BANGKOK — Authorities in Bangkok have arrested two Chinese nationals accused of running a high-tech mobile scam operation that targeted thousands of shoppers across the city’s busiest commercial districts. The suspects, who had posed as tour guides, utilized advanced signal-jamming technology to broadcast fraudulent SMS messages to unsuspecting mobile users.
The scam operation leveraged false base station technology to send phishing links to mobile devices within a 1-3 kilometer radius of heavily populated areas such as ICONSIAM, Asiatique, and CentralWorld. The fraudulent messages were distributed by the suspects, who were able to suppress legitimate cellular tower signals, affecting up to 30,000 phone numbers in the targeted zones.
A police raid conducted on January 9 led to the arrest of two men, Mr. Li, 49, and Mr. Zhu, 47, at JR Court in Nuanchan Soi 60, Bueng Kum district. Authorities also seized a Honda CR-V equipped with the fraudulent base station device, 11 mobile phones, several bank accounts, ATM cards, and over 30 SIM cards.
Police Lieutenant General Trairong Phiwphan, head of the Economic Crime Suppression Division, revealed that the investigation was carried out with the assistance of Advanced Info Service (AIS) engineers. The suspects had entered Thailand in mid-December, claiming to be tour guides. Though they denied involvement in the scam, stating they borrowed the vehicle from a friend, police have linked them to the fraudulent SMS activities over the past few days.
Authorities are still searching for a third Chinese suspect, who had been renting an apartment in the same building for nearly a year and remains at large. Investigations are ongoing to identify potential accomplices.
Wisitsak Charoenchai, Director of Corporate Relations at AIS, issued a warning to the public about the dangers of clicking on links received via SMS. He emphasized that legitimate mobile operators never send links to customers and that these phishing attempts are solely used by scammers to steal funds.
