The man, named by the CCIB only as “Mr Toei”, 25, was arrested in front of a house in the Wichit area, the CCIB reported on Saturday (Aug 5). The actual date and time of arrest was not reported.
Mr Toei was arrested on a warrant issued by the Songkhla Provincial Court on charges of "jointly defrauding the public Import into the computer system false computer information, whether in whole or in part, or false computer data in a way that is likely to cause damage to other people or the public”, explained the CCIB report.
Mr Toei’s arrest followed officers receiving complaints form many victims who said they had been tricked into investing in crypto coins, the CCIB explained.
The criminals contacted their victims via Facebook and sent messages to persuade them to invest. The scam gang offered high returns through the “Coinbase Wallet” application. At first investors saw high returns for small investments, encouraging the victims to invest more, but in the end the investors were unable to withdraw their money, the CCIB report said.
Later it was learned that the same group of criminals had at least six bank accounts among separate banks to use as a channel for receiving money from the victims. Officers had confirmed that the six bank accounts were linked
Mr Toei confessed to his role in the scam, the CCIB report continued.
About two months ago, for only B800, he opened a bank account for a person and handed over the bankbook and ATM card for the account.
Pol Col Panithan Yamanon, Deputy Superintendent of CCIB Region 5 branch, said that arrest warrants had been issued for 11 suspects wanted for their involvement in the online fraud.
“Officers will expedite their investigation into the operation to track down and arrest all remaining offenders,” he said.
The arrest of Mr Toei follows that of a man named by police only as “Mr Ekapol”, who was recently taken into custody at Freedom Beach. Mr Ekapol’s arrest was announced by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) last Thursday (Aug 3).
The CIB launched an investigation into an alleged investment scam in 2022 after several victims came to Tao Poon Police Station in Bangkok and lodged reports.
The victims described falling prey to an investment scheme that eventually turned out to be fraudulent. The financial losses sustained by the investors tallied to hundreds of thousands of baht.
Following his arrest, Mr Ekapol admitted to having opened two bank accounts for a “friend” from Myanmar, for which he received a payment of B2,500 per account.