Over 13,000 SIM cards used to make 100-plus calls daily suspended
In a bid to tackle online scams using mobile phones, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society has suspended the services of more than 13,000 SIM cards used to make over 100 calls per day.
Digital Economy and Society Minister Prasert Chantararuangthong said on Thursday that the SIM service suspension began on January 20 as a new measure adopted by the ministry to deal with the worsening problem.
Starting from January 16, anyone registered as owning six SIM cards and more to their name is required to verify their ownership with the relevant service providers, according to the ministry’s new regulations.
Prasert said that since January 20, a total of 13,237 SIM cards have been suspended, making it impossible to make calls from the phone numbers associated with the SIMs. The suspension came after those SIM cards were used to make more than 100 calls per day.
Of those suspended SIM cards, 7,344 were registered with DTAC, 4,196 with AIS, 1,688 with True, and nine with NT (National Telecom).
The minister said the owners of 1,925 SIM cards in this group had confirmed their ownership and mobile phone services were resumed for them. However, there are still 11,312 SIM cards that have been suspended as their owners were yet to show up.
As per the ministry’s new regulations, those registered under more than 100 SIM cards were required to verify their ownership by February 14, and those registered as owning six to 100 SIM cards were required to do so by July 13 or the services would be suspended.
“Those SIM card holders have to verify their identity in the specified time, or the numbers would be suspended and maybe eventually revoked. This is to prevent criminals from using SIM cards to commit online crimes,” Prasert said.
“SIM cards are an important tool of criminals, especially call centre gangs. The scammers use SIM cards to make phone calls or send SMS with malicious links. So, improved regulation of SIM cards is an important method to stop these gangs,” the minister said.
He said that his ministry would next deal with “scam short messages" that contain malicious links used by scammers to get access to their victims’ mobile phones.
