Pattaya —
Thai police shut down an alleged Yakuza call center scam in Pattaya, arresting several suspects and uncovering over 300 million baht in damages to Japanese victims.
At 11:00 AM on January 14th, at the Immigration Bureau office in Nonthaburi province, Pol. Lt. Col. Panthana Nuchnarat, Deputy Commander of Immigration Bureau Division 1, announced the arrest of Mr. Yu Hamaji, a 34-year-old Japanese national and alleged deputy leader of a Yakuza-linked call center gang. The gang was accused of operating a call center scam targeting Japanese citizens.
Pol. Lt. Col. Panthana explained that the arrest stemmed from an investigation started in mid-December 2024. Officers from the Immigration Investigation Bureau uncovered a network of former alleged Yakuza members operating a call center operation in Thailand to scam Japanese people. The investigation led to raids on two luxury pool villas in Chonburi.
The investigation began after the Japanese Embassy in Thailand alerted Thai authorities about a group of Japanese nationals allegedly deceiving elderly Japanese people. The gang tricked the victims into believing they were eligible for health insurance refunds or medical expense reimbursements.
They posed as government officials and contacted victims in Japan, convincing them that they would receive millions of yen in reimbursements. Victims were then told to have at least 500,000 yen in their bank accounts and were then tricked into transferring the money via ATMs to accounts controlled by the suspects. The gang would immediately withdraw the money after each transaction, causing daily losses of tens of millions of yen.
The investigation revealed that the group had set up their call center in Pattaya. Police gathered evidence and secured search warrants from the Pattaya Provincial Court to raid two locations.
The first raid was conducted at a luxury pool villa in Huai Yai subdistrict, where three suspects were arrested. These included:
- Mr. Kenjiro Kimura, 37, Japanese national
- Mr. Takahiro Inoue, 34, Japanese national
- Mr. Katsuhito Yamaguchi, 28, Japanese national
The second raid took place at another luxury pool villa, resulting in the arrest of two more suspects. These included:
- Mr. Ukai Takayuki, 42, Japanese national
- Mr. Hatakana Hajime, 40, Japanese national
From the two raid locations, authorities seized a total of 62 items, including mobile phones, tablets, and bank account books. Police also discovered a list of 37 victims and evidence linking the suspects to the call center operation, such as conversation scripts used to scam victims and personal details of over 50,000 individuals who were deceived. These items were confiscated as evidence.
Pol. Lt. Col. Panthana revealed that the gang scammed Japanese victims of over 24 million yen or around 5 million baht per day, with the total losses worth more than 300 million baht. The stolen money was laundered and reinvested in Thailand through various businesses, where the suspects also used Thai nationals as nominees.
The gang’s deputy leader, Mr. Yu Hamaji, who was also a former Yakuza member, was among those who managed to flee during the raid alongside two associates.
On January 12th, Thai police tracked down and arrested Mr. Yu at Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok as he attempted to flee back to Japan. Thai authorities have coordinated with Japanese officials to assist in gathering evidence and to find two Japanese suspects who remain at large.
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