Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) has already identified the financial trail concerning the money transferred by the young girl at the centre of an enormous tragedy. Her tearful mother said on Tuesday that she did not understand why her High School daughter failed to tell her about her plan to buy the iPhone 13 she needed for university next year.
Thai police are reaching out to authorities in Myanmar after tracking the financial activities of the gang responsible for an online scam involving the purchase of a non-existent iPhone in instalments, which led, on Sunday, to a 19-year-old girl planning to attend university next year, hanging herself in her bedroom just hours before being discovered by her shocked family. National Police Commissioner General Torsak Sukwimol has prioritised the case, sending officers to Ko Thuat Police Station in Nakhon Si Thammarat, where a war room is helping to coordinate the hunt to arrest everyone linked with this crime.
The Technology Crime Investigation Bureau, based in Muang Thong Thani in Nonthaburi, has identified the gang responsible for the death of a 19-year-old Thai girl in Nakhon Si Thammarat on Sunday night after she became the victim of an online scam to do with the sale of an iPhone 13 mobile phone.
The Mathayom 6 student, identified as Nong Ploy or Atiya, is believed to be the daughter of an armed forces member. National Police Chief General Torsak Sukwimol made the case a top priority.
With public revulsion growing over the tragic death, on Wednesday, there was a 10 am briefing for reporters at the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).
Police Chief Torsak ordered Technology Crime Police to catch the online scammer gang that conned the teenage girl out of ฿20k and led her to suicide
Police General Thana Chuwong, Assistant Police Commander, revealed that the National Police Chief ordered him to do everything possible to apprehend the gang involved in the crime, shocking the nation since it emerged on Tuesday.
Immediately after, the young girl’s body was discovered on Sunday, the tragedy was reported to local police at Nakhon Si Thammarat.
The senior police officer warned young people to contact local police if they are suspicious and considering purchasing something online.
The parents of the 19-year-old girl, after they found their young daughter hanged on Sunday evening, filed the complaint at Ko Thuat Police Station in the Pak Phanang district of Nakhon Si Thammarat in southern Thailand.
Student thought she was buying a top-of-the-range iPhone 13 from a phone shop in Chiang Rai province called Hannahs but was feeding a scammer’s account
The high school student had paid for the top-of-the-range iPhone smartphone via instalments to Hannah’s Mobile Phone Shop in the Mai Sai district of Chiang Rai.
Initially, Nong Ploy or Atiya had sent four payments totalling ฿18,500 to the supposed shop while engaging with what she thought was customer support via chat messaging online.
It is now known she had borrowed from friends and family to make the payments.
Thereafter, when the young woman failed to receive the iPhone, she contacted the shop demanding a refund only to be told that she needed to pay an additional ฿2,000 as a guarantee for the phone, which she also transferred.
The five payments were sent to an account in the name of Ms Dokkaew Kaewjerm.
Friend of the young girl raised the alarm with her family last Sunday before they made an appalling discovery that has left them devastated
Nong Ploy sent a message to her friend at 3:15 pm on Sunday, October 15th, in which she confided that she had been conned with the iPhone instalment plan online.
She expressed fear at her mother’s reaction to her mistake.
Her friend later contacted the young girl’s family when she could not get a response from her friend online.
Later on Sunday, they visited her bedroom in the home and found it locked. Afterwards, horrified family members broke open the door to find the daughter had committed suicide by hanging.
Family members are left traumatised by the loss of Atiya as a power police support team arrives in Nakhon Si Thammarat to set up a war room
An immediate investigation was ordered by Police Lieutenant Colonel Sawat Nayakmet, the Head of Investigation at Ko Thuat police station in Nakhon Si Thammarat, which was joined on Tuesday, October 17th by a high-powered team from Bangkok, sent by the National Police Chief to assist with the investigation.
Subsequently, an incident centre or war room was opened at the station, working with the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).
Additionally, the case has since been transferred from Police Region 8 to the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD), which has already identified four different bank accounts through which the girl transmitted the money online.
The first account was in Chaiyaphum province, while the others were in Chiang Rai.
Gang is based in Myanmar as police received information from Facebook about the operators of the scam, whose beneficiaries are in Tachileik in Shan State
The money, transferred by the 19-year-old, remained in a Chiang Rai account.
However, it is thought to be destined for an account in Myanmar in the notorious Tachileik area in Shan State in the East of the neighbouring country.
Police have also requested data from telephone and communications firms to understand specifically who owned and operated the dangerous Facebook page.
The famous social network is understood to have cooperated with police enquiries fully.
On Wednesday, the National Police Chief General Torsak said that the Royal Thai Police would now be seeking the assistance of their counterparts in Myanmar to reach out and collect further evidence and apprehend those ultimately responsible for the online scam which resulted in the young girl’s death.
Girl wanted an iPhone to go to university next year
Poignantly, as news emerged of the tragedy on Tuesday, her family explained that Atiya wanted the phone before she attended university next year.
At the same time, speaking with reporters, her mother, 47-year-old Ms Boonyuen, became emotional and cried tears when she talked about what had happened to her daughter.
‘This would not have happened if she had told me she intended to buy a smartphone online in instalments. I would never have criticised her because I love her dearly,’ the distraught mother told reporters.
Tearily, she pleaded with the police and relevant authorities to do everything possible to catch those behind the scam which claimed her daughter’s life.
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