A woman checks her smartphone while travelling in a BTS skytrain in Bangkok on Feb 3, 2025. The Thai government has estimated that its citizens lose an average of 60mil to 70mil baht (RM7.87mil-RM9.19mil) a day to scam operations, with total losses amounting to 42bil baht (RM5.15bil) between October 2023 and November 2024. — AFP
Thailand saw the number of scam calls and text messages more than double to a record 168 million in 2024 from a year earlier, an anti-scam tech firm said, before authorities stepped up a crackdown on cyber fraud operations in South-East Asia.
Scammers most often pretended to sell fake products, represent Thai firms, offer loans, or collect debt, according to data collected by Whoscall, an application that identifies unknown callers and blocks scam calls. The fraudsters have recently begun to impersonate delivery services and state utilities or agencies, said app provider Gogolook Thailand, a unit of Taipei-listed Gogolook Co Ltd.
