Scams lead to B718m in losses

Fraudulent accounts on Facebook caused 718 million baht in damages in the past year, says Digital Economy and Society Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong.
During a recent briefing highlighting the Anti-Online Scam Operation Center’s achievements from Nov 1 last year to Nov 14 this year, Mr Prasert said the AOC had received over 1.17 million complaints via the 1441 hotline, resulting in the suspension of 348,006 suspicious Facebook accounts.
Reported damages from online scams during this period in total amounted to more than 19 billion baht, he said.
Facebook emerged as the most frequent channel for scams as it accounted for 26,804 cases and 718 million baht in damages.
Other common channels included calls by dubious call centres (22,299 cases and about 945 million baht in damages), websites (16,510 cases and about 1.1 billion baht in damages), TikTok (994 cases and about 65 million baht in damages) and others (20,518 cases and about 1.2 billion baht in damages).
Bangkok topped the list of affected areas, recording 84,241 incidents and 48,558 suspended accounts, with other provinces like Samut Prakan, Nonthaburi, Chon Buri and Pathum Thani included on the list’s top five.
Victim demographics showed those aged between 20 and 49 as the most affected, with 145,302 cases and damages totalling about 8.2 billion baht. This group was primarily targeted through fraudulent job offers and online investment schemes.
The second most affected age group were those aged 50 or over, who were largely exploited through investment fraud. The group accounted for 41,901 cases and losses of nearly 7.8 billion baht.
Mr Prasert said a key component in the AOC’s operations is its 24/7 hotline service, featuring 100 lines and enabling immediate action to freeze suspicious accounts within an average of 10 minutes of receiving a report.
Cybercrime reports also showed a significant decline in recent months, attributed to intensified inter-agency collaboration, he said.
For instance, reported cases fell to 32,266 in August and 29,579 in September, down from the average of 35,000 monthly cases earlier this year, he noted.