Recently, Thai police successfully dismantled a Taiwanese gambling website network that masqueraded as an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) image sales platform, but was actually a large online gambling platform with annual transactions exceeding 500 million Thai Baht.
This operation was led by the Thai Cyber Crime Police Division, with searches conducted at four locations in Bangkok, resulting in the arrest of suspects including five individuals from Taiwan and Myanmar.
The focus of this operation was the online gambling website named "sbfplay.bet".
Investigations revealed that the site lured users by posing as an NFT trading platform. However, upon clicking through, users discovered that the site was actually an online gambling venue offering various forms of gambling including slot machines, fishing games, and live casinos. The site attracted a large number of users, including minors and teenagers, through social media promotions.
During the investigation, police found unusual financial transactions on the gambling site, with preliminary data showing annual turnovers reaching 500 million Thai Baht. To deceive the public, the criminal group presented the website as an NFT trading platform and used online advertising to attract people to participate in gambling. Further investigations provided substantial evidence, leading to the identification of 14 suspects.
In the raids, police confiscated a large amount of evidence from four locations, including luxury cars, computer equipment, 33 mobile phones, multiple bank account details, over 20 SIM cards from Thailand and Laos, and various currencies (Thai Baht, Lao Kip, Vietnamese Dong, etc.). These funds and equipment were used for the operation and financial transactions of the gambling website.
Currently, the suspects have been detained on charges of "organizing online gambling activities, illegal advertising, and money laundering," and the police continue to pursue more individuals involved. The police stated that the crackdown on transnational cybercrime will continue in an effort to curb the spread of these illegal activities.
