News Forum - More suspects arrested in phone scam duping Americans out of three billion baht

[Thaiger]

More suspects are now in Thai police custody in relation to the phone scam that duped unsuspecting elderly Americans out of three billion baht. According to the Bangkok Post, a total of 20 people have been arrested- 15 Thais and five Indian nationals- for their involvement in a phone scam that preyed on Americans. Police …

The story More suspects arrested in phone scam duping Americans out of three billion baht as seen on Thaiger News.

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[ExpatPattaya]

"Indian and Thai cyber criminals talking elderly Americans into transferring money to them after pretending to be US law-enforcement officials."

Takes a gullible person to believe these things coming over the telephone...likely had accents that were not American as well.

Duping someone takes 2.  Sad to me that they even answered the phone from unknown callers.

Law enforcement would have sent letters, and emails (from SS pension application) and the email would be from a .gov website you could check the veracity of .

Hope they get what they lost back

[Grumpish]

  On 3/23/2023 at 4:37 AM, ExpatPattaya said:

"Indian and Thai cyber criminals talking elderly Americans into transferring money to them after pretending to be US law-enforcement officials."

Takes a gullible person to believe these things coming over the telephone...likely had accents that were not American as well.

Duping someone takes 2.  Sad to me that they even answered the phone from unknown callers.

Law enforcement would have sent letters, and emails (from SS pension application) and the email would be from a .gov website you could check the veracity of .

Hope they get what they lost back

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I get at least half a dozen calls a week from assorted scammers, almost invariably the caller has a thick South Asian accent. Occasionly I will play them along, and see how long I can keep them talking before they realise that I am winding them up. 

[HolyCowCm]

  On 3/23/2023 at 5:12 AM, Grumpish said:

I get at least half a dozen calls a week from assorted scammers, almost invariably the caller has a thick South Asian accent. Occasionly I will play them along, and see how long I can keep them talking before they realise that I am winding them up. 

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My father when he was alive had at least 3-6 per day in the USA. When I visited him I would be amazed at the calls, but all through his landline. He would answer mad as heck and tell them to go to h*ll or f off. But the calls never ever stopped. Take all the scammers to prison. 

[Skip]

Mumbai, India became the largest scam capitol in the world after the Nigerian prince...

[HiuMak]

  On 3/23/2023 at 4:16 AM, Thaiger said:

More suspects are now in Thai police custody in relation to the phone scam that duped unsuspecting elderly Americans out of three billion baht. According to the Bangkok Post, a total of 20 people have been arrested- 15 Thais and five Indian nationals- for their involvement in a phone scam that preyed on Americans. Police …

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Now they are being scammed by Thai Police.

[ExpatPattaya]

  On 3/23/2023 at 5:37 AM, HolyCowCm said:

My father when he was alive had at least 3-6 per day in the USA. When I visited him I would be amazed at the calls, but all through his landline. He would answer mad as heck and tell them to go to h*ll or f off. But the calls never ever stopped. Take all the scammers to prison. 

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Back in the late 90's I registered my mothers number in the USA.  Stopped almost all scammers.  See it is still available  "Stop unwanted sales calls by registering your phone number: Online: Visit DoNotCall.gov. <Contact numbers removed - moderator>

[Marc26]

  On 3/23/2023 at 5:37 AM, HolyCowCm said:

My father when he was alive had at least 3-6 per day in the USA. When I visited him I would be amazed at the calls, but all through his landline. He would answer mad as heck and tell them to go to h*ll or f off. But the calls never ever stopped. Take all the scammers to prison. 

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I was one of the 1st people I know to go cell phone only

Around 2002-2003

And it was for that reason, the landline was all scams

Now I get a ton of Chinese scam calls on my cell phone here in Canada

[Marc26]

  On 3/23/2023 at 4:37 AM, ExpatPattaya said:

Duping someone takes 2.  Sad to me that they even answered the phone from unknown callers.

