Digital ministry sets up ‘one-stop-service’ centre to tackle online scams
A one-stop centre to combat online frauds has been set up by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, allowing victims to report instances without having to deal with several other sectors or authorities, minister Prasert Chantararuangthong said
The Anti-Online Scam Operation Centre (AOC 1441), which will open next Wednesday, stemmed from cooperation between the ministry and several relevant bodies, namely banks, police departments, the Anti-Money Laundering Office, and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission.
Prasert said that the purpose of the AOC 1441 was to employ sectoral integration to make it easier to deal with online scammers.
Previously, victims of scams had to reach out to multiple organisations, leading to lengthy delays of weeks or even months before their bank accounts could be frozen, he said.
However, with this centre, victims now only need to report their cases to the centre, and the process of freezing a fraudulent bank account would be completed in no more than one week, he added.
The minister explained that victim information would be stored on a government-owned cloud service system, whose security has been validated by an international standard.
He added that anyone affected by internet frauds could contact 1441 at all times, with 100 operators available.
According to reports by the High-Tech Crime Division at the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, there are currently 700 scam and fraud cases per day, with 40% involving e-commerce crime.
The Thai government earlier said that over the past year and a half, around 365,000 cases of online fraud had been reported, causing losses of 45 billion baht.
Prasert said that he had already had conversations with neighbouring countries in case Thailand requires their assistance in helping people who were being held on their territory.
