The Bank of Thailand began the enforcement of the “Shutdown Mule Accounts” measure today, requiring all commercial banks and other financial institutions to stop financial transactions through bank accounts which are suspected to be mule accounts and to notify their customers.
Roong Mallikamas, deputy central bank governor for financial institution stability, said that the central bank had adopted three new measures to deal with online scammers using mule accounts, as a process in which money they cheat from their victims is temporarily parked before being transferred to their bank accounts, to disguise the money trail.
She said that, if a commercial bank becomes suspicious of an account, which may or may not be a mule account, the bank can stop financial transactions through such an account, adding that this will help mitigate the damage caused by scammers and call centres.
To date, only certain banks have been notifying their customers of suspicious mule accounts, said Roong, adding that she now expects all the commercial banks and other financial institutions to do likewise.
Additionally, from now on, banks can share information about the accounts of their customers who are believed to be being used by scammers to park their ill-gotten gains, something which they were previously not allowed to do, she noted.
The central bank’s deputy governor claimed that, for the next step, the central bank will focus on cryptocurrency accounts, which are “mostly used by scammers” to deposit their proceeds, and mule accounts opened by corporate entities.
Another measure is to prevent scammers’ access to the accounts of bank customers, she said, adding that this requires cooperation from commercial banks, smartphone service providers and other relevant agencies.
