Crime
Tweeting Toward a Corruption-Free Thailand?
- Richard Barrow has been promoting Thailand online since 1998.
BANGKOK – When an official in this Bangkok suburb of Samut Prakan asked British blogger Richard Barrow for 1,000 baht ($33) to finalise some tax documents, the longtime Thailand resident requested a receipt.
The official refused to give one, and conceded that the money was to buy lunch for him and his staff. Barrow then pulled out his iPhone and outed the bribe-demanding official, complete with photo, to his 22,000-plus Twitter followers.
“Unbelievable. This revenue officer wants me to pay him 1,000B before he will release my tax documents. I’ve refused,” Barrow tweeted as he left the man’s office on Monday morning.
Twenty-six minutes later, Barrow tweeted that the official, anxious to have his picture deleted from the Internet, had backed down: “Success against corruption. Price for my tax documents has gone down from 1,000 Baht to 260 Baht with receipt.”
Bribery and corruption pervade all levels of Thai society – from the cash paid for traffic offences and government permits – to the grand-scale leakage that plagues infrastructure projects. Barrow’s blow-by-blow account on Twitter illustrates one way people can fight back.
“FOREIGNER = MONEY”
Barrow’s visit to the Department of Revenue office was part of his annual task of collecting paperwork to renew his Thai visa.
Barrow moved to Thailand 19 years ago to teach at a local private school and has been here since, heading the school’s computer department for some time, and now managing its online social media and training teachers. He also runs a company that produces dozens of travel- and news-related web sites.
His Twitter followers and social media friends multiplied when he began to report on-the-ground news snippets from the so-called “Red Shirt” political protests in 2010 and the massive floods that inundated the country a year later.
Yet in his nearly two decades here, he says he “never faced any corruption” until he came up against the official this week.
“He must have seen I was a foreigner and tried to get some money out of me,” Barrow told TrustLaw on Thursday, when he felt more at ease to talk about his case because he had successfully submitted the paperwork to get his visa earlier in the day.
After Barrow took a picture of the official, he changed his tune in the hope that Barrow would take the image down. Seven minutes after the photo tweet, Barrow tweeted a second time: “I’m sorry, but I have zero tolerance for corruption in government offices. We’re now at a stand-off. He wants me to delete the pic I took.”
But after one hour, his Twitter post had already been re-tweeted 62 times, reaching 621,634 people.
Then Thai media picked up the story, and the British ambassador to Thailand, Mark Kent, chimed in on his own Twitter feed: “@RichardBarrow UK Bribery Act applies to UK citizens overseas. We encourage any UK citizen who is asked for a bribe to report it.”
Kent later commented on Barrow’s Twitter feed with a link to the law.
RECEIPT TRUMPS CORRUPTION
As of Thursday night, Barrow’s post had been re-tweeted 277 times.
He admits he was nervous he might be refused a visa and kicked out of Thailand. On Monday, after learning that Thai media had reported on the incident, he expressed his fears on Twitter.
“What’s the chance that I will be the one to get into trouble for this? Thai officials don’t like losing face & could cause trouble for me,” he wrote, followed five minutes later with: “I have this sinking feeling that Immigration will refuse to renew my visa now & they will kick me out of the country 🙁 ”
Barrow told me he feels he took a “calculated risk” when he snapped the photo and posted it, and that he was saved, in a way, by his high profile in Thailand.
Yet when I asked him for the moral of the story, he made no mention of social media or Twitter, and instead sang the praises of the good old paper receipt.
“Always insist on having a proper receipt, and stand your ground. Insist on knowing where the money’s going, and what it’s for, and we can cut down on corruption. Don’t pay the bribe.”
The British ambassador has contacted Barrow to talk to him about the incident. Meanwhile, Barrow is waiting for his visa to come through.
By Alisa Tang from Trustlaw a one-stop shop for news and information on anti-corruption and women’s rights from our expert editorial team and content partners.
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.
Related Police News:
Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/
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.
Other Bangkok News:
Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel
Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel
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.
Related News:
Thailand’s Cyber Crime Police Raid Top Cops Home Over Gambling Websites
Thailand’s Cyber Crime Police Raid Top Cops Home Over Gambling Websites
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