A couple is being held in police custody for allegedly opening six mule accounts, used by a call centre scam gang to temporarily park money cheated from victims.
The couple, 43-year-old Somsak and 20-year-old Pathumrat, was arrested by Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) officers in the Ban Uah Arthorn housing estate in Mueang district of Pathum Thani. Both have been charged with conspiring with other people to cheat members of the public and violations of Computer Crime Act.
The two suspects reportedly told the police that they were persuaded by a friend to open the bank accounts, two under the name of Somsak and the rest under Pathumrat’s name, in exchange for 500 baht per account.
Two victims of the scam gang had separately lodged complaints with the CCIB, claiming that they received a call from a postal service company, informing them that parcels addressed to them contain narcotics and asking them to contact a police officer in Mueang district of Chiang Rai province.
When they called the contact number provided by the man claiming to be from a postal service company, they were told by the man who answered, claiming to be a superintendent of Muang district police, to transfer 101 million baht and 42 million baht respectively, into the six mule accounts.
Meanwhile, CCIB Commissioner Pol Lt-Gen Worawat Watnakornbancha said that, after the imposition of new regulations to tighten up the process for opening bank accounts and sales of SIM cards, the number of new bank accounts being opened has reduced.
Nevertheless, he said that there are still people who are ready to take the risk to open mule accounts for online scammers, due to the attractive rewards offered by the scammers, reported to be up to 30,000 baht per account.
