About 30,000 scammers, 1,450 proxy firms busted

Suppression effective, number of reported scams has fallen noticeably, says government

Thai police arrested about 30,000 scammers, including gang leaders, impounded about 24 billion baht of their assets and took legal action against 1,450 proxy companies over the past nine months.

Details were released at Government House on Monday by Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.

He told reporters the suppression of scammers and proxy businesses was part of his government's national agenda, and serious action against the criminals started nine months ago.

“The action produced satisfactory outcomes. The number of cases and damage dropped. This shows that suppression mechanisms effectively help people,” the prime minister said.

According to the Royal Thai Police Office, reported scam cases were down 69.2% and scam-related damage by 87.3% this month when compared with figures in October last year.

Police had arrested 29,233 scammers and about 70 scam gang leaders, and impounded scam-related assets and cash worth about 24 billion baht in total.

The government accepted the return of 1,862 Thais used by scam gangs based outside Thailand - 67.9% from Cambodia and 32.1% from Laos.

Meanwhile, 2,489 Thais were arrested for sneaking in and out of the country and they were involved in 1,031 scam cases.

The government deported 2,647 foreigners who illegally entered Thailand after scam suppression in the KKPark and Minletpan areas of neighbouring Myanmar. It identified about 60 suspected scam locations in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Staff of the government’s Anti Cyber Scam Centre real-time war room saved 862 people from scam gangs. The centre also suspended more than 300,000 phone numbers of scammers and as a result monthly scam calls plunged by 77.94%. Also, authorities blocked 122,840 scam URLs, 108,517 of them on Facebook.

Officials closed 351,884 mule accounts and retrieved about 3.6 billion baht of victims’ money from such accounts - a quarter of the damage victims reported. The number of mule accounts decreased by 83.67% and transactions through mule accounts fell by 81.39%.

Meanwhile, police tackled proxy, or nominee, businesses operating in the four southern provinces of Krabi, Phangnga, Phuket and Surat Thani.

About 130 rai in total was recovered from illegal foreign occupants. The value of the land and buildings on it was estimated at 1.67 billion baht.

On Koh Phangan, in Surat Thani, officials targeted 243 alleged proxy companies. Of these, 105 already faced legal action and 14 had resulted in court sentences.

Authorities also suspected nominee holdings in 401 companies in Krabi, 174 others in Phangnga and 632 more in Phuket.

For proxy business offences, police successfully sought court arrest warrants for 29 Thais and 67 foreigners, and 24 Thais and 41 foreigners had been apprehended. They included citizens of Israel, France, Russia, Poland, Switzerland, South Africa and Britain.