Police Arrest 20 Chinese Forex Scammers in Northern Thailand

Police in the northern province of Chiang Mai arrested 20 Chinese nationals and four Thais operating a romance and forex investment scam from a hotel in the Fang district of Chiang Mai on Thursday.

According to Police Inspector Gen. Visanu Prasarttong-Osoth, the four Thais lived in the area.

All 24 forex scammers were arrested at BK Resort in Tambon Mae Soon district in Chiang Mai. There were 22 men and two women.

According to Gen. Visanu, the suspects were found working on 224 mobile phones, 10 notebook computers, 10 monitors, and 10 desktop computers.

He said the gang created fake online dating and LINE chat profiles by copying photos of beautiful women from the Internet.

After developing relationships with Thai and foreign men, many of them Japanese, the fraudsters lured them into investing in a phony foreign exchange app called “Metatrader.”

The app displayed fake forex rates. After victims transferred money to the gang, they were disconnected, according to Pol Gen Visanu.

Read: Top 7 Ways to Prevent Losing Money in Forex Trading

According to the suspects, they received 25,000-35,000 baht a month for their forex scam seven days a week, and their workplace was an office building behind the hotel. The team worked Monday through Friday from 9 am to 9 pm and from noon to 5 pm on weekends.

In addition to public fraud, they were charged under the computer crimes act. It was also discovered that they had entered the kingdom illegally.

According to Pol Gen Visanu, many Chinese criminal gangs use Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai as bases due to the provinces’ popularity as tourist destinations and closeness to the border.