Bangkok police intervene in scam targeting student — Bangkok Post
In Bangkok, Thailand, police forced open the door to the room of a 19-year-old student who was speaking via video call with people posing as law enforcement officers. By that time, the woman had already handed over about 400,000 baht to them, while the callers were persuading her to transfer additional funds. This was reported by Bangkok Post.
Scheme involving an alleged investigation
According to police, the second-year student, identified by the publication as Khan, received a call from a person claiming to represent a mobile operator. He said that her number had allegedly been used to distribute videos calling for illegal online betting. Later, other participants in the scheme posed as police officers during a video call and persuaded the woman to hand over money supposedly for an investigation.
The student made three transfers of 49,900 baht each, totaling 149,700 baht. She also withdrew 250,000 baht in cash and handed it over to a person she was instructed to meet near a dormitory on Pracha Songkhro 27 Road in the Din Daeng district.
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Police intervention
Investigators received a report from the Technology Crime Suppression Centre of the Royal Thai Police after the student asked her father to give her 500,000 baht. According to her, the participants in the scheme instructed her to tell her parents that she had allegedly received a scholarship to study in South Korea and needed the money as a financial guarantee.
The parents were alarmed by a bank notification about a large cash withdrawal and a transfer of funds to an unfamiliar account. They could not contact their daughter because she continued communicating with the participants in the scheme, and they contacted police. When law enforcement officers arrived at the dormitory in the evening, the student refused to open the door. Police forcibly entered the room, explained to her that she was being scammed, and ended the video call.
Investigators are searching for those involved, including the suspect who collected the 250,000 baht in cash. According to a police source, surveillance cameras recorded a tall man in a polo shirt who drove away in a car after receiving the money. The investigation is ongoing.
