BANGKOK, Oct 18 (TNA) – About 40,000 people have lost altogether about 10 million baht to automatic and fraudulent withdrawals, according to the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau.
Pol Lt Gen Kornchai Khlaikhlueng, commissioner of the bureau, said withdrawals from bank and credit card accounts without the consent of account owners resulted from three causes.
Firstly, personal data of bank account owners were leaked to criminals after accounts had been set up for bill payments through applications.
Secondly, account owners received fraudulent messages with links through short message services (SMS) luring them into clicking the links and inputting their personal data.
Thirdly, corrupt staff at petrol stations and shops copied numbers on credit and debit cards and sold the data to criminals.
Pol Lt Gen Kornchai said he would discuss the issue with the Bank of Thailand and online vendors to work out preventive measures.
He warned account owners not to set up automatic payment through unnecessary or unreliable applications and not to click any links from unfamiliar short messages or emails. He suggested card users erase or cover three-digit CVC security codes at the backs of their cards for safety. (TNA)
