CHIANG RAI: Police have closed down 26 websites used for betting on the 2018 football World Cup, police said.
Sixty-five people suspected of operating the websites have been arrested, and 36 bank accounts holding a total of 73.2 million baht were frozen.
The operation was part of a crackdown on online football gambling in six provinces beginning on July 12, said Pol Maj Gen Surachate Hakpan, the deputy commissioner of the Tourism Police Bureau acting as deputy director of the technology crime suppression centre of the Royal Thai Police.
The six provinces are Sa Kaeo, Chon Buri, Chiang Rai, Songkhla, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Prachuap Khiri Khan.
He said a suspect caught in Chiang Rai was a programmer holding a bachelor's degree in computer engineering with first-class honours.
Police will also close another 400 websites and pursue the webmasters for legal action, he added.
In another internet-related crime in the northernmost province, Mae Yao police in Muang district have arrested Nzeribe Danial Nwaunawo, a Nigerian national, for running a romance scam.
Pol Maj Gen Surachate said the man had created fake Facebook pages using pictures of good-looking American soldiers and businessmen of other nationalities to lure Thai women in search of foreign husbands to transfer money to his bank accounts. Two women had been tricked into transferring a total of about 200,000 baht.
The Nigerian was arrested at a house in Mae Yao area. He was found to be in the country illegally.
