New e-wallet scam empties bank accounts in minutes, police warn

[webfact]

New e-wallet scam empties bank accounts in minutes, police warn  

By The Nation

 

FILE photo

 

Police on Friday warned Thais of a new scam that is capable of emptying a victim's bank account in minutes after he or she is lured into pressing "yes" to a pop-up request asking if the victims wants to link his/her account to an electronic wallet.

 

A recent online post of the Royal Thai Police's Thailand Action Taskforce for Information Technology Crime Suppression (Tactics) via facebook.com/tacticspolice/ said most victims were those selling goods online who often revealed their bank account numbers on public posts. 

 

The culprit would pretend to be a customer wanting to buy goods and ask for the seller’s Thai ID card number, phone number and other personal information, which would be used to open an e-wallet account. The culprit would then link this e-wallet account to the seller’s bank account and the seller would receive a lengthy notification via cell phone, asking if he or she wanted to link his or her bank account to an e-wallet account. 

 

Unfortunately, many people didn’t bother to read the details and assuming the notification was harmless, pressed "accept" or “yes”.

 

That linked the victim’s mobile banking account to the culprit's e-wallet account, allowing the culprit to empty the bank account within minutes, police said.

 

Cancellation of the linkage cannot be done online or via an app so victims can only get it reversed at the e-wallet service provider's shop, police said, urging people to beware of this trick, always read the details carefully and refrain from pressing “accept” to any suspicious notification/request.

 

Source: http://www.nationthailand.com/news/30372355

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand  2019-07-05

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[Mikisteel]

Beware of people stating they work for Apple pay.

 

 

 

 

[Wiggy]

50 minutes ago, webfact said:

Police on Friday warned Thais of a new scam

It seems only Thais are affected by this as there's no need to warn other nationalities ????

[DrTuner]

Thailand 4.0, finally it's here.

[HeyHeyHey]

16 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Thailand 4.0, finally it's here.

They sure have at least 40 different ways to clean your bank accounts ????

[Cheops]

29 minutes ago, Wiggy said:

It seems only Thais are affected by this as there's no need to warn other nationalities ????

Dumb comment. 

 

If it was in the US, would the article state 'the police warned the Americans and all foreigners'?

 

Of course not, so stop the stupid Thai bashing!

[StayinThailand2much]

Dumb comment. 
 
If it was in the US, would the article state 'the police warned the Americans and all foreigners'?
 
Of course not, so stop the stupid Thai bashing!

I doubt that in the U.S. it would say 'Americans', but it wiuld probably be along the line of "...warned the public..."

Sent from my SM-J415F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[potless]

Cyber crime is possibly the biggest growth 'industry' year on year in the world. Make one mistake and you're broke. Use different accounts for different usage. The thieves are busily milking the west for now but will soon turn their attention elsewhere. 

[expatfromwyoming]

23 minutes ago, Cheops said:

Dumb comment. 

 

If it was in the US, would the article state 'the police warned the Americans and all foreigners'?

 

Of course not, so stop the stupid Thai bashing!

Seems you excel with the banal platitudes

[worgeordie]

32 minutes ago, HeyHeyHey said:

They sure have at least 40 different ways to clean your bank accounts ????

Also from inside the bank !

regards Worgeordie

[soalbundy]

32 minutes ago, HeyHeyHey said:

They sure have at least 40 different ways to clean your bank accounts ????

Which is why I refuse to have a credit card, only cash if possible or bank transfer.

[30la]

I stopped buying online, it became too risky, there are too many criminals who have discovered this way to steal the money of others, be careful even the big and well-known online companies are starting to steal!
I do what I did before the internet was and I buy everything I need in the shops!

[30la]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Police on Friday warned Thais

Farangs not???

[rkidlad]

1 hour ago, Cheops said:

Dumb comment. 

 

If it was in the US, would the article state 'the police warned the Americans and all foreigners'?

 

Of course not, so stop the stupid Thai bashing!

Civilized countries would just say members of the public. They don't state nationalities. The warning in civilized countries would be inclusive of everyone who's in the country. 

[Tanlic]

12 minutes ago, rkidlad said:

Civilized countries would just say members of the public. They don't state nationalities. The warning in civilized countries would be inclusive of everyone who's in the country. 

Why don't you go back to where you came from. You obviously think so little of the people you can't help yourself and love to bad mouth the locals

 

The exact translation from the Thai reports was  Recently, the Facebook page of the suppression division has posted a warning message to the public

 

 

[cardinalblue]

The use of using Thais exclusively in their writing shows their myoptic view of the world....

Edited July 5, 2019 by cardinalblue
Misspelled

[chang1]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The culprit would pretend to be a customer wanting to buy goods and ask for the seller’s Thai ID card number, phone number and other personal information

Apart from the phone number, why would anyone give this kind of information to a customer? This sort of basic security risk should be drummed into everyone before they leave school and there is a need for some public education for those already out of school. A few well thought out soap stories would do more good than any police warning.

Personally I think more should be done to deter people from getting into this kind of scamming. India and Nigeria are 2 countries that should be forced to clean up online scams. An international law that forced countries to refund any money that is scammed by people within its borders would help but extremely hard to enforce. A simpler way would be to make a list of countries that have the most offenders and force the top 3 to pay for all scams. This would soon get them to clean up their act.

