Thai police said Wednesday they have arrested four men, including two Japanese, for allegedly conducting phone scams against people in Japan from Bangkok, the same day Cambodia deported 25 men suspected of a similar scam operation back to Japan.
The other two people arrested in Bangkok were Taiwanese, the police said. They have seized mobile phones, computers and manuals for defrauding Japanese by phone from a house in the Thai capital, adding that more people are suspected of being involved in the scam.
The Taiwanese men are believed to be the chief culprits in the scam operated from the house, the police said. The Japanese nationals, aged 41 and 49, were employed by the Taiwanese and entered Thailand in October.
The four men allegedly posed as bank staff or police officers, tricking individuals in Japan into transferring funds to designated bank accounts, with tactics including making false claims about debts.
The 25 Japanese suspects deported by Cambodia by plane were detained in September for allegedly running a phone scam operation out of a Phnom Penh apartment, targeting people across Japan.
They were escorted by police dispatched from Japan the previous day. Damage from the alleged fraud scheme is thought to run to at least hundreds of millions of yen.
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