Surin police chief warns of fraud after a 64-year-old woman was deceived by a call center gang into transferring 2 million baht over a land tax claim. Bank employees detected suspicious mule account transactions, froze the funds in time, and swiftly arrested two suspects.
On 9 Sep 2026 GMT+7, at the Surin Provincial Police Headquarters, Police Major General Sukon Sriarun, Chief of Surin Provincial Police, together with Lieutenant Colonel Ekarrat Chaipol, Deputy Investigating Officer of Mueang Surin Police Station, issued a warning about fraudsters using tricks to deceive people, especially the elderly, into transferring money. They advised calling hotline 1441 (Anti Online Scam Operation Center) promptly or reporting to local police stations to freeze funds immediately.
The case originated on 7 Sep 2026 GMT+7 when Mueang Surin Police Station received a report from a 64-year-old victim, a prominent local machine shop owner in Surin. A call center gang pretended to be municipal officials from a nearby town, claiming the victim had not filed a land and building tax form. They asked her to verify her identity and show the land appraisal price, then tricked her into adding them on LINE for coordination to complete the process the same day, requesting a 9,000 baht land tax payment via a bank’s LINE application.
The scammers then persuaded the victim to switch the LINE app language to English for faster processing, instructed her to disable SMS notifications, and had her enter figures corresponding to an initial land appraisal of 2 million baht. The victim, not understanding English, simply followed the scammers’ expert instructions step-by-step.
Ultimately, the victim transferred 2 million baht. The criminals attempted to withdraw the same amount at the bank’s Future Park Rangsit branch, but the bank had only 1 million baht in reserve. Suspicious of the man withdrawing the money, the bank quickly checked the account’s case ID and found a freeze order from Mueang Surin Police Station. They coordinated with the 1441 hotline and local police detectives from Pratunam Chulalongkorn Police Station to investigate the man’s behavior at the bank, discovering he was part of a mule account network, and detained him.
The suspects were later identified as Mr. Sutthinan Phansawat, 43, wearing a light blue shirt, and Mr. Thanakrit Pongratchakul, 20, wearing a dark blue shirt. They were brought to Surin province. Police seized 1 million baht as evidence to be returned to the victim later. The other 1 million baht withdrawal was frozen and is expected to be refunded within one month.
Police Major General Sukon Sriarun confirmed receiving the report and instructed investigators to closely follow the case. He praised the police for quickly arresting the fraud gang and recovering the victim’s money. The two suspects, both Thai nationals—one from Lom Sak district and the other from Sikhiu district, the latter with a Thai father and Cambodian mother—targeted elderly victims by impersonating government officials.