Online goods and service purchase scams, particularly ones involving fake restaurant reservations, cost more than 140 million baht in damages to consumers in July, the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) warned on Sunday.
The most common form of scam reported to the CCIB's online complaint centre was fake buffet-table reservations during special days and public holidays, said CCIB spokesman Pol Col Kissana Phathanacharoen.
These scams normally involved a fake Facebook account that claimed to be that of a well-known hotel or restaurant which was used to lure diners into believing they were being offered a promotion, he said.
These pages were found to be either newly opened or existing ones with a huge number of followers, he said, adding that in one case where it was an existing Facebook page, its name was changed to dupe victims into believing it really belonged to a popular hotel or restaurant.
Paid booster posts were then used to find potential victims who look for hotel or restaurant deals online and making bookings, he said.
As soon as these victims transferred a reservation fee to an account providded by the page admins, customers were not able to contact them again, he said.
Altogether online scams involving fake goods and service purchases were found to be the most common category of internet-based scams reported to the CCIB in July.