Parliament has passed another cybercrime law targeting online scams and financial crimes.
Digital Economy and Society Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn informed Parliament of the need for measures to prevent and suppress cybercrimes. The aim is to tackle illegal bank accounts and illegal mobile numbers through which criminals make money transfers.
The first law to address these issues was enacted earlier this year. The new Prevention and Suppression of Cyber Crimes Decree will grant more power to relevant agencies so they suppress scam activities more effectively. The new law will also provide organizations to request information related to suspicious accounts, including information about the ownership of mobile numbers and network traffic.
These organizations include the Royal Thai Police, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, and the Anti-Money Laundering Office.
Additionally, the law will require banks to immediately suspend any suspicious transactions, either detected by the banks themselves or after having been notified by the victims. Other banks related to such transactions must also be notified, with cases reported to the police within 72 hours.
According to official figures, a daily average of 790 cybercrime cases were reported between the beginning of this year and March 16.
Officials have successfully seized 87 million baht from fraudulent transactions and the number of daily cases has since dropped to around 600 cases per day, following the first enactment of the cybercrime law. The report also indicated that officials were able to seize 256 million baht from fraudulent accounts. (NNT)
