Thai Banks Pledge Urgent Action to Unblock Accounts Amid Fraudulent Transfer Crisis

 

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) and the Thai Bankers' Association have announced a new initiative to swiftly unblock the bank accounts of innocent individuals caught in the crossfire of online financial fraud.

 

The move follows a weekend of widespread public complaints about account freezes.

 

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Daranee Saeju, Assistant Governor of the BOT’s Payment Systems Policy and Financial Consumer Protection Department, explained that while cases of direct device hacking have been eliminated since the start of the year, the problem of victims being tricked into transferring money themselves remains widespread.

 

This has created a secondary issue where a process to "trace and seize" funds has inadvertently led to the suspension of accounts belonging to honest people.

 

“Criminals are capable of tricking unrelated individuals into becoming involved by using their accounts, which can affect law-abiding citizens,” Daranee stated.

 

To address this, banks have been given new guidelines to unfreeze an account within four hours or at most one working day, down from the previous processing time of 3-7 days.

 

This expedited process applies to individuals who contact their financial institution after their account has been temporarily suspended and are found to have no links to fraud.

 

 

According to data from the past week (7-11 September), approximately 10,000 accounts were suspended, a figure authorities said had not seen a significant increase.

 

However, a review of over 100 cases from Sunday (14 September) showed that only 11, or 10 per cent, of those accounts were actually unblocked, as most were found to have a direct link to the fraudulent money trail.

 

The central bank is also developing a system for the automatic and proactive unblocking of innocent accounts, even without the user's report. This measure is expected to be operational within a week.

 

Furthermore, banks will adjust their processes to only freeze accounts directly connected to a fraud case, preventing innocent accounts from being impacted from the outset.

 

All customers with suspended transactions will now be notified via SMS or mobile banking on the night of the incident, with details of the temporary suspension and clear instructions on what steps to take.

 

In a separate press briefing, Wisit Wisitsora-at, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DE), provided further clarification.

 

He stressed that the measure is not an account freeze, but rather a temporary suspension of only the amount suspected of being linked to transactions from a mule account. This suspension will be in effect for a maximum of seven days.

 

He confirmed that if police do not find new evidence to justify a full seizure under the Criminal Procedure Code within that timeframe, the suspended account will be unlocked immediately.

 

If an owner is found to be innocent, the suspension will be lifted promptly to minimise disruption to their daily life.

 

 

Wisit also noted that of the more than 1,300 people who have contacted the centre to request an account be unblocked, only 300 provided the necessary information.

 

Of those, only 10% were successfully unlocked, as the remaining cases showed behaviour consistent with mule accounts.

 

Currently, over 1,000 new fraud cases are reported daily. Relevant authorities will notify banks to "suspend only the suspicious amount" based on information from the victims, ensuring the entire account balance is not affected.

 

Innocent people who are impacted can contact the centre with four key pieces of information: their full name, ID card number, account number, and bank name. This will allow officials to verify and unblock the account in under half a day.

 

Wisit stated that most of the transactions under scrutiny involve large sums, from hundreds of thousands to millions of baht, rather than the smaller amounts typically used by small business owners.

 

He refuted claims of favouritism, confirming that every account identified will be treated equally, including those belonging to large corporations, though the suspended amount may be too small to have a noticeable impact on their overall finances.

 

All actions are being carried out in accordance with the law, in cooperation with the BOT, the Thai Bankers’ Association, and the Royal Thai Police.

 

Authorities are also preparing to intensify transaction monitoring to quickly and accurately separate criminal accounts from those of innocent people, thereby minimising public inconvenience.

 

Wisit concluded by stating that agencies are discussing the development of a screening system to check transactions at the source, reducing the opportunity for fraud and requiring a high level of inter-agency data integration and cooperation.

 

“Please do not panic,” Wisit said. “If you encounter any problems with online fraud, you can report it to the AOC 1441 hotline 24 hours a day to get immediate help and action from officials.”