Singaporean Man Arrested for scamming $22.4M From Victims Through "Tidex" Application

A 32-year-old Singaporean man tied to a crypto scam gang has been arrested in Thailand for his role in a 22.4 million dollar scam. Thai media, citing an arrest warrant issued by the Phrakhanong Criminal Court in Bangkok, reported that the 32-year-old man, who had been identified by only his surname, was suspected of opening a digital wallet account to store the ill-gotten proceeds from the victims. The ring built a fraudulent application to deceivingly resemble the the real crypto platform Tidex, luring users with promises of high investment returns, ultimately tricking many victims into transferring large amounts of funds into the wallet with the victims not receiving any investment. Thai police, under" Operation Lock Star," arrested 13 gang members across Bangkok, Chiang Rai, Rayong and Phuket, among which were the ring leaders (A chinese national woman, 29 and a Thai man, 38), a Singaporean and a Vietnamese man. This is the Thai police's second crackdown on the Lock Star gang. Back in July, six members were arrested, linked to both crypto and call-centre scams using a similar playbook - converting stolen crypto into local currency or using victims accounts for laundering. During the arrest, investigators also seized over 14M baht in assets, including luxury homes, cars and land titles. Meanwhile, the suspects are currently facing charges for illegal assembly, participation in a transnational criminal organisation, and money laundering.