BOT warns of fraud

BANGKOK: -- The Bank of Thailand yesterday warned holders of credit cards or bank loans not to disclose personal information to strangers, as it may be part of a scam by fraudsters.

Chanchai Boonritchaisri, senior director of the Legal and Litigation Department, said the central bank had recently received several complaints from bank customers about mysterious phone calls from people claiming to be from the Bank of Thailand. They were asked by the caller to provide information on their identification card to verify whether the central bank had got false reports from the commercial bank.

Some debtors panicked and agreed to follow the instructions of the callers by changing their PIN numbers. The callers who were waiting for this opportunity intercepted the PIN numbers from the debtors and withdrew money from their accounts.

Chanchai said scores of consumers said they had been fooled by these fraudsters, while some said they had received this kind of inquiry before.

The central bank will never directly contact debtors with non-performing loans, he said. Besides, it does not give out the ID numbers of people.

The Bank of Thailand is closely monitoring such acts. If anyone is found committing such a scam, the crooks will end up in jail, he added.

-- The Nation 2008-11-03

BANGKOK: -- The Bank of Thailand yesterday warned holders of credit cards or bank loans not to disclose personal information to strangers, as it may be part of a scam by fraudsters.

Well that is good news for Thai card holders.

The rest of the world has been warning of this for years,

so it is about time the BOT caught up.

I hope Pattaya Immigration will take note and not ask people requesting visa extensions, for a photocopy of their credit cards

It's called Social Engineering and have been around some 30 years when it comes to account-frauds alone...good thing they are warning in time.