According to the announcement
made by the Bangkok Post, Thailand’s Permanent Secretary of Justice Wisit
Wisitsora-at encouraged ASEAN
law enforcement officials to develop a communication channel to prevent
cybercrime.
Permanent Secretary of Justice Wisit
Wisitsora-at said that ASEAN law enforcement officials should work together in
order to create a channel where they can communicate and share information
about cybercrimes since the offences are transnational.
Mr Wisit mentioned this while speaking at a
seminar in Bangkok, which was attended by representatives from 10 ASEAN nations
as well as cybercrime suppression experts. The seminar was a venue for ASEAN
member to exchange law enforcement measures to combat computer crimes.
He added that all the countries around the
globe should pay more attention to computer crimes, which are spreading and
causing widespread damage. One country alone cannot thwart all computer crimes
as it has no power to deal with offenders who are overseas.
Although each country has its own measure
on catching these offenders, there are still legal differences among the
countries, which help criminals, get away with it.
Because of this, a channel where ASEAN law
enforcement agencies can exchange information about cybercrimes is necessary.
It should be formed so that they can discuss a range of cybercrimes, from basic
offences such as call centre scams to complex transgressions.
Mr Wisit added that those who commit cybercrimes
are equipped with various levels of technical knowledge. Having a communication
channel would help pinpoint loopholes exploited by cybercrime offenders, in turn;
this will assist the countries in amending the laws to counter the
transgressions.
“The world has realised that cybercrimes have
become a new trend. Even the United Nations pays attention to the issue and
agrees that we should not wait until the situation becomes critical to find
ways to deal with the problem,” Mr Wisit said.
He added that although Thailand has severe
punishments in place based on the Computer Crime Act, questions must still be
raised as to whether officials would be able to apprehend criminals to prevent the
crimes from spreading. He said that the criminals need not travel to the target
country to commit the offence.
"Regarding law enforcement officials,
they must develop a surveillance system that would detect the offences,"
Mr Wisit said.
According to the Department of Special
Investigation, most cybercrimes committed in Thailand involve call centre scams
that have caused substantial damage to several customers over the years. The
criminals set up their bases for call centre operations in various nations.
Data from December 2017 shows that 452
cases pertaining to call centres have been recorded according to the unit of
the Royal Thai Police tasked with preventing and thwarting public frauds
through phones or electronic channels. The damage was reported to have reached
about 245 million baht.
A total of 547 warrants have been issued to
arrest offenders, 396 of which were already apprehended.
