Early this morning just as the sun was coming up in Bangkok, immigration police acting on a tip-off from a local resident raided a luxury European-style mansion. They rounded up fifteen suspects running a cross-border telecom scam on the spot. The crew was a mixed bunch featuring Japanese, Chinese, and Myanmar nationals alongside one local Thai, all banded together to prey on people back in Japan.
The place came with a hefty price tag, renting for a cool 900,000 baht a month. Local media reported that the brains behind the mansion is a Chinese national who used a Thai nominee to sign a lease that has run for over a year. Police are currently keeping a close watch on border checkpoints across the country to make sure the mastermind does not slip out of Thailand in the chaos.
Their modus operandi was pretty standard stuff: first they would cold-call people in Japan with a made-up story about a contraband package being impounded. Once the fish took the bait, they would pass the call to an accomplice posing as a Japanese police officer who would demand victims transfer money under the guise of an asset investigation. Officers searching the house turned up a whole mixed bag of gear including computers, mobile phones, SIM cards, fake Japanese police uniforms, scam scripts, and even gambling equipment and drugs. All fifteen suspects are currently locked up in holding cells undergoing interrogation.
