Thailand’s AOC launched to tackle rising online scams
The Anti-Online Scam Operation Centre (AOC), a comprehensive service centre for victims of scam gangs, has been launched by Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES), as stated by Minister Prasert Chantararuangthong.
The AOC is designed to effectively reduce the number of online scams within a month, aiming to tackle the over 330,000 cybercrime cases reported from March 1 of the previous year to September 30 of this year, which resulted in damages exceeding 45 billion baht.
In addition to its existing 20 hotline operators, the AOC plans to bring on 80 more operators to the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau’s (CIB) hotline, 1441. The centre’s objectives, according to Prasert, include immediate freezing of mule accounts upon receiving victim complaints, following up on investigations, arranging for money recovery, and incorporating technology into investigative work.
Analytical data based on transactions, call histories, and financial information are fed to the AOC through AI platforms. The centre is equipped to freeze a chain of transactions within an hour of receiving a report from the victim, reported Bangkok Post.
The AOC is a collaborative effort between the Royal Thai Police, the Anti-Money Laundering Office, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any detected misconduct will be dealt with in accordance with the Computer-Related Crime Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Act, as per Prasert’s statement.
The AOC ensures the privacy of the victims by leveraging the MDES cloud service, which has an IT management system certified by ISO 27001, ISO 20001, and CSA-STAR. The database is also regulated by the government’s Personal Data Protection Act.
As part of the AOC’s ongoing mission, Prasert mentioned that Facebook is working with the centre to eliminate up to 700 Facebook scam pages per day, marking an increase of 10 per day.
