BANGKOK – A scammer gang threatened and duped a 22-year-old female Chinese student studying in Australia into transferring money, forcing her to go to Thailand and demanding a ransom of 8 million yuan (approximately 32 million baht) from her parents.
However, the family discovered that more than 7.5 million baht of the funds they had provided for the student’s studies in Australia had been repeatedly withdrawn from the student’s account and transferred to other personal accounts. Therefore they contacted the Crime Victim Assistance Association in Thailand to trace her.
The investigation by the Provincial Police Region 2 in cooperation with the local police revealed that the student arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand on April 13, 2024. On the next day, the student took a cab to stay at a hotel near Suvarnabhumi Airport for one night. Afterwards, there was no information about where the student had traveled to.
On April 17, around 10:00 a.m., the student called her mother to request money. During the call, a man’s voice entered the line, displaying threatening behaviour, saying if the parents do not pay, he will film pornographic videos of their daughter and transport her to Cambodia to have her organs cut off and sold.
The student then took a taxi from Ladkrabang area in Bangkok to Ekkamai, and further traveled to Sri Racha district, Chonburi, arriving around 12:40 pm.
On April 18, the student checked out from the accommodation in Sri Racha and was suspected to have been deceived or threatened into purchasing a mobile phone SIM card.
On April 19, the student took a coach from Laem Chabang and arrived in Ekkamai at around 14:46. Later, she passed the Gateway Ekamai shopping mall at around 3 p.m. and then took a green and yellow cab to a hotel in the Bang Rak area of Bangkok. The authorities then intervened and took the student to Bang Rak police station for questioning on the night of April 20.
On the afternoon of April 21, Pol. Col. Atchariya Ruangrattanapong, the president of the Crime Victim Assistance Association, brought the Chinese student who had been deceived into transferring over 7.5 million baht to meet with the police for questioning.
The investigation revealed that the first scammer assumed the identity of a mobile phone network official, subsequently forwarded the call to another individual assuming the role of a government agency, and finally forwarded it to a third individual pretending to be a police officer. This individual informed the student that she sent illegal texts to others, which led someone to commit suicide. They warned her that if she did not pay them, she would face terrible consequences.
The student had no way of verifying the information on their cell phone. She was then forced to make transactions via various chat applications and had to agree not to disclose the information exchanged during the conversation to outsiders or family members or face legal action.
The student was then forced to sign an online acknowledgement of debt for 8 million yuan (about 32 million baht) and was instructed to check in with the scammer five times a day to prove her sincerity and not escape.
The scam began around February, when the student started her studies in Australia. The first transfer was 40,000 yuan, followed by 500,000 yuan. The last transfer was not approved by the Bank of China due to the underage and high transfer amount, leaving her with around 500,000 baht.
The reason why the student had to travel to Thailand was because the criminals claimed that they had a network here to solve the problem of fraudulent transactions and avoid prosecution. Otherwise, she would face legal consequences.
Pol. Lt. Gen. Thanathat Kangruambutr, deputy chief of staff of Special Analysis and Tools Division 1, explained that such cases mostly occur overseas, as wealthy Chinese families often send their children to study abroad, notably in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia.
The modus operandi is similar, and the victims are mostly from wealthy families. Although such cases also occur in Thailand, they are not as common as abroad.
However, once the fraud occurs, the criminals often threaten and intimidate the victims into deleting the information, making it difficult for the authorities to gather evidence and follow up on the case. As a result, in this case, the police must take time until they have clear evidence before proceeding.
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