Authorities in Thailand are unspooling a “phantom birth’’ racket involving possibly hundreds of babies – mainly Chinese – falsely registered as Thais by corrupt officials so that their parents can gain land and company ownership rights.

Scores of birth certificates have come under scrutiny, with several officials arrested for suspected bribery in a scam that first came to light in northern Chiang Mai, but has now clustered around a Bangkok suburb and northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima province.

Babies born to Chinese parents have been registered at addresses that no longer exist or to households without children. Local men have also been paid – or unwittingly used – to be named as fathers on birth certificates so that the babies automatically become Thai citizens.

Police from a task force set up to probe the widening scandal believe that some of the false registrations may be linked to Chinese cyber scammers seeking to launder money through companies they can fully control.

Last week, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters his government would leave no stone unturned in cracking down on the scam whose full scale is yet to be understood.

“It started from a small point in the north, expanded gradually, and has now reached Bangkok,” he told reporters on Thursday. “There are still thousands more cases. We already have a good picture of these networks and their operations. We believe they will stop using the old methods and try to find new ones – but it won’t be as easy as before.”