Thai-Australian police raid boiler room in Samut Prakan, arrest 13 foreigners

Thai police, working with the Australian Federal Police, have broken up a transnational call centre gang and arrested 13 foreign suspects at a luxury house in Bang Phli district, Samut Prakan.

The suspects include five Australians, six Britons, one Canadian, and one South African. Several desktop computers, laptops, smartphones, and call scripts were seized.

Pol Lt Gen Chiraphop Bhuridej, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), told the media on Tuesday that the gang, led by an Australian and a Briton, specifically targeted victims in Australia by persuading them to invest in bonds with three-year maturities, offering annual interest rates of 7–10%.

He claimed that as many as 14,000 Australians may have been duped.

Kristie Lee Cressy, a senior officer with the Australian Federal Police, who was present at the press conference, said that over the past four years, the gang had allegedly defrauded Australians of about 4.45 billion Australian dollars, with most of the proceeds laundered through cryptocurrency transactions.

Pol Lt Gen Chiraphop said that, according to Australian police, the gang had been operating for about 20 years, with some members previously arrested in Indonesia before moving operations to Thailand.

He said the group initially settled in Pattaya last year before relocating to Bangkok and eventually buying a house in Samut Prakan, which they turned into a “boiler room” operation to scam Australian victims.

Gang members reportedly met at a hotel in Bangkok’s Prawet district before travelling to the Samut Prakan house to work. The house, located at the end of a lane on 0.16 hectares of land, was offered for sale at 70 million baht or for rent at 120,000 baht per month.

Chiraphop disclosed that members typically arrived at the house around 5am and left by 3.30pm, aligning with Australian business hours.

All 13 suspects entered Thailand on various types of visas, none of which included work permits.

Some claimed they had been invited by friends to work for the company, while others responded to job advertisements.

Each was paid around 3,000 Australian dollars per month (about 64,000 baht), plus a 2.5% commission on investments they sold.

They have all been charged with criminal association and working without permits, and have been blacklisted from re-entering Thailand.