A majority of people pin their hopes on police to take action and get rid of the so-called "call centre" gangs which have preyed on a large number of people, depriving them of huge amounts of money, according to the result of an opinion survey by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, or Suan Dusit Poll.
The poll was conducted online on Feb 21-24 on 1,221 people throughout the country.
A "call centre" gang is a group of fraudsters who engage in phone scams, tricking their victims into believing they are in imminent danger and then promising them relief from this invented threat - for a price.
Of the respondents, 40.19% said they knew about call centre gangs from various news media; 32.87% said they knew of the gangs from relatives or people who had fallen victim to the gangs; 21.02% had had direct encounters with the gangs; and 5.92% had never heard about them.
A majority, 86.90%, said they were a serious threat to society; 12.93% said they were a moderate threat to society; and 0.17% said they were not of much concern.
Asked why call centre gangs had become so prevalent, with the respondents allowed to give more than one answer, 76.09% said the fraudsters had modern equipment and did not need to reveal their identities; 69.04% said they operated as transnational networks; 66.26% said the money from the illegal operations was enormous and tempting; 65.03% said no serious action had been taken to get rid of them; and 63.47% said the swindlers were not afraid of the law.
To cope with the problem, 84.58% said it was police who must take action to get rid of the gangs; 82.36% said people must be on high alert and not give personal information to unidentified callers; 80.07% said the government must launch a campaign to educate people about the gangs; 67.60% said people should definitely not transfer money to anyone they did not know personally; and 65.71% said heavy penalties should be imposed against the gangs.
Asked who they thought was best able to solve the problem, 80.88% pointed to the Royal Thai Police Office; 73.79% the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society; 53.51% the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC); 50.08% financial institutions; and 46.24% the mass media.