Photo courtesy of Bangkok Post

 

The national police chief of Thailand, Pol Gen Kittharath Punpetch, announced on Tuesday that bank accounts frozen during police probes into scam-related activities will be unlocked for innocent individuals within half a day. Police hotlines 191 and 1559 have been instructed to assist those whose accounts were mistakenly targeted during scam investigations. This step is expected to relieve the pressure on the anti-online scams center and the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, which have been managing these complaints.

 

Recently, cyber scams have led to a significant number of bank accounts being frozen after officials suspected them of being involved in scam mules. To unlock these accounts, affected individuals must provide their name, family names, ID numbers, and bank account details to the police for verification of innocence. Once verified, the measures will ensure that accounts are accessible again, starting immediately.

 

Pol Gen Kittharath acknowledged the challenges faced by police interrogators due to workload related to freezing and unfreezing accounts. He suggested the need for additional interrogators to manage the increased demands. In response to the crisis, about 1,300 complaints were received recently, and police have managed to unlock around 30 accounts deemed innocent.

 

The issue arose when officials froze accounts suspected of receiving funds from scammers' mule accounts. Innocent vendors, fearing account freezes, are wary of accepting electronic payments through QR codes. Pol Gen Kittharat assured the public that future freezes would target only the suspicious funds within accounts, not the entire account balance.

 

Consumer advocate Saree Ongsomwang suggested preventing such issues by enabling banks to block the fraudulent transactions of mule accounts directly. This preventive approach could avoid freezing the accounts of innocent parties in the first place.

 

As the authorities push forward with new verification procedures, affected individuals can expect faster resolution times. The changes aim to protect innocent citizens while continuing efforts to combat online fraud.

 

Key Takeaways

• Innocent account holders will have their accounts unfrozen within half a day upon verification.
• Police hotline support aims to manage the surge in complaints more effectively.
• Measures focus on freezing only suspicious funds rather than entire accounts.

 

Related Stories

Bangkok Scam Stopped as Elderly Woman Distrusts Real Police

Thailand Lauds US Crackdown on Southeast Asian Scam Networks

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from Bangkok Post 2025-09-17

 

 

They put the banking system into the hands of uneducated "ba ba bor bor" people who bought their way into the position so what was expected?? The innocent suffer!

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

To unlock these accounts, affected individuals must provide their name, family names, ID numbers, and bank account details to the police for verification of innocence.

Yea, but... now you're between a rock and a hard place...

Being forced to give all that information to one of the most notorious institutions for later misuse or sale?

This is a good reason to invest in Thailand. 

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

accounts frozen during police probes into scam-related activities will be unlocked for innocent individuals within half a day

 

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

1,300 complaints were received recently, and police have managed to unlock around 30 accounts deemed innocent

 

So they managed to unlock 2% of the accounts for which complaints were received? Forgive me if that statistic makes me doubt that "innocent" accounts will be unlocked within half a day going forward.

Now we have confirmation on who runs the country. No need for courts or political decisions. The police decide everything.

Pol Gen Kittharath Punpetch might be well advised to throw out the entire lot of imbecile officers who started this "ill-gotten" idea to block all those dirty farang accounts. 

I - for one - wonder, who has the authority to do so based on what governmental instruction and furthermore it will be interesting to see, what impact this little stint will have on foreign investors in Thailand. 

It seems that every little Somchai above the grade of a traffic directing police officer has the authority to basically do what they want. Questions, questions, questions .......... 

This, combined with the medieval way of banking in Thailand is an almost guaranteed formula for all those crooks. Education would avoid all those fake transfers for goods which do not exist while keeping an eye on illegal sourced of trillions of Baht which apparently are flying around and unknown movements on gold pricing! 

Is Thailand one of the only places where the police get involved in the banking system?   

 

Amazing Thailand🤣

11 minutes ago, Sydebolle said:

Pol Gen Kittharath Punpetch might be well advised to throw out the entire lot of imbecile officers who started this "ill-gotten" idea to block all those dirty farang accounts. 

I - for one - wonder, who has the authority to do so based on what governmental instruction and furthermore it will be interesting to see, what impact this little stint will have on foreign investors in Thailand. 

It seems that every little Somchai above the grade of a traffic directing police officer has the authority to basically do what they want. Questions, questions, questions .......... 

This, combined with the medieval way of banking in Thailand is an almost guaranteed formula for all those crooks. Education would avoid all those fake transfers for goods which do not exist while keeping an eye on illegal sourced of trillions of Baht which apparently are flying around and unknown movements on gold pricing! 

The mentioned blocking of accounts has nothing to do with nationality, the majority of blocked accounts seem to be Thai owned. 

A financial taskforce should be used to identify suspicious accounts through data analysis, this would probably eliminate a large number of innocent accounts almost immediately. Police should then be called in only to investigate those accounts that show unusual money movements. The BoT should be overseeing this and the police should be restricted to specific account investigation only.

1 hour ago, msbkk said:

The mentioned blocking of accounts has nothing to do with nationality, the majority of blocked accounts seem to be Thai owned. 

As this is platform of mostly non-Thais while non-Thais were affected as well ............ giving retirees with limited Thai linguistic skills a hard time simply because their account is less than three years old - your call!