacker group who targeted a high-ranking government official in a more than 200,000 baht swindle.
The cyber punks managed to gain access to a Facebook account belonging to former government official, Suthee Pattanayongyot, who used to serve the Judiciary of Thailand.
One of the hackers, Somchai Saenthilert, pretended to be Suthee, contacted another high-profile government chief and managed to access his personal information and Line ID. He used the Line account to swindle more than 200,000 baht from the official’s relatives, friends, and colleagues.
The Commander of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, Montien Phan-aim, revealed they were alerted to the crime on May 28 by a tracker and swooped to nab the group.
The Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau 3, in Khon Kaen, the northeastern province of Thailand, yesterday announced the arrest of 4 Thai hackers, including 28 year old Sarocha Iamla-or, 18 year old Sunee Poo-ang, 22 year old Somchai Saenthilert, and 17 year old Longtip Boonsri.
The 2 women were arrested in Bangkok, while the 2 men were arrested in the northern province of Chaing Rai. Somchai and Longtip were identified as the chief hackers, while the 2 women essentially worked on the logistics side of things such as opening bank accounts .
All 4 of them were charged with accessing others’ data without permission, importing counterfeit data to a computer system that caused damage to others, and impersonating others to swindle money.
Police seized equipment used in the fraudulent activity, including a computer and 76 mobile sim cards.
The 4 suspects confessed to police they were trained by foreigners living in a neighboring country. They added the leader of the foreigner group taught them how to hack into the Facebook accounts of people and how to use certain phrases to lure people into transferring money.
The Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau commander revealed Somchai had been arrested on hacking charges twice before.
Montien added the department still has over 90 unsolved cases to investigate.
