Crime
Thai Banks Warn Over Call Center and SMS Smartphone Scams
Police in Thailand are intensifying their efforts on tracking down criminals who run scam call centers and SMS smartphone scams. Cyber criminals send fake SMS messages to trick victims into replying back with their banking information.
The widespread adoption of online payment methods in Thailand was highlighted by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society showing that the number of internet users in Thailand has leapt from about 18 million in 2009 to more than 50 million in 2020.
More than one in five activities carried out on the internet involves a financial transaction of some kind. In early December, 29 Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) customers received an SMS after they contacted its call centre.
The SMS told them to send back their 13-digit ID number and a one-time password (OTP). The scammers then reportedly used the ID number and OTP to sign up to a mobile banking app which they used to transfer funds from the victims’ accounts.
The Money Trap
Siam Commercial Bank warns customers to beware of scammers who use fake websites or SMS. SCB is the only bank that allows the use of its mobile app on more than one device and denied any involvement or data breach on its part.
On Dec 14, all 29 victims filed complaints with the Police Cyber Taskforce (PCT), and its chief, Pol Maj Gen Phanthana Nutchanart, pledged a full investigation.
Thanawat Saengphet, 23, from Samut Sakhon province, one of the victims, said he had contacted SCB on Dec 6 to change his address with the bank.
Half an hour later, he received an SMS asking him to update his information by clicking an attached link. Assuming the SMS was sent from the bank, he provided his name, ID number and the OTP generated by the website he visited. The next morning he woke to find 20,000 baht had gone missing from his account.
According to a PCT report issued on Dec 18, police had arrested suspects from at least three groups linked with fraud involving bank customers’ credentials.
A number of Vietnamese nationals led by a man police named as Tran Dimh Lam were accused of swindling eight victims out of a total of 200,000 baht.
Meanwhile, five suspects of Chinese and Taiwanese origin were linked with similar crimes leading to three arrests. One of them, a Chinese man called Pei Hong, stands accused of swindling more than 40 victims out of two million baht.
The third group consists of five Thais, four of whom have since been apprehended. This gang is alleged to have swept up more than a million baht from 10 victims.
Police are investigating links between the groups as it is suspected they may be part of the same criminal network.
SMS Messages to Smartphones
Pol Maj Gen Phanthana said the modus operandi of the three sets of suspects was largely identical, with all the victims having received fraudulent SMS messages after making contact with the SCB call centre.
“The problem is they believed that the SMS was real as they had just contacted the bank,” he said.
He said the fraudsters used SMS to trick people to provide personal data.
“In one day, one culprit sent SMS to more than 100 people — five to 10 of them would believe it was real. The fake SMS was similar to that sent by the bank but with a request to send back personal details such as the 13-digit ID number or OTP.
“Once the victim sent his information to the culprit, the culprit would use it to sign up on the bank’s mobile banking app. There’s only one bank whose app can be used on more than one mobile phone. This is the loophole that allows the culprit to get personal information from the bank’s customers,” Pol Maj Gen Phanthana said.
Police found the culprits had wired the victim’s money to other countries. These SMS fraud syndicates often work with foreigners and hire Thai people to work for them.
Pol Maj Gen Phanthana said Thai police are investigating, in collaboration with foreign officers, to find out which countries are involved.
As for the protection of personal information, Pol Maj Gen Phanthana suggested banks tell the public what the fake SMS messages look like and advise customers they will never ask them for their OTP.
“In a case like this, we cannot fully blame the victim despite what the law says. The bank should change its system so it will be more secure,” he said.
Phishing: the use of bogus SMS messages
Pol Lt Col Wichai Suwanprasert, a director of the Bureau of Technology and Information Inspection Centre under the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), described this use of bogus SMS messages sent to defraud people as “phishing.”
Phishing is “the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers”.
