Scam Calls Hit Record in Thailand Before Cyber Fraud Crackdown
- Thais got 168 million calls, texts in 2024, anti-scam app says
- Thai government widens crackdown in Southeast Asian neighbors
Attempts were detected nearly 130 million times as text messages and 38 million times as calls in 2024.
Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
Thailand saw the number of scam calls and text messages more than double to a record 168 million in 2024 from a year earlier, an anti-scam tech firm said, before authorities stepped up a crackdown on cyber fraud operations in Southeast Asia.
Scammers most often pretended to sell fake products, represent Thai firms, offer loans, or collect debt, according to data collected by Whoscall, an application that identifies unknown callers and blocks scam calls. The fraudsters have recently begun to impersonate delivery services and state utilities or agencies, said app provider Gogolook Thailand, a unit of Taipei-listed Gogolook Co. Ltd.