Senior police officials are liaising with the Banker’s Association and financial institutions to streamline and synchronise response efforts to freeze bank accounts where money has been lost to online scammers, to track the money and to retrieve it. They are still pursuing the money lost in this case after the murdered woman, Ms Wiphaporn reported the loss to her local police station in Samut Prakan last Friday. An expedited investigation has led Deputy National Police Chief General Surachate Hakparn to track the gang responsible for this case to Poipet in Cambodia on the border near Sa Kaeo Province.
Police in Samut Prakan and Bangkok are responding to the case of a scammer loan application which saw a 45-year-old housewife lose ฿1.7 million last week which was followed by her murder and that of her two young sons early on Monday morning in the Bang Phli district of the province. The appalling tragedy has shocked Thailand and led to the involvement of senior officials at Royal Thai Police headquarters and the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) to track those responsible and improve the response to such cases. Six arrest warrants were issued on Tuesday, five for bank account holders linked to the scam and the sixth for Mr Sanich Dokmai, the 42-year-old man who is charged with the premeditated murder of his family just after midnight on Monday.
The Provincial Police Chief in Samut Prakan has revealed that the force has obtained six arrest warrants related to the tragic murder early on Monday morning of two young schoolboys and their mother at a family home in the province in the Bang Phli district.
The perpetrator of the horrific crime was the father and husband of the family and it is believed that the cause of the violent outburst was debt pressure with the threatened seizure of the family home by the Legal Execution Department over unpaid debt.
News on Monday morning shocked the public and led to a multi-pronged police response at all levels
The news of the murder and attempted suicide by the father of the family Mr Sanich Dokmai has shocked Thailand and caused an outpouring of sympathy.
Debt and ฿1.7 million loss to scammers drive a man to murder his wife and two sons in Samut Prakan
On Tuesday, Police Major General Panlop Aromla confirmed that five of those for which two arrest warrants have been issued are linked to the operation of bank accounts connected with a loan application scam which was reported to local police last Friday, August 25th by the mother and wife, Ms Wiphaporn whose body was found on Monday morning, August 28th last, together with her two school-going sons.
All were murdered by the father of the boys and her husband.
Attempt by the mother and wife to raise a loan to pay off debt and secure the family home led to a horrific chain of events caused by a loan app scam
It is understood that Ms Wiphaporn had used the scam loan application to apply for a facility of ฿1 million but ended up, over a protracted sequence of events, transferring ฿1.7 million to five individuals initially sought for arrest who are believed to be the holders of bank accounts that were used to transfer the money from the family to the ultimate beneficiaries of the scam application located across the border in Cambodia.
The sixth person who was the subject of an arrest warrant is reported to be Mr Sanich Dokmai, the 42-year-old father and husband who committed the atrocity early on Monday morning having first of all phoned his supervisor at a warehouse in Samut Prakan where he worked in logistics.
The supervisor, 46-year-old Ms Tharinee Sengsan, rushed to the family home but was too late.
She discovered the bodies of two young school children, 11-year-old Poonifat Dokmai and 13-year-old Bunyanont in the family home together with their mother, Ms Wiphaporn, who was 45 years old.
National police chief orders campaign to raise awareness of online scams and cybercrime threats to be boosted as witnesses come forward to police
Following the tragedy, National Police Chief General Damrongsak Kittiprapas ordered the involvement of the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) of the Royal Thai Police in tracking the operators of the fake loan application advertised online.
Neighbours, on Tuesday, told police that they believed the debt owed by the family relating to an expensive car they had trouble paying in instalments resulted in a legal order against them and their property, the family home.
It then appears that an attempt to borrow money by Ms Wiphaporn during which she obtained short-term loans from several friends backfired when it was found to be a scam leaving the couple in desperate straits.
Six people who assisted the family financially came forward to give a statement to police so that they could be cleared in the ongoing investigation
It is understood that at least six people associated with the family reported to the police on Tuesday on monies owed to them or loans advanced on an informal basis so that they would be cleared of any suspicion of wrongdoing.
Some reported advancing funds without entering into any loan contract with the family whose affairs were handled by Ms Wiphaporn as is the custom for many Thai families.
One of them, a friend of ten years, told police that the now-murdered woman had phoned last week in tears when the loan application scam became apparent.
The amounts loaned by the friends of the family ranged from ฿100,000 to ฿900,000 with a total of ฿1.39 million advanced.
Man who murdered his family in hospital as officers reveal his wife contacted the local police station to report the loss to the scam only last Friday
The perpetrator of the murder, 42-year-old Mr Sanich Dokmai was found in his bedroom on the second floor of the three-storey townhouse in Bang Phli on Monday morning unconscious with a wound to his neck and throat area and his wrists slit at the same time as his wife and 11-year-old son were found dead downstairs at the entrance to the home on the first floor with the body of his 13-year-old son in another bedroom on the second floor having suffered a large number of stab wounds after his father went berserk.
It is reported that Mr Sanich was in a weak physical condition when taken to Paolo Hospital in Samut Prakan.
Police at Bang Kaew Police Station, on Tuesday, also revealed that Ms Wiphaporn, murdered on Monday morning at the hands of her husband, had contacted officers after the family lost ฿ 1.7 million to the scam loan application on August 25th or last Friday.
