Bangkok police arrest Vietnamese man for sending out ‘cash on delivery’ parcels to random people

The suspect, identified as Nguyen Van Viet, 40, was arrested at a house in Bangkok’s Lat Krabang district on Friday.

In the raid, police found 468 parcels that had been rejected by the addressees as well as more than 5,000 pieces of low-quality or counterfeit electrical appliances and products like wristwatches, vacuum cleaners, blenders, and power banks. The total value of the products was estimated to be 600,000 baht.

Pol Maj-General Theeradej Thammasutee, chief of investigation at the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said on Saturday that the suspect allegedly operated an online store that sent low-quality products to customers, many of which were rejected.

The suspect then sent the goods randomly to customers on his list, even though they were not ordered, Theeradej said. He explained these parcels were sent on a “cash on delivery” basis, and many recipients paid for products they had not ordered.

“This business has caused problems for many people, and several have filed police complaints. Some did not bother because the money lost was too little. This is not a serious crime, but we [police] have to deal with it because it disturbs people,” Theeradej said.

The suspect faces charges of colluding in public embezzlement, committing deception, entering false information into a computer system, and money laundering.

The man has denied all the charges, claiming that the business had been started by another Vietnamese man, who asked him to join mid-last year. The suspect, however, refused to identify the source of the fake, low-quality goods in his possession, police said.