Police have arrested two African men for allegedly scamming businessmen into paying them huge sums of money for fake US dollar notes, which the victims thought were real.
Metropolitan Police Division 1 Commander Maj-Gen Teerasak Nguangbunjong said the two suspects had been arrested at 9pm on Sunday after undercover police offered to give them money in exchange for the fake US banknotes.
The suspected con artists were identified as Edwin Sayed Payed, 33, from Liberia, and Ofori Boateng, 26, from Ghana.
The two men allegedly deceived their victims, several of whom were Malaysian businessmen, by saying they had stolen US banknotes that had been sent to Sierra Leone by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The two men allegedly told their victims that the bank notes had been stamped with special ink by USAID to prevent them from being stolen, Teerasak said.
They then allegedly said that a special chemical was needed to erase USAID's ink mark from the notes before they could be spent.
A group of Malaysian businessman allegedly paid some US$85,000 (Bt3.5 million) to buy the chemical to treat the notes, Teerasak said.
He said the alleged con artists had placed a real note on top of a stack of fake notes and then erased the USAID sign in front of their victims.
The victims later realised that the rest of the notes were fake after trying to exchange or spend the money, Teerasak said. Thai police had sought the help of their Malaysian counterparts while planning the arrest.
During the raid, police found 4,500 fake $100 notes and 1,400 fake $50 notes in a bag. James Gehr, a US embassy representative, praised Thai police for having caught the alleged gang of con men and for seizing the fake banknotes.
Police have arrested two African men for allegedly scamming businessmen into paying them huge sums of money for fake US dollar notes, which the victims thought were real.
Metropolitan Police Division 1 Commander Maj-Gen Teerasak Nguangbunjong said the two suspects had been arrested at 9pm on Sunday after undercover police offered to give them money in exchange for the fake US banknotes.
The suspected con artists were identified as Edwin Sayed Payed, 33, from Liberia, and Ofori Boateng, 26, from Ghana.
The two men allegedly deceived their victims, several of whom were Malaysian businessmen, by saying they had stolen US banknotes that had been sent to Sierra Leone by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The two men allegedly told their victims that the bank notes had been stamped with special ink by USAID to prevent them from being stolen, Teerasak said.
They then allegedly said that a special chemical was needed to erase USAID's ink mark from the notes before they could be spent.
A group of Malaysian businessman allegedly paid some US$85,000 (Bt3.5 million) to buy the chemical to treat the notes, Teerasak said.
He said the alleged con artists had placed a real note on top of a stack of fake notes and then erased the USAID sign in front of their victims.
The victims later realised that the rest of the notes were fake after trying to exchange or spend the money, Teerasak said. Thai police had sought the help of their Malaysian counterparts while planning the arrest.
During the raid, police found 4,500 fake $100 notes and 1,400 fake $50 notes in a bag. James Gehr, a US embassy representative, praised Thai police for having caught the alleged gang of con men and for seizing the fake banknotes.
