Thai police have arrested 327 suspects and 55 recruiters and ringleaders linked to mule-account networks as part of a nationwide crackdown and a wide-ranging effort to address financial crime in Thailand.
The arrests were part of the nationwide “Lightning Strike: Shaking Mule Accounts Across the Country” operation, conducted between November 18 and 26, 2025. The operation sought to dismantle criminal networks, targeting account holders who rent out or sell their bank accounts for criminal use, as well as the recruiters who organize them, The Nation Thailand reported.
Police Lieutenant General Jirabhop Phuridej, Assistant National Police Chief and Deputy Director of the Technology Crime Suppression Centre said that as of November 24, the operation had resulted in the arrest of 339 suspects court warrants, with 209 confessing to opening mule accounts. Further investigation traced 25 additional suspects.
Officers also uncovered 87 individuals involved in “real-time” scam operations, 58 of whom admitted being paid to open mule accounts. The probe expanded to identify 30 more key operators.
Growing scale of financial crime
The crackdown also exposed transnational criminal activity, highlighting the international scale of some of these networks.
15 foreign nations who allegedly ran a website scamming Turkish victims through fake cryptocurrency investments were arrested, alongside a Chinese national believed to be responsible for managing cash withdrawals for a call-center criminal network.
Authorities also carried out raids to shut down SIM box operations, leading to the confiscation of 12 devices and the arrest of two suspects. A SIM box is a device that can hold many SIM cards and is often used to reroute phone calls and messages in bulk. When used illegally, it’s commonly linked to telephone scams or spam.
The operation also dismantled a so-called “mule-farm” where people were paid to scan their faces and open digital TrueMoney accounts for scam operations.
Police also arrested a female call-center worker alleged of deceiving a victim into handing over THB 5.8 million (US$182,000) in cash and 10 baht-weight of gold on her doorstep, the Bangkok Post reported. In addition, a hybrid scam network combining romance and investment fraud was broken up, with over 12 suspects detained.
These raids are part of a nationwide effort to curb financial crime, which has become increasingly prevalent in Thailand. Between November 01, 2023, and June 27, 2025, the Anti Online Scam Operation Centre (AOC) received more than 1.18 million cases of online scams.
The unit, supervised by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, was launched in November 2023 to help address the rise of online scams, serving as the primary agency for reporting, preventing, and managing cases of online scams. Daily losses from scam-related crimes amount to an estimated THB 60-70 million (US$1.9-2.2 million), according to The Nation Thailand.
New rules tackling money laundering
These operations come in addition to a new set of regulations aimed at blocking the illicit use of nominee shareholders and money mule accounts by criminal enterprises. Thailand’s Department of Business Development (DBD) announced last week five key measures that tighten controls at the point of business registration and which involve enhanced data integration and stricter personal verification.
The measures include:
- Expanding the DBD’s vetting of high-risk individuals, with 40 suspicious cases already identified from a list of 90,000 names provided by collaborating agencies;
- Granted the DBD access to the Ministry of Finance’s database of 13.4 million State Welfare Cardholders, and requiring individuals named on company’s registration forms to personally appear and provide evidence of their financial status;
- Setting up new systems to flag high-risk behaviors, such as individuals registering or directing multiple companies from the same office address, and requesting new registrants to appear in person;
- Requiring the agent and the person certifying the signature to appear in-person and sign before a DBD official to verify their identities; and
- Suspending the rights of the registered system users who fail to comply with the new requirements, with offenders facing prosecution and license revocation.
The measures will be submitted for discussion at the National Committee on Foreign Business Law Enforcement (NCFBLE) on December 09, and are set to be fully implemented by the end of 2025.
They follow a two-month investigation which resulted in 72 nominee cases being forwarded for prosecution. A further 448 large businesses, including numerous real-estate firms with substantial foreign investment, are currently undergoing in-depth investigation.
In parallel, Thailand has also limited individuals from holding a maximum of five SIM cards across all mobile operators to prevent scammers from acquiring numerous untraceable numbers.
Furthermore, Bank of Thailand (BoT) has been tasked with introducing additional safeguards against mule accounts, with a focus on repeat offenders. These measures include setting limits on the number of accounts an individual can hold and potentially allowing only a single account for livelihood purposes for those previously linked to mule activity. Additionally, any person who commits a repeat offense will face the immediate closure of all their bank accounts.
Banking disruption
These initiatives follow widespread account freezes in September after authorities widened investigations into transfers linked to mule accounts in a bid to trace and return stolen funds. These mass freezes targeted accounts suspected of receiving money from scammers, but in the process, also affected innocent account holders, fueling fear among the public. On Reddit, some users said they had begun keeping more cash at home for fear of having their accounts frozen and being unable to pay their bills.
The freezes caused further disruption across the banking sector. In some cases, banks failed to update end-of-day transactions, leaving accounts showing outdated balances. In others, the frozen amount exceeded the actual balance, resulting in negative figures being displayed.
Daranee Saeju, BoT Assistant Governor in charge of consumer protection, said that authorities were working on improve the freezing and unfreezing procedures so scammers were dealt with effectively while ensuring innocent customers were not affected. Agencies will also speed up the release of funds for individuals found to be uninvolved in scams, she added.
According to the Nation Thailand, approximately 10,000 accounts were suspended in total. However, a review of over 100 cases on September 14 showed that only 11, or 10%, of those accounts were actually unblocked, as most were found to have a direct link to the fraudulent money trail.
Southeast Asia: a hub for online scams
Southeast Asia has become a hotspot for large-scale online scams, with transnational criminal networks operating “scam factories” that use romance and investment schemes to defraud victims on an industrial scale. Those conducting the scams are often trafficked foreign nationals, trapped and forced to carry out online fraud under threat of torture.
These scam operations are mainly found in Cambodia and in Myanmar’s border regions along Thailand. In response, the Thai government cut off in February 2025 electricity and oil supplies to five key border areas in Myanmar, where call-center gangs are believed to operate.
Efforts have also intensified to restrict Internet access to Cambodian border regions suspected of housing scam operations, with mobile network operators in Thailand instructed to lower the height of cell towers along the border to prevent signals from reaching Cambodia.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on images by wirestock and kobackpacko via Freepik