A woman who opened a bank account for an online scamming gang, in exchange for a small payment, has been arrested by an undercover police officer, masquerading as lottery vendor, in Mueang district of Thailand’s north-eastern province of Ubon Ratchathani.
After her arrest on fraud charges, the 21-year-old suspect, identified only as “Jirawan”, warned members of the public not to open bank accounts for use by other people in exchange for a cash, because they will end up in trouble.
She claimed that she opened a bank account in her name, in return for just 300 baht, for a person she knew from Facebook, believing that the bank account would be used for underground lottery betting transactions. It was, however, used to collect payments for goods ordered online from the scammers’ website and which were never delivered.
Soon afterward, she said she received a summons to report to Krabi provincial police, adding that she managed to contact the person duped by the scamming gang and settled the debt.
She admitted, however, that there are still several outstanding summonses, issued against her by police in Chon Buri and Ubon Ratchathani provinces.
Ubon Ratchathani police said that Jirawan had evaded arrest on several occasions, until they learnt that the suspect occasionally visited a hospital in Mueang district.
An undercover police officer was sent to stake out the hospital, by pretending to be a lottery vendor, and made the arrest when Jirawan showed up.