He said the DSI has received complaints about the SMS con since May. A preliminary investigation found the scam is indeed backed by a transnational syndicate including a cyber fraud syndicate in Taiwan, he said.
“Sometimes, a fake SMS contains the bank’s official number to trick the recipient into updating his personal details with the bank,” he said.
Pol Lt Col Wichai warned people never to send their personal detains such as their ID number, credit card number, date of birth, ATM password and OTP to anyone.
An expert on phishing scams from a commercial bank admitted it is hard to prevent phishing.
“It is difficult to prevent because these criminals do not target banks’ highly secure systems. They instead target customers who may not be aware of this kind of fraud,” he told the Bangkok Post.
“The best way to protect yourself is to be cautious at all times when making financial transactions. When unsure, check with the bank to verify the SMS.
“On the banks’ side, they should frequently remind their customers of new forms of phishing which have come to light,” the expert said.
On Dec 16, SCB warned customers on its website of fake SMS messages and links.
The warning message said fraud has even taken the form of fake bank websites with a pop-up window to warn users of fraudulent activities.
Police in Northern Thailand have arrested a fellow officer as he was being ordained at a temple in Ngao district of neighbouring Lampang province.
Pol Lt Col Bandit Khonkan chief inspector from the Hang Dong police station was disrobed and taken to the Chang Puak station in Chiang Mai. He was arrested on charges of running a call centre scam gang in Chiang Mai Province.
According to Thai Media Chiang Mai Provincial Police Region 5 obtained an arrest warrant for Pol Lt Col Bandit on Friday from the Chiang Mai Provincial Court for procuring illegal telecom equipment, setting up a station and using public airwaves to run a telecommunications business without permission.
Pol Lt Col Bandit reportedly told investigators that he was not the ringleader and was only a member of the gang with Chinese partners.
His arrest followed the apprehension of his 26-year-old daughter, Miss Wanuchapond, 26, and three others during raids at three housing projects in Chiang Mai on Friday, Pol Maj Gen Weerachon Boontawee, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 5 told Thai media.
During the raids police police discovered around 12 GSM gateways, or SIM boxes, which are devices used for converting cellular networks into mobile phone numbers used domestically.
The chief inspectors daughter Miss Wanuchapond told the arresting officers that she was paid 8,000 baht a month at each of the three locations for renting thr rooms and monitoring devices.
She claimed she had no idea what the devices were and accepted the job because the pay was attractive.
Police investigators working with telecom regulators used a special tracking device to monitor the gang’s communications and learned that its base was in Myanmar opposite Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai.
The call center gang used the GSM gateways to make calls over the internet to scam people in Thailand out of million of baht.
The GSM gateways transmitting signals via SIM boxes to convert them into domestic phone numbers, duping victims into thinking they were being called from Thai government agencies.
Pol Maj Gen Weerachon said that each SIM box held 32 SIM cards, with a capacity of up to 300,000 calls a month. The seized devices had made fraudulent calls over 3.6 million times.
He said the their investigation is ongoing and they are working to track down the remaining conspirators, including Chinese and other Thai suspects.
Authorities are still deciding whether Pol Lt Col Bandit will be dismissed from the force, he said, adding that so far, no other officers are known to have been involved.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.
On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.
His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.
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Immigration police officers have arrested four Colombian nationals in connection with a series of home burglaries at luxury housing complexes in the Bangkok metropolitan area and Chiang Buri Province.
Pol Maj Gen Panthana Nuchanart, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, told a press briefing that three of the suspects were apprehended in Nonthaburi Province and the fourth in South Pattaya, Chon Buri Province.
According to the Bangkok Post, the Colombians were charged with stealing conspiracy and seized around 3 million baht (US$82,500.00).
According to Pol Maj Gen Panthana, the criminals rode motorcycles through housing estates, scoping out the properties and waiting for the owners to depart before committing their crimes.
He stated that all four of the accused denied any involvement in the home break-ins, but the arresting squad discovered evidence that implicated them.
