Asia (Page 2,518)

Dr Chakriwat ‘Than Aong’ Vivacharawongse, the third son of His Majesty the King, has arrived in Thailand to join his brother, Vacharaesorn.

The two sons visited the kingdom’s first hospital, the 135-year-old Siriraj Hospital, and paid their respects to an image of their late grandfather King Rama IX and their great-grandparents there yesterday.

Dr Chakriwat, 40, arrived on Saturday following the visit of Vacharaesorn ‘Than Aon’ Vivacharawongse, 42, who was a surprise arrival last Sunday having spent almost 30 years away from the kingdom.

The two planned to leave for the United States together later.

His younger brother’s arrival prompted Mr Vacharaesorn to postpone his departure yesterday in favour of showing his brother around for a few days.

The brothers visited Ayutthaya province on Saturday. They also planned to take a skytrain and an electric boat trip.

Dr Chakriwat is also the founder of New York’s Chakriwat Medical Information Center. He expressed his interest in giving lectures to medical students or providing medical consulting to Siriraj Hospital. His interest is fully supported by his older brother, he said.

Victims told to record cash pleas to families

Gangsters forced university students to film fake abduction videos that they intended to send to victims’ parents to demand ransom money.

The case surfaced after another university student in Lat Krabang district fell victim to the same trick and was rescued on Friday. Police suspect the call centre gangs operated from Myanmar and Cambodia.

Pol Maj Gen Panthana Nuchanart, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau (IB) and chief of ️Police Cyber Taskforce (PCT) Team 1, yesterday said police had rescued another victim who was tricked into wiring money to call-centre scammers.

The incident happened on Aug 7 when one of the scammers called the victim, a third-year student at a university in Bang Khen district of Bangkok, and claimed they were staff at the Thailand Post Office in Songkhla province.

They told her that her bank passbook had been found in a package which was linked to a money-laundering activity.

Inside the said package were 12 Myanmar passports, nine ATM cards and eight bank passbooks including the victim’s, claimed the scammer.

The scammer then suggested the victim file a report to Songkhla police and volunteered to get her through the process, knowing that the victim was unable to travel to the southern province herself.

They later invited another colleague from the call centre to pose as the superintendent of Songkhla police station. The fake police questioned if the victim had received an unusual amount of money sent to her bank account and she found that a transaction worth 13,00 baht from an unknown bank account had been made earlier that day.

Pol Maj Gen Panthana said the scammers had sent fake documents of the victim showing her ID number and her full name, convincing her that they were actual police.

Being told that she was involved in the money-laundering case, the scammers proceeded to direct the victim to sign up for a new phone number and move out to a hotel room in Rangsit area in Pathum Thani before deleting all her social media accounts on her mobile phone.

She was instructed to sign up for a new Line account on her iPad and only chat with the scammers who were disguised as officials from the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo). Her incommunicado state was constantly observed by scammers through video calls.

The scammers told the victim to tie her hands and ankles with duct tape and film herself as if she had been abducted. They later sent the videos and photos of the victim to her mother, tricking her into believing that the victim was kidnapped for ransom.

Pol Maj Gen Panthana said that once officers had arrived at the hotel in Pathum Thani to rescue the victim, the scammers immediately hung up on the call. An investigation showed they are based in Thachikek town in Myanmar.

Another case occurred on Friday. A second-year university student in Lat Krabang district was given the same script, but Thailand Post Office claimed the victim had mailed an illegal item to Songkhla province.

Later, the victim was asked to wire money from all of her accounts to the scammers as they claimed that they had to look into the transaction history of her bank accounts. They also demanded a 3-million-baht ransom, claiming that she was held hostage and her fingers would be cut if the family did not wire the money.

Gambling addiction fuelled by poverty, researchers find, writes Penchan Charoensuthipan

Social workers say gambling addiction among blue-collar workers is fuelled by social and welfare issues, not by an individual’s passion as many might have thought. NGOs and government agencies are working together to provide rehabilitation.

Asst Prof Pattamaporn Sooksomsod, from Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Rajabhat University, said gambling addiction arises from workers being paid too little to feed their family.

Most workers in factories work overtime, which takes away their free time for other recreational activities.

“Everyone has their own Facebook account. Just type in a few words and a list of gambling websites shows up. There will also be game plans for gamblers and 24-hour group chats for people to access online gambling. It only takes a few seconds after wiring the money to access the games,” she said.

Based on her research about the effects of online gambling among workers in the manufacturing industry in Ayutthaya, workers do not see online gambling as a problem. Instead, it’s their side income.

