Bangkok: Police are expanding their investigation into the case of the president of a famous university being tricked into investing in stock trading. A rector of a well-known university fell victim to online scams, having been tricked into investing in stocks, losing over 38 million baht. Metropolitan Police are expediting their investigation, seizing over 3 million baht, and expanding their investigation to over 20 mule accounts.
According to Thai News Agency, in the case of a university president being defrauded by a network of fraudsters, resulting in losses exceeding 38 million baht, Pol. Maj. Gen. Pallop Aemla, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau and Acting Commander of Metropolitan Police Division 2, and Pol. Maj. Gen. Chotiwat Luengwilai, Commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau's Investigation Division, traveled to the Bang Sue Metropolitan Police Station to personally interview the victim at noon today.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Pallop revealed that in the aforementioned case, bank employees detected irregularities involving withdrawals from the victim's account and transfers to three other accounts, both corporate and company accounts, totaling over 1.9 million baht. The bank seized the funds and contacted the Call Center Gang Suppression Center, which is under the Royal Thai Police's jurisdiction, to investigate the victim. They learned that the victim had invested the funds in stock trading and asked the victim to verify whether the funds could be withdrawn from the company's account system. However, the victim was unable to withdraw the funds. Officers were convinced that the victim had been defrauded by the call center network and seized all funds, including the over 3 million baht transferred from the account yesterday.
During initial questioning, the victim stated that she was persuaded to invest in stock trading by a company that falsely claimed to be behind the company and created a credible platform, inviting investors to invest in "big lots" with others in a Line group. The victim believed her and transferred over 38 million baht into the company's account over 10 times over the past month. She saw that her investments on the company's platform were profitable, but never withdrew them, leaving her unaware that she had been deceived. Officials called her yesterday. Further investigation revealed that the corporate accounts opened to act as mule accounts were newly created. Preliminary investigations suggest that these accounts are linked to the victims' transfers to over 22 accounts. The investigation is currently underway to investigate and expand the investigation to include all relevant parties.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Chotiwat revealed that the Investigation Division, another unit that received a report from the Call Center Gang Suppression Center, immediately deployed forces to contact the victim and inform them of the call center network's activities. A review of the information revealed that there was over 40 million baht in the account prepared for investment. If officers do not intervene, it is believed that the victim is prepared to invest more.
Another victim who filed a report at Huamark Police Station was scammed out of over 6 million baht. Preliminary investigations revealed the same scam. Police are currently expanding their investigation and identifying those involved and those behind the scam for prosecution. This includes the mule accounts and cash withdrawals, which have been verified to be mostly cash withdrawals from ATMs in several provinces.