The Labour Ministry is stepping up measures against fake overseas job adverts after more than 1,500 Thai workers fell victim to such schemes over the past three years, said a senior labour official on Monday.
Suchart Pornchaiwisetkul, director-general of the Employment Department, said a total of 1,548 complaints about overseas job postings have been lodged with the agency since 2018, with financial damages estimated at 100 million baht.
According to Mr Suchart, the department has looked into these complaints and sought legal action against 881 people for violating the law on job procurement and protection.
He said the department has implemented comprehensive prevention measures to address the problem facing job seekers, which include setting up a task force to monitor overseas job advertisements on social media.
In many cases, job seekers were duped into paying agent fees after passing "interviews" on Facebook for seemingly well-paid jobs abroad which did not exist.
He said the department has also launched an awareness campaign to educate job seekers and encourage them to report any fraudulent listings they come across.