Acting on information received from the Australian Federal Police, Thai police raided a rented house in the Samut Prakan suburb of Bangkok.  The Central Investigation Bureau told journalists that 13 people, mainly Australian and British nationals, had been arrested for involvement in a high-pressure telephone sales investment fraud.

This type of fraud has been running for decades but became centred on South East Asia when voice over IP telephony dropped the cost of telephone calls to near zero. Young, mainly, men flocked to call centres across the region, living the high-life on outragious commissions earned on the sales of worthless shares.

The fraud, known as "boiler room" has been very successful for many years. Often it targets retirees. 

In this version, the police said, online adverts and cold calling produced leads for the sale of another old standby: the High Yield Investment fraud. On this occasion, they promoted long-term investment bonds. 

Allegedly run by two people, one British and one Australian, the fraud targeted, primarily, British and Australian victims but they were happy to trick anyone who communicated in English. 

Working in cubicles from carefully prepared scripts with defined workflows to improve efficiency, the office operated as if in the time zones of their targets and results were marked on a scoreboard. 

Surveillance by Thai authorities and the Australian Federal police showed a business-like attitude with operators coming and going at regular hours, contrary to the usual image of a fraud factory. Indeed, this is the original model where people literally go to work as a fraudster just as they would in any other office job.

Those arrested included six Britons, five Australians, one Canadian and one South African who, the police said, have all claimed that they thought they were working in a legitimate company selling genuine investments. 

But none of them had the appropriate employment visa. Some had abused the retirement visa schemes and others were on educational visas. Charges for a range of offences have been laid and more are pending. 

The two organisers are at large: it is alleged that they had previously operated in Indonesia then moved to Thailand when it appeared they may have been found out.