This was just two and a half days before the tragedy unfolded at the family home when Mr Sanich lost all reason and murdered his wife and young sons in a frenzied attack.
Government agencies come out to urge those in the population dealing with debt and in stressful situations to seek help and support from authorities
The murder and tragedy on Monday has seen a response from government agencies including the Department of Women’s Affairs, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and the Department of Mental Health at the Ministry of Public Health.
‘We have come out to urge members of the public who are experiencing problems with debt or associated threats of violence within families to come forward and report them to police and government agencies,’ Chintana Chanbamrung, the Director of the Department of Women’s Affairs at the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, told reporters on Tuesday.
She emphasised that the stress caused by debt in Thai families is a major issue at this point in time.
Police say money can be frozen and retrieved within a 72-hour window and urge quick action by those who have been conned into transferring funds
Senior police officers at Royal Thai Police Headquarters in Bangkok, working with the National Police Commissioner, on Tuesday, also advised anyone linked with scams, in particular relating to loan applications, to immediately contact police and request that accounts to which monies have been transferred be frozen.
They said that police have the ability to track and seize such funds if given proper notice.
Officers say that it is possible to take effective action within 72 hours to trace and possibly retrieve the funds, although they admit that there are imperfections in the financial system which create blind spots.
Police are still tracking the loss of funds by the Samut Prakan family at this time.
The DeputyNational Police Chief, General Surachate Hakparn, on Wednesday, said he was readying to go to Cambodia and to work with police in the neighbouring kingdom as investigators tracked the gang responsible for this outrage to the border boom town of Poipet, Cambodia near the Thai border in Sa Kaeo Province.
July cybercrime campaign ratcheted up
The National Police Chief, General Damrongsak Kittiprapas, meanwhile, has ordered that a national cybercrime awareness campaign, launched in July, be stepped up as it is believed to be the most effective response to the growing threat faced by the Thai public from international scammers who appear to be able to access the entire population through social media pages and smartphone instant messaging at will, is prior knowledge and familiarity with the threat.
Campaign begins to fight cybercrime in Thailand with 800 criminal cases being reported per day
In July, while launching a campaign to tackle the problem, General Damrongsak revealed that between March 1st, 2022 and June 30th, 2023 there were no less than 287,122 criminal cases linked to cybercrime activity in Thailand resulting in a loss of up to ฿40 billion.
He said that the Royal Thai Police is now dealing with 800 reported criminal cases a day.
Tussle over the bodies of Ms Wiphaporn and her two sons resolved between the families as money is raised by the young boy’s school to ease the suffering
Adding to the distress of Ms. Wiphaporn’s family 0n Tuesday, the father of the woman told reporters the remains of his daughter and two sons were removed by Mr Sanich’s family to Kamphaeng Phet province for funeral rites despite an earlier agreement with the proceedings would take place at Wat Nam Daeng in Samut Prakan.
It is understood that the matter was later resolved between the parties as the school attended by the two sons issued an appeal to raise funds for the families to alleviate the distress and trauma after the heart-breaking incident and pay for expenses.
On Wednesday, up to ฿2.3 million had been generated for relatives of the deceased with school authorities indicating that the money could be used to defray both funeral expenses and other reasonable costs incurred by the families involved.
Senior officials from Royal Thai Police headquarters are also reported to have contacted the Thai Bankers Association to further improve the ability of police officers, investigating such matters, to be able to quickly freeze accounts and to synchronise activities between banks and the police when such matters are reported by the public going forward.
Police are advising the public to report such incidents quickly both to their banks and local police stations.
Join the Thai News forum, follow Thai Examiner on Facebook here
Receive all our stories as they come out on Telegram here
Follow Thai Examiner here
Further reading:
Debt and ฿1.7 million loss to scammers drive man to murder his wife and two sons in Samut Prakan
Loan shark arrested in Nonthaburi for bullying a borrower charged an annual interest rate of 730%
Bank of Thailand to tackle household debt in new plan from 2024 which will see higher standards
Politicians skating on thin ice as the economy may not be able to withstand a political stalemate
Debt crisis may be one of the top items on the new cabinet’s agenda as central bank stands ready
Potential hazard lights flashing as kingdom’s auto loans spiral into default with sky-high borrowing
Bank of Thailand governor gives veiled warning to voters on the danger posed by populist policies
Financial markets debt sell-off sending a signal to Thailand before the May 14th General Election
PM warns giveaway policies of some parties may be ‘bad karma’ for the country in the longer run
Economic recovery shaky despite strong foreign tourism as global economic outlook deteriorates
Recession fears rise as growth projections are cut and export output continues to decline in 2023
Economy faces export clogs with rules in China and ‘green imperialism’ from European Union
Vital European Union free trade deal with Thailand with stiff demands from Brussels to take time
Thailand’s financials are sound but the economy is exposed if another world banking crisis emerges
Thai economic woes grow with a 10-year high trade deficit as January exports slumped by 4.5%
Credit crunch as firms seek more bank loans with tightened lending criteria and recession fears
Even as the baht surges, Thailand faces economic recession in mid-2023 with lower earnings
