Bangkok--14 Feb--Vero PR
Police officers are investigating and seeking to arrest a man for posing as a police official and seeking money from companies suspected of selling pirated products.
Police were contacted last week by the operator of a web business who said he received a suspicious email from an individual posing as a member of the Economic and Cyber Crime Division (ECD), a police force playing a significant role in cracking down on software piracy among businesses. The fraudulent email threatened to close the web business if demands for cash were not met. The email, written from a Gmail account and claiming to represent ECD, offered one year of protection in exchange for tens of thousands of baht in cash.
Police said they are dedicating resources to track down imposters and will prosecute imposters to the fullest extent of the law.
“We will find out who is behind this and arrest them,” said Police Colonel Chainarong Charoenchainao. “Intellectual property violation is a serious issue for Thailand and impacts our country’s reputation internationally. Anyone seeking to gain at the expense of Thailand’s image deserves the strongest punishment available under the law.”
Chainaranong stated that email threats seeking cash payments from anonymous email aliases are clearly the work of fraudsters and should be disregarded. He said that anyone who thinks they may have been contacted by a possible fraudster should contact him personally at ECD headquarters.
“Piracy effects us all negatively and brings only harm to Thailand,” said Chainarong. “Reduction of piracy needs to be a national priority. We need to reward and nurture creative innovators, and protecting their intellectual property rights through enforcement of the law is our duty. The government’s policy of Creative Economy depends upon good protection of intellectual property rights. Fraud of any kind related to the enforcement of intellectual property rights will not be tolerated.”