Thailand cracks down on SMS scams and phishing calls

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Mr. Trairat said groups of scammers send invitations including links to gambling and pornographic sites via SMS to mobile phone users, or in some cases making direct calls to people to offer loans while impersonating as bank employees.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) is working with the police and network operators to crack down on scams, and phishing text messages and calls. The general public is encouraged to report these scams to the NBTC for further action.



Providing the latest updates on the effort to stamp out SMS scams and racy content sent to mobile phone users, acting NBTC Secretary-General Trairat Viriyasirikul said groups of scammers send invitations including links to gambling and pornographic sites via SMS to mobile phone users, or in some cases making direct calls to people to offer loans while impersonating as bank employees.


Mr Trairat said the NBTC is now working with the Royal Thai Police’s Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau and telecom operators to address this issue in a more proactive manner.

The NBTC has asked all network operators to block scam messages and invitations to gambling and pornographic sites, as well as blacklisting the senders.

Operators have exchanged the details of these scam messages, and have so far blocked some 140 senders.



For phishing and scam calls, Mr Trairat said the commission and network operators can verify culprits quite easily because every phone number is linked to a person.

The NBTC is encouraging the general public to report cases of phishing and scam messages or calls to Hotline 1200. All information will be forwarded to the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau. (NNT)