Crime
Canadian and Bulgarian Arrested in Chiang Mai for ATM Skimming
43-year-old Todorov Ivanov from Canada, and 45-year-old Pavel Plamenov Petrov from Bulgaria
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CHIANG MAI – Two foreigners form Bulgaria have been arrested in Chiang Mai after Kasikorn bank alerted police to two foreigners who they had suspiciously drawn money from one of their ATM machines several times.
Provincial Police Region 5 police captured Ivan Todorov, 43, who has dual citizenship with Canada and Buulggarian National Pavel Petrov, 45, at a hotel on Sunday night and took them for a news conference on Tuesday.
According to CityNews, the men who had been friends for over 10 years had traveled to Thailand once before to conduct the same scam. Both times they brought illegal electronic cards with data from France to withdraw money from ATMs in Chiang Mai.
Pacha Rattanaphan, the regional police deputy commander, said Kasikornbank sent the images of the suspects to the police who used them to track the target. They found the two at a shop on the road and followed them to separate ATMs before returning to the hotel.
Police then raided their room, seized cash totaling 60,000 baht, 115 fake cards, one record book, five mobile phones and two SIM cards. All were taken to the Muang police station to file charges of using counterfeit electronic cards.
Pol Maj Gen Pacha said damages are estimated to be at least 15 million baht, the data in the bogus cards had been scammed from France by a criminal gang that sent the two to pull cash from Thailand.
The investigation continues, and police are looking for more gangs who may be involved with similar scams.
