Thai police have arrested three Nigerian nationals and a Thai woman in Pattaya on suspicion of running a transnational romance scam operation that used mule bank accounts to channel funds from victims to overseas criminal networks, including to controllers based in Nigeria.
The four suspects were detained on Tuesday, April 28, during a joint raid on a hotel in Nong Prue, Bang Lamung in Chon Buri Province, carried out by tourist police investigators and regional officers from Provincial Police Region 2. Investigators seized 12 mobile phones and 12 bank passbooks from the property during the operation.
The three Nigerian nationals were identified as Chibueze, Miracle, and John, while the Thai suspect was named as 41-year-old Patcharin. Patcharin reportedly confessed to supplying bank accounts to the Nigerian group, including Chibueze, whom she identified as her husband. She told investigators she was paid 2,000 baht for each account and received a further 10 percent commission for withdrawing and transferring money, with daily earnings reportedly reaching as high as 30,000 baht.
Police said the group formed part of a wider international fraud syndicate that lured victims through online romance platforms, persuading them to transfer money into accounts controlled by the network. Funds were moved quickly through a series of intermediary accounts before being transferred to senior figures overseas. All four suspects have been handed to Bang Lamung police and face charges under Thailand’s Technology Crime Prevention and Suppression Act, including facilitating the use of bank accounts for criminal activity and participating in an organised crime network.
Investigators said they would expand the probe to identify additional members of the network. Authorities separately dismantled a related major romance scam network run by a Nigerian national and five Thai accomplices who were accused of defrauding victims of over 114 million baht, with assets valued at over 2.5 million baht seized as proceeds of crime.
The Pattaya arrests are part of a broader regional pattern. In January 2026, Thai police and immigration officers arrested 11 Nigerian nationals and two others in a separate operation, dismantling a 13-member syndicate accused of operating large-scale romance scams after a victim reported being defrauded of over two million baht by a suspect posing as a Chinese engineer on social media.
