Chinese, Thai police bust cross-border credit card fraud ring

BEIJING, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said on Thursday that Chinese and Thai police recently worked together to bust a major cross-border credit card fraud ring targeting Chinese citizens, arresting nine suspects.

The operation, jointly carried out by the MPS and Thailand's Royal Thai Police headquarters, resulted in the arrest of four Chinese nationals and five Thai nationals, the ministry noted in a statement.

The two sides coordinated the timing of the crackdown and dismantled several criminal sites, arresting the suspects, the ministry said.

According to the statement, Chinese police uncovered the transnational criminal ring in 2025 and promptly shared information about the case with their Thai counterparts and sought their assistance.

Investigations found that two of the suspects had conspired, with one allegedly operating a shop in Thailand as a front for illegally obtaining victims' credit card information, while the other allegedly used the stolen data to make counterfeit cards and recruited people to use the cards for fraudulent transactions and launder the illicit proceeds for profit. Authorities have so far identified more than 5 million yuan (about 736,500 U.S. dollars) in financial losses linked to this case.

The operation marked the first coordinated joint law enforcement action by police from the two countries in recent years targeting economic crime, the ministry said.

It added that the two sides will explore establishing a regular cooperation mechanism to combat cross-border economic crimes, with plans to deepen collaboration in areas including information sharing, exchange of expertise, joint analysis, the pursuit of suspects, and the recovery of illicit proceeds.