I was at my local DHL office today and the Chinese customer in front of me was sending three boxes of AIS 5G simcards to China. He must have had about 400 simcards in each box. Why would someone be doing this? No tourists or business people traveling to Thailand from China.

fraudulent call centers, SPAM campaigns, "like farms" to promote posts in social media, et cetera.

 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/bizarre-click-farm-10000-phones-10419403

 

https://streamable.com/s/bufck/lcoqr

Creating SPAM threads in Chinese(!) here on the forum

They are usually shortlived.

Not sure these can be activated off-net?

 

OP doesn't say if these were pre-activated by the Chinese customer.

 

They can be registered remotely using the provider's app. (scan bar-code and photograph passport).

 

Chinese, and others, operate SIM farms within Thailand.

 

Maybe these will be sold on-line to customers who might (eventually) travel to Thailand?