Protecting Consumers in Thailand from Online Scams and Fraud

By Nisara Kaewsuk, Sujitra Sompan, Chotiwit Kerdsanongpong and Munin Saisangchan from Thailand Consumers Council (TCC)

 

The Digital Battleground of Online Fraud in Thailand

In a world where our fingertips are the new battleground for cybercriminals, every click can become a trap, leading to the instant loss of assets and trust. The problem of online fraud is no longer a distant concern. It is an insidious presence woven into the daily lives of everyone. Amidst rapid technological change, the government and the Thailand Consumer Council must collaborate urgently to raise the level of protection and safeguard consumer rights in the digital world, keeping pace with modern deceitful schemes.

Over One Million Cybercrime Cases Have Targeted Thai Citizens

The COVID-19 situation during 2020 to 2021 significantly exacerbated the problem of online fraud in Thailand. In 2022, the Thai government and the Royal Thai Police established the Anti-Online Scam Operation Center (AOC 1441), supervised by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES), to receive incident reports and urgently mitigate financial damage, particularly losses to mule accounts.

Data from the official Thai Police Online system reveals a severe and widespread incidence of online fraud across Thailand, indicating a total of 1,058,056 online cases reported between 2022 and 2025, with a combined damage value exceeding USD 3 trillion (THB 100 billion). The most common scams are deception in buying/selling goods/services (45.62%) and scams inducing victims to perform tasks for supplementary income, affecting all age groups, especially those aged 26–40. Although the government has successfully frozen over 670,012 bank accounts and recovered a total of around USD 350 million (THB 10.971 billion), this is still considered a low freezing rate compared to the total damage. This highlights the substantial challenge in tracing funds and preventing further economic loss.

Thailand Consumers Council (TCC) Role in Consumer Protection

Meanwhile, the Thailand Consumers Council (TCC) and its network of member organisations have closely monitored the situation, finding that between 1 October 2024, and 30 September 2025, there were over 5,901 complaints related to online fraud. The majority involved online purchase problems (of which there were 1,690 cases) and deception via embedded links in Short Message Service (SMS) (of which there were 1,342 cases).

In response to these issues, TCC has provided assistance, including mediating with businesses to take responsibility for damages; escalating some cases into class-action lawsuits; convening consultative meetings with businesses and government agencies to find joint prevention measures; submitting information on fake/scam pages to platforms for account closure; and proposing draft laws consumer protection such as the draft Consumer Protection Act B.E. (A.D.), supported by a petition gathering more than 20,000 signatures, seeking to enhance and expand consumer rights to ten provisions and extend coverage to include digital platform operators.

Furthermore, TCC operates a surveillance system for fake pages, verifies vendor information on storefronts, and confirms seller contact details in collaboration with organisation members and provincial/regional units. This effort aims to ensure just compensation and remedy when problems arise, aligning with the policy to push for the certification of sellers on all online platforms (both e-commerce and social commerce) through a process called Verify Sellers by e-KYM.

Concurrently, relevant government agencies, such as MDES, the Bank of Thailand (BOT), the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), the Office of the Consumer Protection Board (OCPB), and the Cyber Police, are also actively developing solutions and prevention measures to resolve technological crime issues such as defining greater responsibilities for business operators, suspending illicit transactions, and establishing a specialised operation centre to combat technological crime quickly and effectively.

Amending Laws to Close Digital-era Criminal Loopholes

The intensifying technological crime situation, including call centre gangs, fake money transfer accounts, and the systematic use of mule accounts for money laundering, forced the government to urgently issue proactive prevention measures. This led to the promulgation of the Royal Decree on Measures for the Prevention and Suppression of Technological Crime B.E. 2566 (2023), which increased penalties for those involved with mule accounts or unregistered SIM cards. It also granted financial and telecommunication regulators to exchange data without a court warrant, allowing for a temporary suspension of transactions within 72 hours of an incident report, and established the AOC 1441 for urgent account freezing coordination.

However, as criminals have increasingly resorted to using digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies, to obscure their financial trails, tracing and recovering funds for consumers has become more challenging. Consequently, the government issued the Royal Decree on the Prevention and Suppression of Technological Crime (No. 2) B.E. 2568 (2025), or the Royal Decree on Cyber Crime No. 2 (officially published in the Royal Thai Government Gazette. Retrieved from ratchakitcha.soc.go.th.) to extend control to digital asset accounts and e-Wallets. It reinforces the mechanism for inter-agency data exchange and mandates the principle of Shared Responsibility, requiring all service providers to participate in prevention and be accountable for damages if they neglect technology and security standards.

Despite these new measures speeding up account freezing, fund recovery remains slow, as it must adhere to legal verification processes under anti-money laundering laws. Meanwhile, criminal transactions are complex, often transferred through multiple layers, and some funds are converted into digital assets, making them difficult to trace. Furthermore, the shared responsibility mechanism is not yet fully implemented in practice, as only some agencies, such as the BOT and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), have issued supporting regulations. However, the specific criteria for shared responsibility under Article 8/10 of the Cyber Security Emergency Decree are yet to be definitively detailed in a formal announcement.

While government measures represent a crucial step in blocking cyber threats, truly effective consumer protection requires integrated data sharing among agencies, the acceleration of a rapid redressal mechanism, and strict enforcement of the law, ensuring that prevention and the restoration of justice proceed in tandem.

The Independent Authority Safeguarding Consumer Rights

In addition to the recommendations above, TCC has pursued several approaches, both in terms of policy and rights protection, including:

• Proposals to the MDES for Regulating Online Platforms to mitigate fraud from the buying and selling of goods and services include the Know Your Merchant (e-KYM) policy, which is currently being implemented, and the Open Before You Pay policy, that the Office of the Consumer Protection Board (OCPB) has introduced protection measures for customers using Cash-on-Delivery (COD) service, known as the Dee-Delivery measures. The most recent policy proposal concerning the e-KYM initiative, formally submitted to the Minister of the MDES, urges ETDA to mandate that online goods and services platforms undertake the following specific duties: establishing and maintaining appropriate dedicated technical systems and display areas that enable certified merchants to clearly and systematically display their official certification marks issued by government agencies e.g., DBD Registered, DBD Verified, and Official registration numbers for Direct Sales and Direct Marketing businesses.
• Proposals to the Bank of Thailand to consider implementing a “Delayed Transaction” for money transfers, with the condition that it applies to general account transfers valued more than USD 308 (approximately THB 10,000) within a 24-hour period, to prevent immediate transfers to fraudsters.
• Proposing to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to review the regulatory guidelines for the Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging system. These guidelines include measures that mandate the verification of the Sender Name by telephone network providers and other telecommunication service providers, who are required to screen and filter the content of Short Message Service (SMS) traffic. Furthermore, the proposal includes a measure for displaying Caller ID for phone numbers legally belonging to government agencies, organisations, businesses, or business partners (e.g., delivery riders).

Conclusion

While measures from the government are beginning to show more tangible results, online fraud remains an ongoing issue that requires continuous management and a “transparent, accessible, and timely redressal mechanism”. Consumer protection is not merely the burden of the state or businesses but a critical strategy for building confidence, transparency, and the overall sustainability of the economy. When consumers are secure and treated fairly, the entire economic system becomes stronger.