An ongoing government anti-cybercrime campaign has so far resulted in the suspension of over 50,000 fraudulent bank accounts and the shutting down of almost 2,000 gambling websites, deputy government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said yesterday.
Ms Rachada said government agencies such as the Royal Thai Police, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DES), the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC), Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) and the Bank of Thailand are collaborating in the campaign, that began last year.
She said 58,463 fraudulent bank accounts had been suspended, and 1,830 gambling websites were taken down in 2022.
More than 118,530 phone numbers were suspended also for phishing text messages, she said.
Ms Rachada said Amlo had released a list of bank account fraud suspect names which should be closely monitored.
The NBTC has informed 8,000 phone users who own more than 100 sim cards each to verify their identity before the end of January as a means to suppress call-centre scammers and online banking scams, she said.
As part of the campaign, legal action was filed against eight call-centre scam gangs based in neighbouring counties with arrests of 166 suspects, she said.
Ms Rachada said that the Royal Thai Police has an online platform, www.ThaiPoliceOnline.com, where the public can lodge cybercrime complaints.
According to police data, there have been 163,091 cybercrime cases lodged in the past ten months, with victims losing 27.3 billion baht in total.
Some 51% of cases reported involving parties who are operating abroad, police said. Many are call-centre scams which lure victims to invest or transfer their money. The losses are estimated to be about 15.8 billion baht.
Cybercrimes committed locally, such as online shopping scams, online loans, and Ponzi schemes, made up 40.5% of cases. Others include ransomware and fake overseas job recruitment agencies.