Bank of Thailand Cracks Down on Digital Scams as Fraud Losses Reach Nearly 98 Billion Baht
Bank of Thailand unveils stricter transfer limits and freezes accounts amid surge in prompt fraud and calls to close loopholes
The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has disclosed that the public lost nearly ninety-eight billion baht over one year to online financial fraud, prompting a suite of new regulatory and technical measures.
At the BOT Symposium 2025, Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput explained that digital finance’s rapid growth, especially via PromptPay, has amplified opportunities for scammers.
Victims, he said, take on average eighteen hours to realise they’ve been defrauded, while thieves transfer funds out in just three minutes — presenting a critical time gap for intervention.
PromptPay, used by more than seventy percent of the population, now processes over seventy-six million transactions daily, worth more than 144 billion baht.
Since 2022, police reports of online fraud have passed one million, underscoring an escalating threat.
To address this, the BOT and other authorities are enforcing a multi-pronged strategy.
A Central Fraud Registry (CFR) has been developed to trace suspicious money trails and enable faster account freezes.
The BOT has also fostered coordination via newly enacted “Cyber Crime Prevention and Suppression Emergency Decree No. 2 of 2025,” giving financial institutions, digital payment providers, telecoms and related platforms more power to act against technology-based fraud.
Additional measures include risk-based daily transfer caps: new mobile banking users and those categorised as vulnerable (like the elderly or minors) will face limits of fifty thousand baht per day, while others with verified accounts may have higher ceilings.
Banks are also required to implement stronger “know-your-customer” procedures, facial recognition for larger transfers, and faster freezing of suspect accounts.
In recent months, the BOT reports freezing over three million bank accounts linked to fraudulent or mule-account operations, including about 177,000 confirmed mule accounts.
In the second quarter of 2025 alone, fraud losses were about six billion baht, down from around 8.6 billion in the same period last year.
There were 24,500 reported scam cases in June 2025 that resulted in roughly 2.8 billion baht in losses; average loss per case was 114,000 baht, with some cases exceeding 4.9 million baht.
These interventions are aimed at closing the speed gap between fraudulent transfers and detection, protecting vulnerable groups, and ensuring that Thailand’s expanding digital finance infrastructure remains secure and resilient.
At the BOT Symposium 2025, Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput explained that digital finance’s rapid growth, especially via PromptPay, has amplified opportunities for scammers.
Victims, he said, take on average eighteen hours to realise they’ve been defrauded, while thieves transfer funds out in just three minutes — presenting a critical time gap for intervention.
PromptPay, used by more than seventy percent of the population, now processes over seventy-six million transactions daily, worth more than 144 billion baht.
Since 2022, police reports of online fraud have passed one million, underscoring an escalating threat.
To address this, the BOT and other authorities are enforcing a multi-pronged strategy.
A Central Fraud Registry (CFR) has been developed to trace suspicious money trails and enable faster account freezes.
The BOT has also fostered coordination via newly enacted “Cyber Crime Prevention and Suppression Emergency Decree No. 2 of 2025,” giving financial institutions, digital payment providers, telecoms and related platforms more power to act against technology-based fraud.
Additional measures include risk-based daily transfer caps: new mobile banking users and those categorised as vulnerable (like the elderly or minors) will face limits of fifty thousand baht per day, while others with verified accounts may have higher ceilings.
Banks are also required to implement stronger “know-your-customer” procedures, facial recognition for larger transfers, and faster freezing of suspect accounts.
In recent months, the BOT reports freezing over three million bank accounts linked to fraudulent or mule-account operations, including about 177,000 confirmed mule accounts.
In the second quarter of 2025 alone, fraud losses were about six billion baht, down from around 8.6 billion in the same period last year.
There were 24,500 reported scam cases in June 2025 that resulted in roughly 2.8 billion baht in losses; average loss per case was 114,000 baht, with some cases exceeding 4.9 million baht.
These interventions are aimed at closing the speed gap between fraudulent transfers and detection, protecting vulnerable groups, and ensuring that Thailand’s expanding digital finance infrastructure remains secure and resilient.
