Two men in Thailand have been arrested for allegedly running an AI-assisted scam call centre that cost Thai-British beauty queen Charlotte Austin 4 million baht (US$118,000), raising fears about the growing threat of technologically sophisticated fraud in the region.
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Police identified the suspects as 31-year-old Ramil Pantawong, who was apprehended in the Wang Nam Yen district of Sa Kaeo on Sunday, and 28-year-old Thanawut Kanyaphanthe, who was detained in the Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri on Monday.
They are accused of belonging to a 50-strong gang operating from a building in Poipet, a city in northern Cambodia near the Thai border.
Police Lieutenant General Jiraphop Bhuridej, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, said the group had targeted at least 163 people by impersonating Thai officers with the goal of deceiving them into transferring large sums of money, with AI technology being used to alter the scammers’ faces during video calls.
He said the fraudsters used scripts provided by Chinese gang leaders and posed as investigators of narcotics and money-laundering cases, instructing victims to transfer funds for supposed verification.
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Why are Chinese tourists wary of going to Thailand and has it become a dangerous place to travel?
Why are Chinese tourists wary of going to Thailand and has it become a dangerous place to travel?
Austin’s ordeal reportedly began on December 7, when she received a call from someone purporting to be a member of the Department of Special Investigation. The caller insisted she had been linked to money laundering involving the scandal-plagued Stark Corporation and then told her to wire 4 million baht so her innocence could be proven. She did so and the money was never returned.
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