Thailand’s Police Arrested 24 Chinese Citizens Over Bitcoin Call Center Scam

According to local news outlets in Thailand, 24 Chinese have been arrested in the country under the accusation of running a crypto investment scam. The authorities conducted the raid in a call center where the Chinese nationals were allegedly conducting a Bitcoin(BTC)trade con scheme.

One of the news outlets who reported the events of the arrest, Chiang Rai Times, further detailed that the alleged scam had been operational since March of this year. Currently, the pubic information about the arrests of the Chinese nationals in Thailand is that they were involved in a scheme where they manipulated citizens in China to trade the largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin through a known virtual asset exchange called Huobi Global. Huobi global is a Chinese crypto exchange that was established in 2013 in Beijing and recently shut its doors on US-based users.

Thailand’s Immigration Police issued a statement after the events surrounding the arrests started gaining wider notice. According to the statement, the Chinese citizens had their passport confiscated when they reached in Bangkok at a rental property. Although, the final confirmation of this claim is still yet pending.

The statement, which was translated after being originally published in Thai, additionally also stated that the monthly salary in the fraudulent call center was 5,000 yuan, which is equivalent of almost $710 US dollars, as well as accommodations that include meals to lure the 24 Chinese nationals in and take part in the Bitcoin scam by manipulatively persuading people to join in.

The arrested called unsuspecting victims and convinced them to carry out crypto transactions via Huobi’s trading platform, as the cryptocurrency traded apparently was moved to the scammers’ wallets. All the work related to the Bitcoin investment scam was conducted between 9 in the morning to 10 at night, supposedly to appear working only during regular work hours.

The authorities are looking further into investigating the issue and if there are other cryptocurrency scams going on in the country of similar nature. As crypto is gaining popularity and influence, it has also become a tool for targeting vulnerable people.

The statement, furthermore, also stated that Thailand’s authorities were able to seize many evidences from the raid. The list included 61 notebook computers, 424 mobile phones and routers and 3 internet devices.

After the arrest of the Chinese citizens who were involved in the scam, Thailand Immigration Police is now contemplating whether there were Thai citizens involved as well. The police believes that such a crypto scheme could not have been executed successfully since March unless there were citizens of Thailand who provided them with necessities and helped covering their tracks.