The men were believed to have first contacted the woman, 56-year-old Sawichaya Tratjamnong, with a view to purchase a resort she owned, but ended up duping her into gambling with them.
Ng Ah Jing, 49, Chew Ngan, 76, Loh Chuck Mun, 74, and Lee Kin Chian, 61, were apprehended in a hotel room in Bangkok’s Din Daeng District.
According to the Bangkok Post, police also seized evidence comprising Singapore dollars, US dollars, Malaysian ringgit, Thai baht, wristwatches, mobile phones, and counterfeit US dollars.
The Nation reported that Sawichaya received a phone call from Ng, who expressed interest in purchasing her 0.48-hectare resort in Mae Taeng District, Chiang Mai Province, for 12 million baht, based on a newspaper advertisement that she had put out.
On Dec 27 last year, the two met in a mall in Bangkok’s Lat Phrao District so that Sawichaya could show Ng the title deed, as well as photographs of the resort.
One week later, Ng paid a visit to the resort and this led Sawichaya to believe that he intended to buy the resort.
However, when she went to Bangkok on Jan 17 to collect a 10% deposit for the sale of the property, Ng introduced her to Chew, Loh, and Lee.
Sawichaya told police that the four men then invited her to gamble with them, and that she agreed only because she thought it would “kill time” and would help facilitate the sale of the resort.
However, Sawichaya said she was then taken to a bank to withdraw 850,000 baht, which she had to pay to the Malaysian group. She also had to hand them 3 million baht which she had kept in her car as funds for her business.
After gambling, Sawichaya said she owed the four Malaysians a further US$328,000 (RM1.29 million). The men then allegedly threatened her and told her to hand over her resort as payment for her debt.
Sawichaya lodged a complaint with the Huai Kwang District police the next day.
Police major-general Surachet Hakpan said that the four men admitted to knowing Sawichaya but denied scamming her or stealing her money.
In recent weeks, several Malaysians have been arrested in Thailand for conducting similar scams. Many of them are part of a call-centre syndicate.
In a recent interview with Bernama, Superintendent Ridzuan Abdul Aziz, who is the Malaysian police liaison officer at the embassy in Bangkok, said that the number of Malaysian scammers who had been arrested in Thailand had been increasing, as evidenced by recent raids conducted in Pattaya and Bangkok.