Central bank closes some 200,000 mule accounts so far this year
Commercial banks advised to step up measures to protect prospective victims and make it tougher for fraud suspects to open new accounts
The Bank of Thailand (BOT) said that some 200,000 mule accounts have been frozen and closed over the past year as part of the government’s crackdown on financial fraud.
Ronadol Numnonda, the bank’s deputy governor, said on Thursday that 30% of the mule accounts closed during March 2023 and April 2024 had been opened recently. Banks also found that five or more transactions were made in most of the mule accounts after they were credited with victims’ money, he said.
From March 1, 2022, to May 31, 2024, there have been some 540,000 financial fraud cases with damages worth a total of more than 63 billion baht, he said. The deputy governor added that the central bank has been working closely with other concerned government agencies to fight financial crimes.
As part of joint measures to fight financial fraud, the BOT backed the executive decree enacted last year to fight technology crimes. The government enacted the decree to open the door to a crackdown on the use of mule accounts to receive money from victims, and to let banks and authorities exchange information on transactions, Ronadol said.
He added that BOT will also closely cooperate with other agencies to crack down on the opening and operating of mule accounts.
Daranee Saeju, assistant BOT governor in charge of the payment systems policy and financial consumer protection, said the BOT has told commercial banks to step up measures to fight mule bank accounts.
As part of the measures, the commercial banks will target owners of accounts believed to be mule accounts and make it tougher for them to open new accounts or even blacklist them, she said.
She added that banks will also use information provided by the Anti-Money Laundering Office, the BOT’s Central Fraud Registry, and data shared among banks to target owners of mule accounts.
Daranee said accounts found to have conducted a lot of small transactions in a short period before transferring a big sum will be highlighted as suspected mule accounts. She added that the central bank is also encouraging commercial banks to use new methods to protect account holders from being deceived into transferring money to call-centre gangs.
For instance, commercial banks can use a double authorisation system before money is transferred from an account or to recipients that are part of an allowed list, Daranee said.