Police called to home invasion
Meanwhile, police were dispatched to a luxury housing development in Tambon Nong Prue, Chonburi Province, after a Chinese man was attacked during a house invasion.
When they arrived, they discovered the house owner, Mr. Qian Peng Yi, visibly scared and with marks from being tied up with a cable. He informed police that three Chinese males broke into his home at 9 p.m., one of whom brandished a gun at him and directed him to his bedroom.
They bound his hands and feet, gagged him with fabric, taped his head, and forced him into the bed. The intruders then attempted to compel him into transferring 10 million baht in cryptocurrencies to them, endangering the life of his 33-year-old cousin who was in a second-floor bedroom.
While they scoured the house in search of riches, Mr. Peng Yi managed to flee and hide; he subsequently observed them leave with his cousin. Officials investigated the property and analyzed security camera footage from the incident and surrounding areas.
Around 9 p.m., a 30-year-old van driver came at the Bang Lamung police station after being contacted by an agency to carry Chinese customers from Pattaya to Suvarnabhumi Airport.
The driver informed authorities that he was supposed to pick them up at a motel about a kilometer from the Chinese businessman’s home. He then drove them to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, arriving at 1 a.m. and receiving 1,800 baht.
The driver took a snapshot of the group smoking at the airport gate and identified one of them as the victim’s cousin. Police suspected coordination between her and the three suspects in her cousin’s heist, who all departed Thailand on the same aircraft.
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Crime
Son of Thailand’s Leading Legal Scholar on Corruption Arrested for Running Online Gambling Network
The son of a former senator and leading economist and expert on corruption and gambling in Thailand has been arrested for on charges of running an online gambling network and its payment system.
Police from Thailand’s Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) have confiscated assets worth more than (US$ 11.1 million) 400 million baht.
Narote Piriyarangsan, 33, was arrested following crackdowns in three sites around the city, according to Pol Maj Gen Athip Pongsiwapai, commander of the police Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).
Mr Narote’s father, Sangsit Piriyarangsan, is an economist who has written articles and books about corruption and gambling. He was one of the appointed senators that were investigating the government’s intention to legalize casino gaming before their terms expired.
Police also detained 39-year-old Narayut Narakaew, the owner of the gambling website 69pgslot.com. The Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the couple for operating an internet gambling service and money laundering.
According to the Bangkok Post, police seized two desktop computers, one laptop computer, 14 mobile phones, 21 bank passbooks, 53 ATM cards, and four high-end cars — a Ferrari 926 GTS, an Aston Martin, a Lexus, and a Subaru — totaling more than 400 million baht.
Police launched the inquiry after discovering the online gambling site, which accepted funds via an automatic deposit-withdrawal system through bank accounts and deposits in the AskMePay system. Players scanned the VPay QR code as well as the QR codes for Heng Online 888 or Heng Pay Company.
Police also discovered that payments received via QR code scans were transferred to the account of Heng Pay Co and then to the gambling website’s mule accounts using AskMePay, which did not use banks’ face recognition scanning. An inquiry indicated a monthly turnover of approximately 5 billion baht.
According to investigators, the website has been up and running for around four years, with the payment mechanism in use for roughly eight months.
According to Pol Maj Gen Athip, Mr Narote owns the gaming website’s payment systems and is the director of Heng Pay Co. After gathering evidence, authorities requested arrest warrants for 14 people.
Thailand does not allow almost any kind of gaming. Even though the law doesn’t say anything specific about online gaming, it is still considered gambling. The country has pretty strict rules about gambling. Thai punters can bet on the national lottery and horse races, but they can’t bet on any other types of games.
But it’s not a secret that there is a huge illegal gaming business in Thailand, even though it’s illegal.
The illegal casinos, online betting shops, underground lotteries, and pop-up bookies that take bets on everything from cockfights to Muay Thai make a shadow economy that is worth billions of dollars every year.
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