Armed forces leaders were yesterday briefed that police are stepping up efforts to confiscate the assets of criminals who use the internet to commit fraud.
Chatrapee Poonsri, spokeswoman for the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters, said that the Royal Thai Police's online operations report had been discussed at their weekly meeting yesterday, particularly the measures being used to curb the growing problem of online crime.
Citing the report, Col Chatrapee said that online crimes that were being prioritised for asset confiscation would include the drug trade, gambling and terrorism.
Col Chatrapee said that the meeting also discussed ways in which both the police and military forces could modernise in order to remain on top of what is becoming a growing problem that is leading to increasingly large sums of money being defrauded from the public, such as in the Mae Manee Ponzi scam recently.
The police have already implemented measures to increase their capacity to monitor social media and would continue to boost their staffing and expertise to combat cybercrime, Col Chatrapee said quoting the police report.
Resources deployed as part of the government's anti-fake news centre could be expanded to include more general monitoring of social media with the goal of identifying potential scams before they snare too many victims.
The police report was a first step towards the authorities taking a more hands-on approach to policing cyberspace in the wake of the recent fatal shootings in Nakhon Ratchasima in which the killer posted updates to his Facebook account throughout the spree, according to Col Chatrapee.