in Thailand earlier this year for defrauding the public and using victims’ ATM cards to pilfer funds.
Police Lt. Gen. Thangai Prasjaksattru, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, told a press conference that Iranian national Martin Arami, 37, and co-conspirators Charoenchai Kitpimonkul, 31, and Aidech Oanurak, 54—both Thai nationals—were arrested in possession of 19 ATM cards, three cell phones and 270,000 in Thai bahts (about $8,000).
The three are suspected to be members of an overseas call center gang believed to have conned some 1,000 victims into transferring personal funds via ATMs. Many of the victims were unknowingly convinced to open bank accounts for the gang’s criminal use.
The three were implicated by Taiwanese gang member Sia Yong Thong, who was caught by Thai officials as he was withdrawing money from an ATM .
Officials noticed that Arami’s bank accounts saw 47 million bahts ($1.4 million) in activity during the past year. Police are set to seize his assets under the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
Police have also requested arrest warrants for two women accomplices, identified as Maleechan Lakhon and Pranom Saemo, who remain at large.
According to a police investigation, the gang is thought to have set up an overseas call center that randomly selects and calls Thai residents via the Internet. These victims were then told they either had debt problems that needed looking into or that they had received tax refunds. The gang then reportedly talked the victims into going to an ATM and exploited their English illiteracy to have the victims use English instructions to unknowingly transfer money into the bank accounts of the gang members.
The gang had also hired up to 1,000 locals to open bank accounts and then hand over their ATM cards so they could withdraw the victims’ money.
During the press conference, Thangai warned people not to give out any bank-related information, and said those caught doing so would be charged for conspiring with the criminal gang to defraud the public.
