Phone, and online, scammers, the so-called “call centre gangs” operating from two neighbouring countries, are getting out of control and severely affecting Thais. The problem suggests at least three things: First, the Thai government is failing (or unwilling) to crackdown on them. Second, the public remains vulnerable despite repeated scams being reported by the press, suggesting a deeper educational inadequacies. Third, the impact now spreading to foreigners, particularly Chinese, is affecting tourism.
One the first issue, this week saw Deputy leader of the opposition People’s Party Rangsiman Rome calling for the problem to be made a national agenda. Rangsiman, who spoke on Thursday in the capacity as Chair of the House Committee on State Security, Borders Affairs, National Strategies and National Reform, believes the government’s estimate of 80 billion baht of damages caused in 2024 by these call centres was grossly underestimated.
The matter is really a national problem because these scammers are so blatant, operate with impunity that one viral clip shows a fake police officer conversing with a real one, trying to talk him out of an dishonest profession, and yet the latter couldn’t do anything. Hardly any Thai with a phone was spared.
This writer receives a few calls from various scammers on a weekly basis last year to the point where it has gravely lowered his trust on strangers making the call on the other side of the phone line. Even those who have yet to fall prey to these scammers, this writer included, they lose their precious time just picking up these calls, waiting to hear what it’s all about, before abruptly hanging up the phone.
It may be a nuisance for us but for many hard-working Thais who ended up being scammed and losing large sums of money, it’s definitely nothing to joke about. Yet the government has failed to significantly reduce the number of call centre gangs despite ex-convict-cum-former-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the man who is widely believed to be really running his daughter’s government, saying at a recent political rally that he even knows which building in which city in Cambodia these scammers are operating from.
Despite a very close tie between Thaksin and former Cambodian premier Hun Sen, and despite Thaksin’s admission, many will continue to be getting calls from these scammers today or tomorrow. Myanmar is another neighbouring country where these call centre gangs operate from and as far as we know, those in Cambodia and Myanmar are run by Chinese, thus making the matter even more complicated and transnational.
Perhaps it will take a high profile Chinese victim to wake the Paetongtarn government up into finally doing something drastic and serious. That moment came this week when Chinese actor Wang Xing, went missing soon after he landed in Thailand. He was tricked by Chinese scammers to come to Thailand and from here cross the Thai border into Myanmar for a “lucrative job” but was eventually safely rescued on January 7 back to Bangkok (despite his newly shaved hair which was probably not voluntary). He was saved from possibly being forced into slave scamming labour.
This led the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post to report that as a result, many Chinese are cancelling their Thai holidays after hearing about the “kidnapping” of the actor case which “fuels safety fears” about Thailand as a tourist destination.
Some Thais retorted that the matter has nothing to do with Thailand, or Thais, and it’s Chinese scammers scamming a fellow Chinese citizen, albeit an actor. Nevertheless, the impacts will be felt in the weeks ahead as some Chinese are cancelling their plans during the Chinese New Year to visit the kingdom. Will this incident be a wakeup call? I’m not sure if PM Paetongtarn is fully awake or alert to the magnitude of the problem yet.
Finally, this writer wonder why many Thais (and some Chinese) easily fall prey to these scammers despite news reports every week about different types of “successful” scams – be it via the phone or online apps.
Some were afraid when scammers posed themselves as Thai police officers. It’s the fear factor. Others were simply too greedy for the promise of something that’s too good to be true. Be it greed or fears, it’s clear that the Thai educational system has ill-equipped them to handle these scammers.
As such, a major public educational drive may be needed, alongside with a serious crackdown – which is most difficult as the Thai government will have to seek cooperation from respective governments across the Thai borders.
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