Many have set up limit such as not losing more than 300 baht per day. They often think the money they earn from gambling can contribute to their daily expenses. Still, few keep a tally of how much they have lost.

Players aim to make high returns from the games but they are more likely to end up heavily indebted to loan sharks. Once their financial situation deteriorates, the stress tends to affect their relationships, work and health.

The most popular online gambling games among workers include slot machines, the illegal lottery and sports betting, she told participants in the “Gambling Activities in a Daily Life of Workers in Manufacturing Industry” seminar, organised recently by the Center for Gambling Studies and the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation with support from the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth).

A glimpse of wealth

Asst Prof Tanit Toadithep, from Burapha University, said workers who gamble are often the family’s main breadwinner. They do not wish to spend their lives working in factories but would rather save a sum of money large enough to start a small business at home.

But most workers still live from hand to mouth. Many who work in industrial estates pay off pickup trucks or motorcycles by instalment because public transport is not available in the area. Gambling offers a rare ray of hope.

”However, the more they bet, the more they lose,” Asst Prof Tanit said.

He gave as an example workers in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC): when gambling addicts lose control over their betting, they will try everything to make a return. Eventually, they could end up losing all their money, breaking up with their partner and might even quit their job.

Assoc Prof Lae Dilokvidhyarat, president of the Gambling Rehabilitation Direction Division of ThaiHealth, agreed that gambling addiction among low-income workers is the result of poverty.

“We tend to think about gambling addiction as an individual issue but it is actually a social and welfare issue which requires work from various agencies to solve,” he said.

He proposed workers must be paid a reasonable wage which satisfies their life demands. Once they earn enough, the stress that poverty brings will disappear. Then, there will be no point in betting their hard-earned money on games that are impossible to win.

Suppressing gambling

Jirasak Lamlert, president of Nippon Steel Corp Labour Union, said most gambling addicts spend 5-10% of their wages on betting games. Instead of gambling, the union has tried to convince workers to save the same amount for family or household expenses.

Many employers in manufacturing have joined anti-gambling campaigns, as the outcome directly benefits business and union relations, he said.

Wongjan Janyim, coordinator of the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, said anti-gambling campaigns sponsored by ThaiHealth offer counselling to workers addicted to gambling, and help them quit their habit.

Ms Wongjan said the network has labour unions to the campaigns. Around 70% of participants are now spending less money on betting and have started to save enough for their families, she said.

Phuket hotel ‘disturbs’ sea turtles

Phuket: Local activists are calling on the government to take back sea-gypsy ancestral land being leased to a hotel on Mai Khao beach.

About 20 members of a network for Andaman coast sea gypsies and activists petitioned the provincial office and MPs from the Move Forward Party (MFP) to save the land from commercial development.

Local heritage and the natural habitat of sea turtles are under threat, they said.

The petition was handed to Phuket deputy governor Anuphap Rodkwan Yodrabam and MFP MPs Somchart Thechathaworncharoen, who represents Phuket’s Constituency 1, Poonsak Janjampee, and Julapong Yooket.

Orawan Hanthaleh, a network member, said the area have been sacred to sea gypsies for generations, she added, noting the local community has worked with the authorities in the Sirinat National Park to preserve the land.

Earlier this year, a barbed-wire fence was erected around the area, with the authorities announcing it was public land rented by a hotel.

Ms Orawan said that apart from the ritual site, the area is where the community makes a living from fishing and where sea turtles lay their eggs. The network has issued demands to state ministries to tackle the land problem.

First, the provincial governor must review the permit granted to the hotel, order the hotel to remove the fence around the area and stay off the land until the dispute is resolved, it said.

Second, the Finance Ministry, which oversees the use of the public land, must immediately suspend the lease of the land as hotel operations may threaten the sea turtles and the sea gypsies’ way of life, it said.

Third, the Culture Ministry must declare the area a protected area for the preservation of indigenous values, it said.

Fourth, the media and the general public must keep an eye on the area to prevent a land grab, it said.

Ms Orawan said all relevant miniastries must work together to resolve the issue within 15 days or the network will protest in Bangkok.

Mr Anuphap yesterday said the provincial office will ask the Thalang district chief and the local treasury office about the use of the land, how it was leased and its impact on the local community.

The network’s petition will be forwarded to the provincial governor, he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Somchart said the issue will be raised in parliament with the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment called in to explain.

Mr Poonsak said the land is culturally sensitive. Before any construction can be approved, it must pass an environmental impact assessment, he said.