DSI impersonators dialing for victims

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Fraudsters posing as law enforcement and using this phone number are calling Pattaya-area residents trying to trick victims into revealing personal financial data.
Fraudsters posing as law enforcement and using this phone number are calling Pattaya-area residents trying to trick victims into revealing personal financial data.

Fraudsters posing as law enforcement are calling Pattaya-area residents trying to trick victims into revealing personal financial data.

Pornpatcharadit Rakwamsuk, 40, complained to police June 10 that she was contacted twice by a woman who claimed to work for Thailand Post, saying that a package she mailed to Chiang Mai was never picked up. But Pornpatcharadit had not mailed anything.

Nonetheless, the postal service agent said the parcel was turned over to the Department of Special Investigation, which found it contained 30 bank books, ATM cards and other documents with her name and details on it.

Apparently the bank books had statements of large sums of cash being deposited and transferred, triggering suspicion Pornpatcharadit was involved in dealing drugs.

She said she soon got a call from a Pol. Capt. Thawatchai Yootrakul, who claimed to be the DSI agent in charge of the case. He acted friendly and said the situation may simply be a case of drug runners spoofing her identity, but, to be sure, he would need her bank account information to check her savings.

Pornpatcharadit wisely declined and hung up. She called back the mobile numbers and got no answer. She then looked up Thawatchai at the DSI and found he didn’t exist.

Once alerted, the DSI confirmed it employed no such officer and that the agency was now investigating the numbers that contacted her.