A 22-year-old university student was rescued from a hotel in Thanyaburi district, Pathum Thani, on September 9 after a call centre scam coerced her into telling her father she had received a US scholarship and transferring more than 1.78 million baht to fraudsters. Thailand’s Anti-Online Scam Centre (ACSC) said she was found at the hotel after her father reported her missing and said he believed she was being scammed. Officers found her speaking incoherently while the scammers were still controlling her over the phone.
The investigation traced the scheme to September 5, when a caller posing as a police officer from Mueang Phichit Police Station claimed someone had used a copy of her ID card to open a bank account linked to money laundering. She initially doubted the claim, but was later contacted by another scammer posing as an employee at the headquarters of a mobile network provider, who said her ID number had also been used to buy a SIM card in Phichit. After she denied opening the number, the second caller told her to contact police to prove her innocence. She then reconnected with the fake officer, who told her she needed to transfer 1 million baht for an investigation that would supposedly clear her name.
Unable to provide the money, the scammers instructed her to ask her father for it and tell him she had received a scholarship to study in the United States. They claimed the scholarship required 1 million baht to be deposited in a bank account as proof of financial status and that the money would be returned after the checks were completed. Believing the story, her father transferred 1 million baht into her account, and she then sent the full amount to an account controlled by the scam network.
The scammers later moved their communications to Telegram and ordered five transfers between September 7 and 8, totaling 1,783,468.40 baht, including 9,806 baht, 590,000 baht, 16,000 baht, 4,830.83 baht and 162,831.57 baht, using both her own funds and money borrowed from relatives. After sending the first 1 million baht, her father grew suspicious and searched online for the company purportedly offering the scholarship. He found a company with that name existed, but its details did not match what his daughter had told him. He warned her to be careful, but she did not believe him and later left home, losing contact with the family. He then reported the case to Khlong Luang Police Station.
Investigators traced her to the Thanyaburi hotel on September 9, where officers from the ACSC, Provincial Police Region 1 and Pathum Thani police moved in to help her. Inside the room, investigators found old banknotes and coins belonging to her father’s collection, along with three gold items. The source did not establish whether the scammers had instructed her to bring or transfer those valuables. She was taken to Khlong Luang Police Station to file a formal complaint and continue the investigation.