Police rescue student after 1.78m baht call centre scam

Police rescue the 22-year-old university student. (Police photo) Police have rescued a 22-year-old student who was tricked by a call-centre gang into fabricating a story about winning a scholarship to study in the United States before transferring more than 1.78 million baht to the scammers.

The Anti-Cyber Scam Centre (ACSC) said on Saturday the woman was found frightened and speaking incoherently in a hotel room in Pathum Thani on Wednesday.

Investigators found the scam began on Sept 5, when fraudsters posing as police told her that her identification card had been used to open a bank account linked to money laundering.

She doubted the claim at first, but later took another call from people posing as telecommunications company staff, who said her ID had also been used to register a SIM card in Phichit.

The scammers told her to contact the same fake officer, who told her she could prove her innocence by transferring 1 million baht to a designated account.

As she did not have the money, they instructed her to tell her parents she had won a scholarship to study in the United States and needed to show a 1-million-baht bank balance as part of the process.

Her father transferred the money to her account. The scammers then ordered her to cut off contact with her family and stay alone at a hotel.

She transferred 1 million baht, then made five more transfers on Monday and Tuesday using her savings and money borrowed from relatives. Her total loss was 1,783,468.50 baht.

Her father grew suspicious after checking the supposed scholarship company and finding discrepancies in information about its manager. After losing contact with his daughter, he filed a complaint with police on Tuesday.

Police traced her to the hotel and rescued her.