Singaporean among 24 arrested in Thai police raids on scam group hiding in hotel, luxury pool villa

BANGKOK - Thai police have launched a citywide hunt to capture a cross-border scamming network that fled conflict in Myanmar and hid in Thailand, using luxury villas in Samut Prakan as a temporary base.

On Oct 31, Lieutenant-General Natthasak Chaowanasai, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, together with Colonel Pattanasak Bubphasuwan, commander of the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), and Captain Adisorn Intiyot, inspector of CSD Division 2, announced the arrest of 24 suspected members of an international scam gang.

The suspects included 21 Filipinos, one Malaysian, one Chinese and one Singaporean. The first group of 22 people was arrested at a luxury pool villa on the Samut Prakan border. Further investigation led to the arrest of two more suspects at Furama Exclusive Pratunam Park Hotel in Bangkok.

Lt-Gen Natthasak said the arrests stemmed from intelligence from the Anti-Cyber Scam Centre, which had learnt that scammers based in Myanmar were fleeing violent unrest and attempting to cross into Cambodia via Thailand. The fugitives were believed to be using Thailand as a transit or waiting area.

Investigators coordinated with the Immigration Police to locate the suspects. They later discovered that the scammers had entered Thailand illegally through natural border crossings and rented a pool villa in Samut Prakan as a hideout. Officers raided the property, finding 21 Filipinos inside. Two had entered illegally, 16 had overstayed their visas and three had no immediate immigration offences.

Capt Adisorn said the first group of suspects admitted to working as online scammers in Myawaddy, Myanmar. When unrest broke out, they escaped to Thailand under the arrangement of their “manager”, who rented a luxury villa for 200,000 baht (S$8,000) between Oct 27 and 31 as a temporary refuge while awaiting transfer to Cambodia.

They further confessed that a team of higher-ranking “manager-level” scammers – about seven people – was hiding at the Furama Exclusive Pratunam Park Hotel. Police raided the hotel and arrested two: Chen Kok Loon, 37, a Malaysian, and Lu Lisi, 33, a Chinese national. The remaining five managed to escape.

“Both Chen and Lu confessed to being mid-level managers in the scam organisation, reporting directly to the ‘boss’. The five who fled are also believed to be Malaysian managers,” said Capt Adisorn.

Col Pattanasak added that the gang is linked to a Chinese financier known as Lin, or “Boss Lin”, who runs three scamming companies – DBL1, DBL2 and DRS – in Myawaddy.

Their fraudulent operations primarily targeted victims using Singapore phone numbers. Police are continuing their investigation to trace the remaining suspects and dismantle the network. THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK