THE BANK of Thailand revealed that Thais are among cyber criminals favourite targets in Asia and as these scammers continuously come up with new tactics it led to a total of 56,746 online fraud cases in January this year with 3.981 billion baht being stolen, Matichon newspaper said today (Mar. 24).
Mr. Pinyo Tripetcharaporn, director of the central bank’s Overall Risk Management Department, said on SpotlightLiveTalk programme that statistics show of the total cyber fraud cases in January, 46% involved being deceived in making online purchases followed by 10% being tricked to borrow money and 7% duped into transferring money.
In terms of total stolen cash 32% was drained away through investment fraud.
On average cyber crime losses total around 4 billion baht a month with the total damage in 2023 being almost 50 billion baht which is very high, he said, adding the losses could climb this year because they rise when financial transactions increase.
“The Bank of Thailand is trying to slow down the damage by focusing on the forms of financial risk, such as money-sucking apps, where losses tend to seesaw, but attack pattern changes, yet if it could be prevented the damage would be reduced,” he said.
While some of Thailand’s preventive measures are similar to other countries, others differ. Among them are the ability to acquire mobile banking by owning just one registered device, face scanning to halt over 50,000 baht transactions and immediate notification of transfer.
“Thai people are easily deceived and the scams here are among the highest in Asia. This is because Thailand has a very strong financial infrastructure and money can be transferred quickly which has led to mobile banking becoming popular with the people reaching among the top countries in the world.
“This high usage has also led to becoming the target, among the top targets, of criminals,” he said.
Those who inadvertently install a money-sucking app are advised to quickly switch off their mobile phone or cut off the WIFI signal and contact the bank’s call centre to directly report the fraud. Victims can also call Anti-online Scam Operation Centre (1441 AOC Centre) where there will be staff to help stop the transaction and report the theft to the police.
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Representation of a hacker. Above image: Shafin Al Asad Protic from Pixabay, Front Page: Thai Rath
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