Bangkok, Aug. 23 (CNA) Thai police are seeking their Taiwanese counterpart's assistance to investigate an ATM heist case after Taiwan authorities successfully cracked an international ring involved in a similar ATM theft last month, Taiwan's representative office in Thailand said Tuesday.

Hackers stole 12.29 million baht (US$378,310) from 21 ATMs of Thailand's state-run Government Savings Bank (GSB) in Bangkok and southern provinces July 9 and July 10, according to Thai police.

The thefts have forced the GSB to indefinitely suspend the services of about 4,000 ATMs which were manufactured by a Scottish company. The bank reported the case to Thai police who then turned to Taiwan's representative office in the country requesting help from Taiwan's police authorities.

Taiwan's police have arrested at least three suspects and recovered most of the stolen cash from a cyberheist which occurred between July 9 and 11 when the ring stole NT$83.27 million (US$2.62 million) from 41 of First Bank ATMs in Taipei, New Taipei and Taichung using malware to hack into the bank's computer system.

Thai police are investigating the case and want to learn from the experience of Taiwanese police in dealing with a similar case, according to the Taiwanese representative office.

(By T.C. Liu and Evelyn Kao)
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