A total of 93 out of 119 Thais sent back to Thailand from Cambodia since last Saturday are to be escorted to the Criminal Court for further detention, pending interrogation.
Pol Lt-Gen Trairong Phiwpan, commissioner of Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB), said today that Thai nationals, who went to work in Cambodia’s scam centres in Poipet willingly, could face charges of being members of a transnational criminal network, defrauding the public, criminal association and violations of the computer crime law.
Of the 93 Thais in legal trouble are 48 women, currently being detained at the CCIB head office, while the men are being held at Pak Kret and Thung Song Hong police stations.
Of the other 19 returnees, Trairong said 15 have been cleared of any connection with the scam centres in Poipet, but were involved with online gambling activities.
The other four are under 18, but two of them are linked to a transnational criminal network, claimed Trairong.
There are seven others who are named on arrest warrants, and they are being held in local police stations.
The CCIB chief said that, from the statements given to the police, most went to Cambodia to work as scammers voluntarily, due to promises of attractive rewards, adding that some of them crossed the border more than ten times.
Many of them posed as officials from the Comptroller General’s Department, when attempting to dupe Thai pensioners out of their pensions, or as electricity authority officials, telling their potential victims that they will receive a refund of their electricity meter deposits.
