Police probe possible scam link after Russian woman found in Mae Sai
Police in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai, are tracing suspects after a 19-year-old Russian woman was found injured, with officers examining a possible link to a scam network.
- A 19-year-old Russian woman was found injured in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai, prompting a police investigation.
- Authorities are probing a potential link to a transnational scam network operating across the Thai-Myanmar border.
- Police suspect the woman was lured to the border town of Tachileik, Myanmar, with a fraudulent offer of a high-paying job.
- Investigators believe she was assaulted and then abandoned in Thailand after she may have realized she was deceived or refused to cooperate with the network.
Police in Mae Sai are tracing suspects after a 19-year-old Russian woman was found injured at a shopping centre in Chiang Rai, with investigators examining whether she may have been deceived by a transnational scam network operating across the Myanmar border.
Pol Col Jiraphas Saksung, superintendent of Mae Sai Police Station, was notified at around 3.45pm on Sunday (August 9) that an injured foreign woman had been found in the Zone A3 car park at the Lotus’s Mae Sai branch in Wiang Phang Kham subdistrict, Mae Sai district.
Patrol officers were sent to the scene, where they found the woman showing signs of multiple injuries. Her passport identified her as Mariia Tsygankova, 19, a Russian national. Officers took her to Mae Sai Hospital for medical treatment.
Jiraphas subsequently instructed investigators to arrange for an interpreter to conduct a preliminary interview with the woman at the hospital.
According to information relayed through the interpreter, Tsygankova had left Russia to work in China before flying to Thailand. She later travelled to Yangon in Myanmar and eventually reached Tachileik, a Myanmar border town opposite Mae Sai in Chiang Rai.
Police are examining whether she was lured by a scam network with the promise of highly paid work. Investigators believe she may have realised she had been deceived after reaching Tachileik or may have refused to follow the group’s instructions.
Police suspect she was then assaulted before being taken across the Thai-Myanmar border through an unofficial crossing and left at the shopping centre in Mae Sai. The circumstances have not yet been independently established and remain under investigation.
Pol Lt Col Mekhin Kongsaeng, an investigation inspector at Mae Sai Police Station, has been assigned to work with tourist police and patrol officers to trace those involved. Investigators are reviewing CCTV footage in an effort to identify the people who brought the woman to the area.
Police have also contacted the Russian Embassy in Thailand so that her family can be informed. The woman remained deeply distressed and frightened while receiving treatment at Mae Sai Hospital. Police have assigned officers to provide security while the investigation continues.
Authorities in Tachileik, meanwhile, have continued operations targeting suspected scam networks and illegal online gambling operations.
