A gang of foreign criminals stole millions of Thai baht by hacking a Thai bank’s ATM network in a theft believed to be linked to a similar one in Taiwan, police said yesterday.
The hackers made off with at least 12 million baht (US$346,000) by inserting cards installed with malware into multiple cash machines run by Thailand’s state-run Government Savings Bank (GSB) late last month.
The theft came shortly after Taiwan announced that a group of foreigners had managed to steal US$2.5 million from First Commercial Bank’s (第一銀行) cash machines using a similar method.
A Latvian, a Romanian and a Moldovan were arrested over the heist in Taiwan, but a number of suspects — including five Russians — managed to flee abroad.
Police in Bangkok yesterday said that GSB had alerted them to a similar hack in what they said was a first for Thailand.
“As of now the evidence we have found makes us confident that this group is linked to the gang who committed a similar robbery in Taiwan,” Police General Panya Mamen said.
At least five foreign suspects traveled from Taiwan to Thailand to carry out the theft, he said.
“Investigators believe their identity is eastern European, though we are investigating whether any Thais were involved,” Panya said, adding that those five had likely left Thailand.
Police said at least 21 ATMs were hacked, some of them spitting out up to a million baht at a time. They said the bank had not immediately noticed the theft.
Those behind the heist stood at the cash machines for long periods of time, usually late at night, prompting police to ask Thais to watch out for strange behavior by foreigners at cash machines.
Police in Taiwan said they recovered about US$2.3 million of the stolen money.
Investigators in Taipei said a server at a London branch of First Commercial Bank was hacked and implanted with malware ahead of the ATM heist.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last