The internet is a fantastic tool which should be far better policed to make it safe for everyone to use. I'm in the UK where online shopping is fantastic including from other countries like China, partly due to good parcel delivery couriers. I don't shop in our high street now. it is a shame some feel they cannot use online shops or auction sites. Banks also need to make things harder for scammers/hackers. How can an account be emptied in minutes without some sort of checks, like double authentication, performed by the bank?

[Bangkok Barry]

19 minutes ago, Tanlic said:

Why don't you go back to where you came from.

 

555. Haven't seen that for at least a couple of weeks 

[Duck J Butters]

1 hour ago, 30la said:

I stopped buying online, it became too risky, there are too many criminals who have discovered this way to steal the money of others, be careful even the big and well-known online companies are starting to steal!
I do what I did before the internet was and I buy everything I need in the shops!

Why on Earth would you stop buying online? If there is any form of identity theft these days, your credit card company will refund you immediately. My credit card company instantly reverses a charge when I complain about it ( very easy to do if the charge is foreign and very very easy to abuse and get away with it ). Not to mention I get 3% cash back on every purchase I make with my CC and 0 foreign transactions fees. Boggles my mind why on Earth anyone would ever use cash or risk holding any substantial amount of cash anywhere that is not a bank. So many things can go wrong. I've had large sums of money in Bangkok Bank for a very long time. No issues. But dude, just use your credit card to make online purchases. Unless you're from the third world, most credit card companies automatically reverse any suspect charges you complain about. Obviously, you can't abuse this too much but I won't lie, I've gone on a couple $2k shopping sprees that I claimed were fraud. Fully paid for by my CC company.  Gracias. Impossible to prove in a foreign country so US companies just automatically refund you. 

Edited July 5, 2019 by Duck J Butters

[topt]

7 minutes ago, chang1 said:

How can an account be emptied in minutes without some sort of checks, like double authentication, performed by the bank?

Because companies want it to be easy for consumers to do business and consumers just want it to happen with seemingly minimal thought/input..........plus a general lack of education on financial safety.

Unfortunately I believe the more integrated online banking becomes the more this kind of phishing attack will escalate.

[chang1]

36 minutes ago, cardinalblue said:

The use of using Thais exclusively in their writing shows their myoptic view of the world....

Who is myopic? it came from The Nation.

On our local radio station (in the North of England) they often say things like "Cumbrians are warned not to drink and drive over Christmas" even though it is part of a national campaign. This annoys me but I still understand what they are saying. The warning, probably, was written in Thai so only Thais understood it. Do you think they should put this warning out in every language and if so where?  

[topt]

2 minutes ago, Duck J Butters said:

Obviously, you can't abuse this too much but I won't lie, I've gone a couple $2k shopping sprees that I claimed were fraud. Fully paid for by my CC company. 

Very big of you. So as a fraudster you seem to suggest that scamming money from others is ok?

 

[rkidlad]

40 minutes ago, Tanlic said:

Why don't you go back to where you came from. You obviously think so little of the people you can't help yourself and love to bad mouth the locals

 

The exact translation from the Thai reports was  Recently, the Facebook page of the suppression division has posted a warning message to the public

 

 

Thanks, but I didn’t say they didn’t. My reply was to someone else who was hypothesizing what might, or might not, be stated in the US. 

 

I criticize bad ideas. Don’t worry, though; ideas don’t have feelings. 

 

Have a nice day, Mr Angry. 

[potless]

1 hour ago, 30la said:

I do what I did before the internet was and I buy everything I need in the shops!

So do I except for airline tickets. People open online accounts giving their name. address, email account, phone number, bank details etc. But the online retailers cant be trusted to keep these details safe. The company gets hacked and the details are put up for sale on the dark web. Amazons response after they were hacked was on the lines of "sorry, change your email address, passwords and bank cards". Then business as usual. The American retailer named Target had a massive hack and the hackers are believed to have accessed their database via the air conditioning system that was internet linked thereby bypassing their usual security system.  

[chang1]

12 minutes ago, topt said:

Because companies want it to be easy for consumers to do business and consumers just want it to happen with seemingly minimal thought/input..........plus a general lack of education on financial safety.

Unfortunately I believe the more integrated online banking becomes the more this kind of phishing attack will escalate.

True, but any unusual activity should be scrutinised and confirmed. I don't want to be rang up every time I buy a £15 item on Ebay but for 10 in one day or a single £1000 item not a problem. These accounts are being emptied, not something that is normal.

Some scammers are more subtle and take say £5 to £10 a month every month which they can often get away with over many months, so they can find ways around extra security measures.

[dallen52]

What!!!

Even faster than a new government contract and Brown paper envelopes?

[Benmart]

2 hours ago, Cheops said:

Dumb comment. 

 

If it was in the US, would the article state 'the police warned the Americans and all foreigners'?

 

Of course not, so stop the stupid Thai bashing!

Thai bashing is unneccesary. They do quite well on their own.

[spidermike007]

There are thousands of people out there, who absolutely refuse to work for a living, and instead only want to live on stolen money. Watch out for them. Scammers are proliferating, and I somehow doubt the "Thai detectives" will be able to figure this out, soon enough. 

[FarFlungFalang]

1 hour ago, 30la said:

Farangs not???

No need to warn falangs because we are way smarter than Thais,are we not?

[CH1961]

1 hour ago, 30la said:

I stopped buying online, it became too risky, there are too many criminals who have discovered this way to steal the money of others, be careful even the big and well-known online companies are starting to steal!

Big and well known company offer COD, so there is no risk and nk headache at all with all the criminals around ????