Police Raid Pattaya House in 350M Baht Romance Scam

Police raid Pattaya house used as base for 350-million-baht romance scamLegacyPolice raided a rented luxury house in Pattaya yesterday, November 9, and detained eight Chinese nationals and two Myanmar nationals over an alleged romance and investment scam targeting people in China. Investigators said they had traced about 700 transfers worth 350 million baht from roughly 100 victims, most of them widowed women in China. Officers went into the two-storey house in Nong Prue subdistrict, Bang Lamung district, at 4pm with a search warrant from the Pattaya Provincial Court, and seized two laptops, 32 mobile phones and more than 178 SIM cards. The suspects told police they had paid 140,000 baht a month in rent and had run the operation from the house for about six months. Photo via Pattaya News Police described the operation as a hybrid scam run by three teams. The first found targets on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and the second spent 15 to 30 days building relationships with them before persuading them to download a fake app for investing in Chinese pharmaceutical shares and send money to bank accounts in China, while a third team based in China withdrew the money. According to police, the evidence at the house included chat logs from the romance and investment pitches and records of incoming transfers to a bank in China. Photo via Pattaya News Two of the detained Chinese nationals had allegedly dressed as Chinese army lieutenant generals to make their profiles more convincing, and investigators said about 2 million baht had come in on the morning of the raid alone. Police said all eight Chinese nationals had entered Thailand illegally, seven across the Cambodian border in Sa Kaeo province and one through Chong Mek in Ubon Ratchathani. Four of them are wanted under Chinese arrest warrants on assault and call-centre fraud charges, and police named Guan Chunyu, a 37 year old Chinese national, as the alleged ringleader of the network. Police said the two Myanmar nationals worked as cleaners at the house; one had entered Thailand illegally, and the other had overstayed by 357 days. Investigators have not yet announced charges in Thailand beyond the immigration findings. In June last year, police raided two upscale properties in Pattaya and arrested 25 Chinese nationals over an illegal online lending operation aimed at clients in China. Related news

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