Users of mobile banking services, who are notified by their banks that their names do not match the name of the owner of the SIM card in their smartphone which is registered with the bank, are to be required to contact their banks to correct the issue by April 30th, or their mobile banking services will be suspended.
This measure became effective today. It is aimed at curbing the use of “mule” bank accounts by online scammers.
This month, banks will send notifications to users of their mobile banking services, via their applications, requiring them to confirm their identity with their mobile service providers by the deadline.
According to Karom Pholpornklang, deputy spokesman for the prime minister’s office, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, the Anti-Money Laundering Office, the Bank of Thailand, commercial banks and mobile phone service providers have information about 120 million SIM cards, for which verification may be needed to determine whether the owners of the SIM cards are the actual phone users.
Only 75.8 million phone number owners are the same as the actual users of the numbers, or 63% of all the phone numbers associated with SIM cards.
There are 30.9 million phone numbers (25.68%) whose owners are not the same as the users. For the remaining 13.5 million phone numbers, there is no information about their owners.
This new measure is not to be applied, however, to phone numbers registered by government agencies, private companies or organisations for use by their staff, phone numbers used by family members or phone numbers used by the disabled.
Family members will, though, be required to show official documents to prove that they are members of the same family
