Police Arrest Suspect for Masterminding Line App Vaccine Scam

Police have arrested a man suspected of operating a vaccine scam via Line App that stole more than 300,000 baht from victims in central Thailand’s Saraburi province on Wednesday.

Police nabbed Mr Weerasak Suksamdang, 26, in front of the TPI Polene building in Kaeng Khoi district of Saraburi and charged him with fraud and computer crimes.

Mr Weerasak immediately denied the charges and was transferred to and Udon Thani Police Station, where complaints about the vaccine scam were filed on June 30.

The complainants said they were scammed by a Line group called “Vaccine Sinopharm”, which advertised jabs for 1,800 baht.

Police said the vaccine scammers claimed to be doctors who had procured leftover Sinopharm doses from the Federation of Thai Industries.

Once victims had transferred cash, they were deleted from the Line group and received no vaccine. The scam is alleged to have netted over 300,000 baht from victims, police said.

Sadly this isn’t the first Thai person to scam people of vaccines, the army admitted one of its doctors had cheated other Thai soldiers stationed in South Sudan out of 170,000 baht by giving them fake shots instead of flu vaccines, which he later sold for private gains.

The probe found he had advised his friends to take flu shots, saying it would help in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

He then demanded 500 baht from each of his fellow countrymen, allegedly to cover the cost, totalling 170,000 baht.

He then gave them other substances, later found to be tetanus shots or saline. The doctor was sent back to Thailand