Reports from Mukdahan Province, Thailand, state that NBTC legal officers and the chairman of the Technology Crime Suppression Division, Pol Gen, in collaboration with local police, have cracked down on an illegal operation for a foreign company (in the Savannakhet Province of Laos) laying cross-border high-speed internet cables for committing cybercrime and telecommunications fraud.
The police found that someone was stealing high-speed internet signals provided at the Thai-Lao border, and the high-speed internet cables were being dragged across the second Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge (Mukdahan - Savannakhet) into Laos.
The proximity of the province's border to Savannakhet Province in Laos, with its wide distribution of network signals, accommodates a large number of users, facilitating call center gangs to deceive the Thai public. In other words, it's akin to establishing a network base in Thailand.
The manager of the NT Engineering Mukdahan branch revealed that the private internet company illegally laying cables across the second Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge was the same company previously found to illegally lay cables into Cambodia in Sajaw Province.
The branch manager further explained that around 2019, a private company requested to provide wired and wireless information and communication internet services.
The police discovered that these cables were used to illegally extend internet access to the neighboring country of Cambodia for conducting online fraud. Subsequently, the police launched an investigation, apprehended the suspects, and closed the case.
In this investigation, the police noticed that the internet line requirements were significantly higher than the average household usage, covering a large commercial area and capable of serving about 10,000 users simultaneously. The police traced the underground cables, which were very concealed.
Previously, this private company had requested internet signal installation services from the NT Engineering Mukdahan branch and was found to be involved in the risk of illegally transmitting internet signals to Savannakhet Province in Laos.
Later, the police requested a suspension of cooperation with this private company. However, the company again requested internet signal installation services, stating it was only for installation in a rental house at the border in Mukdahan Province for ordinary use, not for other purposes.
Upon investigation, it was found that this rental house was just a single-story small rental house, uninhabited, and only used to house various high-speed network service providers' equipment.
It was also discovered that these signal cables were covertly laid from the rental house all the way to the second Friendship Bridge (Mukdahan - Savannakhet), using the bridge to illegally lay the cables into Savannakhet Province in Laos.
Currently, these cross-border internet cables used to support telecommunications fraud and cybercrime within Laos have been cut. Meanwhile, the police will expand the scope of the investigation to bring the masterminds and criminals behind this operation to justice.
