Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to cooperate digitally in order to crack down on call-center gangs and online gambling dens.
All government agencies in Cambodia have also been told to work together to identify and close such illegal businesses, including scam operations.
Thailand’s Police Cyber Taskforce has already raided a site in Nonthaburi, Thailand where four gambling websites were operating. The network had over 200,000 clients with THB 200 million circulating per month.
Thai government agencies have also been told to start campaigns to raise awareness of the tactics that call-center scams use in order to help people prevent themselves from being targeted.
In 2019, 137 call center scammers found operating in Laos were arrested and deported back to China.
More recently, Thailand has requested help from Laos in freeing Thai Nationals held against their will in Bokeo province where they were forced to conduct online scamming operations using Facebook.
The Thai nationals were trapped in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, confined to their rooms with electrical wire, and made to work 15 hour days.
In addition to phone calls and Facebook, scammers are now reportedly using so-called “deepfake” videos to lure their victims. In a recent deepfake scheme scammers used a faked video of a Thai police officer in an attempt to take money from the victim.
Thailand’s Department of Special Investigations has released a star-studded music video for a song called “Ya own: don’t transfer” to dissuade citizens from falling prey to these scams.
