A Chinese-owned casino in northwestern Laos near the border with Thailand and Myanmar. Trafficking victims are often lured by the scam gangs with promises of lucrative casino jobs. - Photo: AFP file
BANGKOK: The Royal Thai Police (RTP) have warned Thais against crossing the border to work for online scam gangs in Cambodia, saying they could be deemed members of transnational criminal organisations and face up to 15 years in prison.
The warning followed reports that several Thais had been either “rescued” or arrested at houses along the Thai-Cambodian border while waiting to sneak across to work for call-centre gangs.
Several others reportedly fled across the border from Poipet after entering Cambodia illegally to undergo facial scans, allowing the gangs to use mule accounts they had sold to the scammers.
RTP deputy spokesman Pol Maj Gen Siriwat Deepor said that while those who sell their bank accounts to scammers currently face up to three years in jail, the sentence could increase to 15 years if it is proven that they were members of online scam gangs rather than merely sellers of the accounts.
He explained that crossing the border to have one’s face scanned so that gangs can withdraw money, or working directly for such syndicates to deceive Thai victims, would result in being legally classified as a member of an international criminal organisation.
Membership of such gangs carries a penalty of four to 15 years in prison and a fine ranging from 80,000 to 300,000 baht.
Providing personal information for the gangs’ use may also constitute participation in criminal activity under the same offence, Siriwat added.
He noted that on June 24, the Chachoengsao Provincial Court sentenced a mule account owner to 41 years and 258 months in prison, and a mule account recruiter to 119 years and 234 months, for their roles as members of international criminal networks. - The Nation/ANN
