An Indian man and three Thai women were detained for questioning during police raids on 36 premises on Tuesday targeting phone scammers who tricked 365 elderly Americans into sending them more than 3 billion baht.
The morning raids were in Chon Buri, Rayong, Samut Prakan and Roi Et provinces.
At a house in Bang Lamung district in Chon Buri, many bank account books, 10 mobile phones, four cars and one gun were seized. The house owner, an Indian man, and three Thai women were taken in for questioning.
The FBI and US Secret Service had received a report that many US citizens had fallen victim to phone scammers claiming to be FBI agents.
They were fooled into transferring their money "for examination". They were told there were unusual transactions linked to their bank accounts, police said.
Most of the victims were aged 60 years or more. Over the past two years, a total of 365 Americans had been swindled out of the equivalent of more than 3 billion baht by the scammers, police said.
