PM Orders Probe into Suspicious Withdrawals from Bank Accounts

[webfact]

 

BANGKOK, Oct 18 (TNA) – Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered relevant organizations to investigate people's complaints about suspicious withdrawals from their bank accounts which were set up for automatic bill payments.

 

Government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said the prime minister issued the order for solutions after many people had complained about such suspicious withdrawals which had limited amounts but recurred repeatedly.

 

The spokesman quoted Payong Srivanich, president of the Thai Bankers' Association, as saying that the association already discussed the issue with the chief information officers of commercial banks.

 

Full story: https://tna.mcot.net/english-news-805375

 

-- © Copyright TNA 2021-10-19

 

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[RichardColeman]

From link :

 

but were mostly caused by online payments for products and services ordered from the vendors who were registered abroad.

 

Chinese ones, Russian, Nigerian vendors ? 

[fangless]

3 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

From link :

 

but were mostly caused by online payments for products and services ordered from the vendors who were registered abroad.

 

Chinese ones, Russian, Nigerian vendors ? 

+Thai and every other Nationality in the world!

[smedly]

4 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

From link :

 

but were mostly caused by online payments for products and services ordered from the vendors who were registered abroad.

 

Chinese ones, Russian, Nigerian vendors ? 

it is total nonsense, someone or possibly a group working for a bank or a CC company in Thailand has stolen money from bank accounts in Thailand - they are trying hard to make this look like a foreign criminal gang which it isn't, someone in Thailand may have transferred the money out of Thailand but the transaction was initiated in Thailand by someone with access in Thailand, it would not be difficult to trace.

[zzaa09]

4 minutes ago, smedly said:

it is total nonsense, someone or possibly a group working for a bank or a CC company in Thailand has stolen money from bank accounts in Thailand - they are trying hard to make this look like a foreign criminal gang which it isn't, someone in Thailand may have transferred the money out of Thailand but the transaction was initiated in Thailand by someone with access in Thailand, it would not be difficult to trace.

It's always the suspicious foreigners, isn't it? 

[ThailandRyan]

I had the same thing happen to my daily use account here. Never used my debit card at the ATM or elsewhere, only did the withdrawal Qr code scan at the K-bank ATMs, and then used the payment scan with merchants like Makro etc.  Never used the account to pay vendors like most Thai's do.  was hit for the same amount 6 time successively in a 15 minute period and in the middle of the night.  I have a phone alert for any activity on my account and when it woke me up I immediately locked off the account by setting all the amounts to Zero.  I then went to K-Bank first thing in the morning, then to the Tungmahamek Police station to file a report and was told there was nothing they could do.  Back to K-bank who then refunded the amounts taken and then changed my account to a new one, of course this also resulted in a new card being issued as well since they canceled the other one, and running me a few hundred baht, which they also refunded.  Moral of the story is if you have a mobile phone app and can set the amounts to zero and then reinstate the amount needed for your purchase before returning it to zero again that's the best safety feature you can have.  If it occurs when your account is locked off it is definitely a bank issue.

[HaoleBoy]

police suspect multiple gangs are responsible for the crimes

From the article in the link ...

 

I really doubt "multiple" gangs did this all at the same time.  This is just Thai banks or police in "cover your *ss" mode.

 

If Thai CC companies (Thai banks here I think) were held responsible for fraudulent transactions then fraud detection systems would be created.  But, this costs the banks money ...

[HaoleBoy]

some charges and withdrawals were made by store employees who stole their customers' card details when their victims were completing a transaction

From the article in the link ... 

 

This should be easy to trace down if true.  Why are they mixing all the different ways this can happen in the same article?  Specify what happened, banks hit, and online transaction companies used.

[smedly]

44 minutes ago, smedly said:

it is total nonsense, someone or possibly a group working for a bank or a CC company in Thailand has stolen money from bank accounts in Thailand - they are trying hard to make this look like a foreign criminal gang which it isn't, someone in Thailand may have transferred the money out of Thailand but the transaction was initiated in Thailand by someone with access in Thailand, it would not be difficult to trace.

In order for this scam to work two things are required 

 

A CC or Debit Card and all its details 

 

A CC or Debit card that is enabled for comercial transactions 

 

As I pay attention - a poster on here yesterday who is a victim of this theft does have a card issued by a bank in Thailand  - he has never used it not even in an ATM machine, from that it is not hard to figure out that whoever stole his money had access to his card details from an internal system - so that is either at a bank or the CC company

 

It doesn't matter where the money went or how it was requested - an insider had to have access to the card details to make it happen

 

 

 

 

and no a VPN would not have made any difference lol

Edited October 19, 2021 by smedly

[konaboy]

"it just goes to show, it's always something"

[smedly]

so additional to my post above 

 

In order for this crime to work your need -

 

- a source for the money - Thailand bank or CC company with an insider who has access 

- an account with company like paypal using fake id and credentials 

- a bank account in a foreign country (China/Russia) using the same fake id and credentials 

- a team cooperating across borders at the source and destination of the stolen funds 

- once the stolen funds have been retrieved at the destination then this theft is over 

 

It is difficult to investigate the whole process as it will involve angencies in different countries, the Thai police primary goal is to identify the insiders at the source in Thailand 

 

People wonder why banks are so particular about making sure of your identity when opening an account - this is why, I don't know how difficult it is to create bogus accounts in say China or Russion for example but it could much easier than in Europe or the US 

 

This crime will operate for a few days just long enough for the funds to transferred and withdrawal completed and that will be the end of it.

 

[mikebell]

51 minutes ago, smedly said:

an insider had to have access to the card details to make it happen

Totally correct. Withdrawals were made from ATMs in a town I had never visited.  Each transaction was for 10K. (This was before Smartphones.)  The BKK Bank manager couldn't have been more disinterested; said my GF had taken my card/PIN despite this being impossible. I told him only the bank knew my PIN; he literally shrugged his shoulders.

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The spokesman quoted Payong Srivanich, president of the Thai Bankers' Association, as saying that the association already discussed the issue with the chief information officers of commercial banks.

Thai bankers association... nah I'll get banned again.

[Purdey]

There are forensic auditors in Thailand who can look at transactions in branches. A deep dive into just one or two scammed accounts ought to point to the person in the bank responsible.