AMLO seizes money from call center scam gangs

BANGKOK, October 9 (TNA) - Thailand's Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) has seized over 1.3 million baht from the accounts of call center scam gangs over the past month. AMLO Secretary-General Police Colonel Seehanat Prayoonrat told a press conference on Monday that his office has seized about 1.38 million baht from 10 bank accounts of four call center scam gangs since last month; while initial probes found that they were connected to a Chinese call center scam gang which was earlier arrested. Police Colonel Seehanat acknowledged that the gangs repeated their trick by claiming to be officials of the AMLO or the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and telling victims to transfer money to their accounts, but instead of opening bank accounts in the Thai North, the gangs have done so in the country's central region and turned to use accounts of TMB Bank and Government Savings Bank (GSB). The AMLO secretary-general insisted that he will find out whether the managers of concerned bank branches have checked information on their account holders as required by the Thai Ministry of Justice, and that any bank failing to do so will be fined 500,000 baht per account and 5,000 baht per day from the first day of the failure. The AMLO chief also told real holders of such bank accounts to report to his office with relevant evidence; otherwise, they will be prosecuted in accordance with the Thai anti-money laundering law. According to the AMLO chief, his office is imposing proactive measures under which people who think they are victims of call center scams can keep their transaction slips and report their cases through the AMLO hotline, No. 0 2219 3600, so that the AMLO will then freeze suspicious bank accounts and transfer money back to them. (TNA)