Three more suspected members of an overseas call centre gang duping people into transferring their funds via ATMs to them have been arrested, police said yesterday.
Victims of the gang were urged to file police complaints.
Pol Lt Gen Thangai Prasjaksattru, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, told a press conference yesterday that Iranian national Martin Arami, 37, and two Thai men - Charoenchai Kitpimonkul, 31, and Aidech Oanurak, 54 - were nabbed on Monday along with 19 ATM cards, Bt270,000 cash and three cell phones.
The three were charged with defrauding the public and using others' electronic cards to damage other persons or the public.
They were implicated by Taiwanese gang member Sia Yong Thong, who was caught while withdrawing money from a ATM in a Pathum Wan shopping mall on February 4.
Since Arami's bank accounts saw Bt47 million in activity over the past 12 months, police would move to seize his assets under the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
As for the two woman accomplices identified as Maleechan Lakhon and Pranom Saemo, who remain at large, police had already requested for their arrest warrants.
The police investigation found that the gang had set up a call centre abroad to randomly phone Thai residents via the Internet and tell them that they had debt problems that needed checking or they had received tax refunds.
The gang then talked the victims into going to a ATM and exploited their English illiteracy to have the victims use English instructions to unknowingly transfer money to the gang.
The gang had already hired up to 1,000 locals to open bank accounts for a Bt1,500-Bt2,500 payment and then hand the gangsters the ATM cards for the accounts so they could withdraw the victims' money.
Those opening the accounts should file a police complaint or else they would be charged with conspiring with the gang to defraud the public, Thangai said.
He also warned people not to believe anyone calling to ask them to do something involving a ATM because such action was not required by any state office or commercial bank.
