Thailand Vows 'Strong Medicine' on Scammers, Joins Global Cybercrime Pact
Bangkok joins 68 nations and the EU in signing the UN Cybercrime Convention; the Digital Minister outlines a 'National Agenda' to tackle online fraud with severe new laws
- Thailand has joined the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, uniting with 68 other nations and the EU to enhance international cooperation and intelligence sharing.
- The Thai government has declared the fight against online fraud a "National Agenda" as part of its escalated efforts to suppress scammers.
- The new "strong medicine" strategy includes cutting mobile signals at borders, creating a real-time database to track financial trails, and overhauling laws to impose severe penalties on all involved, including complicit officials.
Bangkok joins 68 nations and the EU in signing the UN Cybercrime Convention; the Digital Minister outlines a 'National Agenda' to tackle online fraud with severe new laws.
Thailand has signalled a major escalation in its fight against transnational organised crime, joining 68 countries and the European Union in signing the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime at a high-level conference in Hanoi on Saturday.
Chaichanok Chidchob, Thailand’s Minister of Digital Economy and Society (DES), attended the ceremony alongside Vietnamese President Luong Cuong and UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
The minister confirmed the convention aims to strengthen international cooperation, facilitate intelligence sharing, and enhance technical capacity to effectively combat cybercrime, particularly for the benefit of developing nations.
During the High-Level Conference, Chaichanok delivered a statement where he underscored the severity of online fraud plaguing the Thai populace, noting that Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has designated the issue as a "National Agenda."
The Thai government is implementing a three-pronged, proactive strategy to tackle the problem:
Border Signal Cut-Offs: Implementing aggressive measures to cut mobile and internet signals along the border and detect illegal connections to prevent illicit communications from leaking out of Thailand.
Real-Time Data Integration: Developing an integrated, real-time central database to swiftly track the financial trails of perpetrators and so-called 'mule accounts,' and to accelerate compensation payments to victims.
Legal Overhaul and Severe Penalties: Accelerating revisions to the country's technological crime laws to focus on "Prevention, Suppression, and Counter-Action," including the establishment of a dedicated task force within the next two months.
The new framework will mandate more severe penalties and decisive legal action against anyone involved—including politicians, civil servants, or state personnel—found to be colluding with call centres or online gambling rings.
The minister expressed appreciation for the decisive anti-cybercrime actions taken by the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Korea, and affirmed Thailand’s commitment to multilateral cooperation.
"The signing of this Convention marks a significant step and a statement of Thailand’s position against cybercrime... demonstrating that Thailand is prepared to use strong medicine for suppression, coupled with building international cooperation to tackle the problem of scammers," Chaichanok concluded, emphasising the goal of creating a secure digital society for all.
