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.
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