More than 365,000 scam cases have been filed over the past 18 months, with the total damage caused amounting to 45 billion baht, deputy government spokesman Karom Phonphonklang said on Thursday.
He made the remark in response to the cumulative complaint data available on "thaipoliceonline.com". The data, provided by the Royal Thai Police (RTP), runs from March 1 last year to this Sept 30.
The data showed people filed 365,547 scam-related complaints via the police's website. They caused a combined damage of 45.7 billion baht, and 167,347 mule accounts worth 11.25 billion baht have been frozen.
Mr Karom said most complaints related to online shopping fraud, with 100,694 cases causing 1.9 billion baht of damage.
Other popular scams included loan scams (33,517 cases), investment scams (22,740 cases), threatening scams by call centres (20,474 cases), impersonating the identities of others to encourage people to transfer money (9,664 cases), and duping victims into transferring money for a reward (8,697 cases).
These were followed by online shopping fraud (8,107 cases), duping victims into installing suspicious apps (4,786 cases), inputting fake data into a computer system (2,972 cases), romance scams (2,167 cases), digital asset fraud (1,229 cases) and computer hacking (79 cases).
Mr Karom urged people to stay vigilant against scammers as they increasingly resort to more complex techniques to dupe victims. Despite the government's recommendation that people beef up their cybersecurity, many are still falling victim.
Mr Karom warned people about fake online complaint websites that try to convince complainants to click on suspicious links. People can only file online complaints online via the "thaipoliceonline.com" website, he said.
Apart from the RTP's website, people can also contact the "1441" hotline or "081-866-3000" for more information.
Meanwhile, a 41-year-old Cambodian, Saruon Loem, was nabbed by Sa Kaeo Provincial Police and Klong Luk Police at the Rong Kluea border market in Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo on Thursday while he was trying to smuggle 13.5 million baht in cash into Cambodia.
Police said he claimed he was hired by a compatriot called Mr Pia to receive and smuggle money from a Thai who was a bank manager. He said he got paid 10,000 baht a month.