Thailand arrests 12 South Koreans over scam call centre

Thai authorities arrested 12 South Koreans and a Chinese national accused of running a scam call centre from a high-end rented house south of Bangkok, police said on Tuesday.

Thai police said the suspects were hiding in Samut Prakan province after entering Thailand from a neighbouring country, which the statement did not name.

Inside the house, authorities found a call centre setup with 13 workstations equipped with Voice over Internet Protocol phones, as well as dozens of computers, mobile phones and scripts allegedly used in online scams, police said. Officers also found a list of South Korean victims and forged documents falsely claiming to be official letters from the South Korean prosecutor's office.

Police said the group targeted victims in South Korea by impersonating prosecutors or other South Korean government officials, threatening them and tricking them into transferring money.

Thai police said Thai and South Korean authorities have investigated organised criminal groups that illegally entered and hid in Thailand since last year. About 40 suspects accused of call centre scams, including South Koreans and Chinese nationals, have been arrested in Thailand since 2015.

Cambodia and Myanmar have become hubs for criminal groups running fake romance, investment and other scams, while recent raids in both countries have pushed some scammers to set up elsewhere in the region. A UN report said people from at least 80 countries and territories have been found in scam compounds across the Mekong region.