Police raid suspected boiler room gang in northern Thailand

Police raided a suspected boiler room gang in northern Thailand.

Officers from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission converged on a house believed to be the base of call centre scammers in Chiang Rai province on September 3.

Police Major General Krittapon Yeesakhon, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 5, said the gang had installed a high-speed internet cable under the first Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge near Myanmar's Tachileik district.

They then allegedly cold-called hundreds of thousands of people to try and defraud them.

The police chief said: ‘In the past, we have made efforts to tighten security along the northern border of neighbouring countries, including Laos and Myanmar, as part of the operation 'Bombing the Thief Bridge'.

‘Our aim is to prevent illegal signal distribution that can be used by call centres trying to exploit and deceive Thai citizens. Recently, the situation in Laos has improved, but gangs have shifted their operations to the Myanmar border instead.'

The illegal telecommunications line was reportedly capable of transmitting internet signals five miles into Myanmar. It was connected to the call centre office and is believed to have been used to make scam calls and run illegal online gambling dens.

Officers found and arrested alleged gangster Anurak Pintakham, 26, during the raid. He was charged with 'operating a telecommunications business or using frequency spectrum for telecommunications business without a licence'.

Police also confiscated a router, a signal booster, and numerous telephone signal transmitters on the premises. They were hunting down a 34-year-old Myanmar national, a 31-year-old Thai man, and a 35-year-old Thai woman, believed to be involved in the boiler room scheme.

Authorities believe the suspects had disguised themselves as telecommunication employees to connect the fibre optics line. The installation was said to require expertise and expensive equipment worth up to 500,000 THB (11,127 GBP).

The raid comes as Thai authorities and the private sector launched the 'Burning the Thief's Bridge' initiative to block mobile and internet signals used by call centre gangs.

(1 THB = 0.022 GBP)