On June 2, Thai media reported that telephone fraud is still a social hazard that continues to increase. Recently, Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Commission released its report on the state of society in Thailand for the first quarter of 2024, which pointed out that the safety of life and property that must be paid attention to is telephone scams, as the statistics of this type of fraud continue to grow.
According to data released by fraud prevention software Whocalls, there will be 347.3 million phone fraud cases in Asia in 2024, a decrease of 14% from 2022. However, 78.8 million calls and texts were received by Thai people, an increase of 18% compared to 2022 and the highest value in Asia, including:
1. Incoming calls: 20.8 million, an increase of 22%;
2. 58.3 million fraudulent text messages, an increase of 17%.
The data shows that most of the calls and text messages are about online gambling, loan scams, impersonating logistics companies and impersonating government departments, etc., and the frequently occurring scam language is: lost/damaged packages, confirmation of loan entitlements, 500 baht off on the new website, late payment of electricity bills and receipt of tax refunds, etc. At the same time, in terms of SMS scams, the average Thai receives 20.3 SMS, the highest in Asia.
At the same time, according to the latest online reporting data, there were an average of 922 cases per day in April 2024, an increase from March; The average daily loss of all types of cybercrime cases reached 110 million baht, a decrease from March. As for the handling of fake calling cards, a total of 800,000 fake and suspicious calling cards were suspended in April, and 36,641 phone numbers were suspended for more than 100 calls per day.
In addition, Thailand's National Radio and Television Communications Regulatory Commission previously required people with 100 or more phone cards to verify their identity by February 14, 2024, and 2.58 million phone cards have been verified, and 2.5 million have not yet come to verify. Of the unverified calling cards, 1.46 million calls were suspended, and the remaining 1.04 million calling cards were being processed.