Computer crime suppression police from Japan are expected to arrive in Thailand tomorrow (Apr 16th, 2019) to help a Thai investigation into an alleged
Japanese call centre gang raided by Pattaya police on March 29th.
Fifteen members of the gang, aged from 22 to 54, are in police custody in Pattaya on initial charges of working illegally,because none of them have a criminal record in Thailand or Japanese arrest warrants outstanding.
Thai police seized 52 telephones and 19 computers linked to high-speed internet from a luxury 67,000 baht a month rented house on an estate in Pattaya. In the house police found working manuals for gang members and profiles of several Japanese victims.
It was reported that the gang members rarely left the house and were only seen when food deliveries arrived at the walled compound.
Japanese media reports that swimming pool cleaners said curtains on the house windows and glass partitions were always drawn.
The break came when someone in the house called the house-keeper seeking a plumber but, when the plumber arrived at the house, he was told to leave because everything was fine.Suspicious that something odd was going on inside, the housekeeper alerted the police.
Thai police allege that the call centre gang may have conned victims in Japan out of as much as 200 million yen (US$1.79m).
