The Thailand Consumers Council (TCC) will hold a seminar with its Asean Plus Three counterparts late this month to discuss ways to protect people in the digital economy after it was found that Thais lost 65 billion baht per year to online scammers over the past three years.
TCC secretary-general Saree Aongsomwang said on Tuesday that the TCC will work with the Indonesian Consumers Foundation and the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations in organising Asean+3 Conference Thailand 2024 on the topic of "Consumer Protection in the Digital Economy and AI".
The event will be the first Asean conference on the topic and will be attended by consumer protection agencies from Asean, comprising Cambodia, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Laos, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand and the plus three countries -- South Korea, China (including Hong Kong) and Japan.
Saree: Thais lose B65bn per year
The conference aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and information between Asean+3 consumer protection agencies and foster partnerships between them and related private and public organisations in Thailand in an effort to protect consumers using e-commerce and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. It will be held Aug 29 and 30 at the Amari Don Muang Airport Bangkok Hotel.
Ms Saree said the fast developing digital economy and AI are playing a big part in people's daily lives and entrepreneurship while posing several threats to consumers.
According to her, Thai people have lost 65 billion baht annually, or 180 million baht daily, to online fraudsters over the past three years.
TCC data shows that 1,386 digital scam cases occurred in the first half of this year, many of which took place on popular digital platforms such as Facebook, Lazada and Line.
"The upcoming seminar ... will be another one of our tools for finding opportunities to provide better safety for consumers", Ms Saree said.
