The Royal Thai Police (RTP) is warning the public to be on their guard against online scammers during Songkran after nearly 5,300 fraud cases were reported last week.
Most complaints were about online-shopping and bank transfer scams.
On Tuesday Pol Lt Gen Sompong Chingduang, special adviser to the RTP, said that reported losses the victims suffered amounted to 312.5 million baht.
Of all the 5,269 crimes reported, 2,600 were online-shopping scams with losses amounting to 34 million baht and 719 cases were job posting scams that saw 61.1 million baht in losses.
Another 539 cases were loan scams incurring 22.7 million baht in losses, 286 were online investment scams that saw 72.7 million baht in losses, and 276 cases were call-centre scams that resulted in 47.9 million baht in losses.
Pol Lt Gen Sompong said that there had been an increasing number of online-shopping scams where products related to the Songkran Festival, such as flowered-pattern shirts and water guns, are posted for sale but victims do not receive the products after payment.
Another common crime is Ponzi schemes. Scammers usually create fake social media accounts using profile pictures of famous people to boost credibility and invite victims to invest their money, promising high returns.
"The Royal Thai Police would like to warn against investing with unverified parties and purchasing products from unverified sellers," he added.