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I don't even answer calls from people I do know 5555

[HolyCowCm]

  On 3/24/2023 at 11:23 AM, ExpatPattaya said:

Back in the late 90's I registered my mothers number in the USA.  Stopped almost all scammers.  See it is still available  "Stop unwanted sales calls by registering your phone number: Online: Visit DoNotCall.gov. <Contact numbers removed - moderator>

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Interesting. My parents have passed on but I still have siblings and will maybe ask them what they do. I know it drove my dad batty. 

[HolyCowCm]

  On 3/24/2023 at 1:58 PM, Marc26 said:

I was one of the 1st people I know to go cell phone only

Around 2002-2003

And it was for that reason, the landline was all scams

Now I get a ton of Chinese scam calls on my cell phone here in Canada

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Don’t figure!

[Grumpish]

  On 3/24/2023 at 11:23 AM, ExpatPattaya said:

Back in the late 90's I registered my mothers number in the USA.  Stopped almost all scammers.  See it is still available  "Stop unwanted sales calls by registering your phone number: Online: Visit DoNotCall.gov. <Contact numbers removed - moderator>

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Doesn't stop the offshore scam calls though, they ignore it and use spoofed numbers, as well. I recently had several calls from my own number claiming to be from my ISP.

[Vigo]

I am certain this was controlled overseen from India. It could easily be stopped by the  target nations of USA, Canada, UK, Australia with  a threat to suspend easy visas and  preferred trade agreements. Canada is the weakest link as usual ,afraid of India and that is why it has never had a successful police and prosecution action. Only the USA and Australia have taken decisive action with the USA most effective.

[Vigo]

  On 3/24/2023 at 1:58 PM, Marc26 said:

I was one of the 1st people I know to go cell phone only

Around 2002-2003

And it was for that reason, the landline was all scams

Now I get a ton of Chinese scam calls on my cell phone here in Canada

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Question: Have you ever flown China Eastern/Shanghai Airlines/Air China: Never had an issue with China spam calls (only in Mandarin)  until I  gave my cell number to book China flights from BKK.

[Manu]

  On 3/25/2023 at 2:50 AM, Grumpish said:

Doesn't stop the offshore scam calls though, they ignore it and use spoofed numbers, as well. I recently had several calls from my own number claiming to be from my ISP.

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Cause as you said in your previous post, you answered once. So it will now never stop. These scammers are selling people's details to each other. If you answer once one of these call centers in India, and it did not work for them, then they will sell your details to another and on and on.

This very annoying problem seems impossible to stop due to corruption and lack of ressources in India. And all these scammers call centers are linked to Thailand cause they have the money being transfered here where banks seem to not look too closely where the money is coming from. Usually the victims in the US and elsewhere pay via gift cards to make it even less suspicious, which makes it more difficult to believe how these poor ederlies are being scammed considering these scammers pretend to be from Microsoft, Paypal and so one, they are agressive and make them get out of their house to buy those gift cards or sometimes cash in their banks, following the whole process on the phone as they are urged not to hang up all the way. Hard to believe anyone would think the real Microsoft or paypal would do that. These scammers have so many ways to do it by scaring and intimidating those poor victims.

Luckily some hackers have found a way to tackle the problem. They are loads of them actually, they all have youtube channels and they film everything, how they managed to hack the scammers' computers while pretending to be bitting, and their cctv system, they managed to stop loads of victims not to be scammed, some managed to get their money back and in some cases, they send all the evidences to the authorities in India and indeed, some got indeed arrested thanks to them.

Type "scambaiter indian scammer" in Youtube search, loads of them. It is quite unbelievable to watch and certainly enjoyable to watch some scammers...being scammed!

[Marc26]

  On 3/25/2023 at 3:13 AM, Vigo said:

Question: Have you ever flown China Eastern/Shanghai Airlines/Air China: Never had an issue with China spam calls (only in Mandarin)  until I  gave my cell number to book China flights from BKK.

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I avoid all the mainland China airlines

Even though they were usually cheaper 

But I think it's because I live in Vancouver and it has a massive Chinese population 

We get a ton of spam Chinese calls at work as well