CIB arrest Phuket man for online scam they’ve tracked since 2022

Thai police have taken into custody a local man in connection with a number of online scams, the Royal Thai Police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) shared in a media update.

The arrest took place on Freedom Beach in Phuket, as the CIB disclosed through a post on its official Facebook page. Although the detailed report refrained from stating the family name of the arrestee, he was identified as Ekapol.

The bureau had previously initiated a probe earlier in 2022 following numerous victims reporting to the Tao Poon Police Station, located in Bangkok, and filing official complaints. The victims reported being ensnared in a money-spinning investment scheme that, much to their dismay, turned out to be an online scam. The financial losses borne by the investors climbed to several hundred thousand baht.

The precise timeline of when CIB took over the reins from their counterparts at Tao Poon Police Station is yet to be revealed. But it was the CIB’s officers that led the arrest at Freedom Beach.

Once he was arrested and in custody, Ekapol confessed to opening two bank accounts on behalf of a “friend” originating from Myanmar. For this service, Ekapol reportedly received cash compensation of only 2,500 baht for each account.

But Thai media outlets are questioning if he really had such minimal involvement in the online scam. Many have suggested that Ekapol was merely playing dumb and pleading ignorance about the details of the scam. They suspect he is pretending to have only opened the bank accounts for a “friend” and claiming his involvement in the crimes stopped at the meagre 5000 baht payout.

Interestingly, this claim was not included in the official original report from the CIB regarding the online scam case. But it seems like they agree as the police agency stated that Ekapol faced arrest on the grounds of “involvement in fraud and insertion of false data into a computer system leading to harm to others.”