The Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) has warned members of the public not to fall victim to scammers sending short messages (SMS), informing them that they now have access to the 10,000 baht subsidy, under the “digital wallet” scheme, and should contact officials.

CCIB spokesman Pol Col Krisana Pattanacharoen said today (Thursday) that people who receive such messages should just ignore them.

The “digital wallet” scheme is a Pheu Thai party policy, aimed at stimulating the economy, through the disbursement of a one-time subsidy of 10,000 baht paid into the digital wallets of all Thai nationals aged 16 and over. The subsidy must be spent within six months to buy food and other necessities in stores within a 4km radius from their house or lodging.

The scheme is, however, yet to be launched.

He disclosed that the SMSs come in different forms, but mostly concern financial gains, such as messages from a fake postal service informing the receivers that they can claim compensation for damage to parcels addressed to them, messages from the Provincial Electricity Authority or the Metropolitan Electricity Authority saying that they can now claim a refund of the charges for the installation of electricity meters, messages from the Land Department informing them that they owe land or household taxes or are entitled to refunds for overcharged taxes or messages for them to update their personal information relating to their pensions.

Krisana offered advice when receiving such messages:

• Do not click the links attached to the SMS.
• Do not click on URLs for the installation of applications, because such applications may contain malware.
• Do not return calls to unfamiliar phone numbers claiming to come from state agencies, asking for your name and other personal information.
• Be careful when adding friends to Line accounts.
• Only install applications via App Store or Play Store.
• If you have installed a fake application, it is advisable to immediately force a factory reset of your device, remove any SIM cards or switch off the Wi-Fi router.

Krisana said that, from March 1^st to August 19^th, more than 9,400 complaints have been filed by people who were duped into installing fake applications, causing financial losses estimated at about 820 million baht.