More than 1,500 people were arrested for online fraud and gambling last year, said the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DES).
The Cybercrime Control Committee, led by DES Minister Chaiwut Thanakhamanusorn, on Wednesday revealed its annual statistics on cybercrime at their first meeting of the year.
Eight call centre scams saw 166 suspects nabbed among the 1,570 arrest cases. The other arrests involved illegal online gambling websites in 461 cases, and online trading fraud in 270 cases.
The statistics also show that 118,530 sim cards were seized for phishing calls or messages. It also revealed that 58,463 bank accounts were opened illegally for the sole purpose of cybercrime, prompting the closure of eight illegal account trading groups on social networking sites.
The committee also had a follow-up on closing 6,024 illegal website URLs, most of which were suspected of opening anti-monarchy and illegal online gambling websites.
Mr Chaiwut said that since online gambling is considered legal in some neighbouring countries, Thai gamblers tend to gamble on those websites, which might cause huge damage to the economy and society.
Meanwhile, a 33-year-old woman was arrested on Wednesday over a YouTube advertisement watcher scam that caused the suicide of a middle-school student in Nonthaburi.
According to the deputy commissioner of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB), Pol Maj Gen Wiwat Khamchamnan, Naphaporn Homchan, the suspect, was arrested at her house in Ayutthaya's Tha Rua district on Wednesday, with a warrant issued by the Nonthaburi Provincial Court on Tuesday.
According to his suicide note, Ms Naphaporn tricked the victim into watching the YouTube ads, which claimed to be one of his "missions". She then persuaded the victim to invest in online trading, causing him to borrow at least 14,000 baht from his mother.
The suspect later disappeared, making the victim realise he had been scammed, which led to his suicide. His parents filed reports with the CCIB police, leading to Wednesday's arrest.
