Thailand witnessed a significant spike in scam calls and SMS messages in 2024, with figures soaring to 168 million, the highest in five years, according to the 2024 annual report by Gogolook Thailand.
This surge is linked to a complex scam ecosystem that has embraced the latest generative AI technologies to perpetrate fraud via phone calls, SMS, and malicious links.
These fraudulent activities include impersonation scams, various financial deceptions, and breaches of personal data.
Gogolook Thailand, a prominent trust-tech company, provides the Whoscall digital anti-scam application.
According to Manwoo Joo, the CEO of Gogolook Thailand, the company has been diligently tracking the evolution of scams since it first published its annual report in 2020, particularly across Whoscall’s key markets.
The past year recorded a striking 112% increase in scam activities, with scam calls and SMS messages reaching 168 million, up from 79.2 million in 2023.
Specifically, scam calls increased to approximately 38 million in 2024, up from 20.8 million in 2023, and scam SMS detections surged to nearly 130 million, more than double the 58.3 million in 2023.
The Smart SMS Assistant feature of Whoscall successfully blocked and filtered nearly 130 million SMS scams in 2024, indicating that SMS remains a favored channel for scammers.
The predominant scams involved gambling and money lending, with a notable shift to impersonating delivery and utility services, exploiting governmental policies like electricity bill reductions and digital wallet initiatives.
In 2024, Whoscall also introduced the “Web Checker” tool, enabling users to verify the safety of unknown links while online.
Additionally, the report emphasizes the widespread issue of personal data leakage, revealing that 41% of Whoscall users in Thailand had their personal information exposed on the dark and deep web.
The most commonly leaked information included email addresses (97%) and phone numbers (88%), often accompanied by other sensitive data such as birth dates, names, and passwords.
