Police educated South Pattaya residents about 18 scams commonly used by online fraudsters.
Pol. Lt. Thongin Panyanam led the Jan. 25 briefing in the Soi Khopai Community. He said the Royal Thai Police Office estimates 800 Thais a day are duped into sending money to scammers, posing for pornographic photos, spreading fake news and more.
The RTP has categorized cybercrime as a serious problem and ordered local stations across the country to educate the public on 18 common tricks used by scammers. They are:
- Selling fake or non-existent goods, or those different from the product description.
- Tricking people into unwittingly increase the popularity of scam posts by creating fake jobs and requiring applicants to pay a security deposit.
- Offering non-existent loans in order to steal people’s personal and financial data and then calling relatives to demand repayment of loans never made.
- Operating call centers pretending to be police and extorting victims by claiming they’re being investigated for drugs and other crimes.
- Offering bogus investments.
- ‘Romance investment scams’ in which lonely men and woman are targeted by scammers and persuaded to invest in bogus funds and companies.
- ‘Romance transfer scams’ in which the same victims are simply romanced into sending the scammers money directly.
- Hacking Line and Facebook accounts and using them to ask friends to borrow money.
- Ponzi schemes.
- Recruiting people to work for online gambling rings
- Tricking people into installing malware onto their phones or computers that steal personal data and take over computers.
- Sending QR codes to victims to get them to transfer money.
- Offering bogus ‘free’ products that require shipping fees or deposits.
- Offering overseas jobs that lead to people being trafficked.
- Convincing people to take pornographic photos that are then spread and sold online.
- Getting people to use bank “nominee” accounts and together commit fraud and money laundering.
- Spreading ‘fake news’ pushed out through chain text messages.
- Infecting devices with ‘ransomware’ then extorting funds to unlock those devices.
Anyone falling victim to cybercrime can contact the police at 1441 or online at ThaiPoliceOnline.com.
