Surachet Hakphan, commander of the Tourist Police Division, said police arrested Dmitry Ukrainskiy, a 44-year-old Russian, and Olga Komova, a 25-year-old Uzbekistan national, both of whom were wanted by US authorities for hacking into a personal financial database.
More than 50 people from various countries, including the US, Australia, Japan and Britain, were swindled out of more than one billion baht by the two suspects, he added.
The police, however, declined to say where the suspects were arrested.
Maj Gen Surachet said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had sought assistance from Thai police to track the two suspects belonging to a computer hacking network as authorities believed Ukrainskiy and Komova were hiding out in Thailand.
Since 2014, US authorities found that financial transactions believed to be carried out by the hacking network were made from several countries to Thailand.
A police team was set up to search for the two suspects, Maj Gen Surachet said.
Police found that Ukrainskiy was running a yacht charter business in Pattaya and Komova was working at a hotel in Koh Chang in Trat, he said.
Police said the suspects told investigators they used software that allowed them to gain access to a private computer system and stole the victims’ financial information.
The Anti-Money Laundering Office had seized more than one billion baht and frozen more than 50 bank accounts from the network, Maj Gen Surachet said.
Meanwhile, a 50-year-old Turkish national has been arrested for robbery, police said.
Abdullah Alp Kaya, who was wanted on an arrest warrant issued by the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court on Wednesday (July 20), was caught yesterday (July 21) at a coffee shop in the Terminal 21 shopping mall on Sukhumvit Road, Lumpini police said.
Investigators said people lodged complaints with police that their notebook computers, tablets, and smartphones were stolen when they were spending time at coffee shops at department stores in Bangkok.
Police said Kaya admitted to police that he had stolen notebook computers and other gadgets from unsuspecting customers.
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samhayman | 22 July 2016 - 16:05:07