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Thailand Thursday helped launch a global effort to fight the spread of online scams involving large-scale criminal enterprises based Southeast Asia Billions of dollars are estimated to be recovered annually from victims around the world.
Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime hosted a conference bangkok Wednesday and Thursday culminated with the announcement of a new initiative called the Global Partnership against Online Scams.
thai prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul Said in his keynote speech on Wednesday that online scams “highlight a deeper problem – a collective vulnerability that no one country can address alone.”
The partnership agreement, signed by conference participants Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, Peru and the United Arab Emirates, will include political commitment, law enforcement, victim protection and public awareness and cross-border cooperation, a statement said.
The conference received support from the private sector including internet giants Meta and tiktok,
Meta, the corporate owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, submitted a threat report outlining the increasing use of artificial intelligence by scam networks and the protocols the company is using in efforts to prevent scams on its social media platforms.
Social media application TikTok signed the conference’s closing statement, becoming one of the first private sector members of the partnership.
TikTok, which primarily focuses on short-form videos, is one of the world’s most popular social media platforms but has faced challenges from various governments, including the US over its Chinese ownership, the EU over transparency violations, Canada over child protection protocols and Indonesia over data sharing.
Scams that extort money from victims online through fake investment schemes and fake love affairs have sprung up across Southeast Asia. UNODC estimates that victims of scams lost between $18 billion and $37 billion in 2023.
The importance of private participation in anti-scam initiatives was emphasized during the two-day conference in the Thai capital, which was attended by more than 300 participants from around 60 countries.
Brian Hanley, Asia-Pacific director of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, which TikTok joined this month, said it would be difficult to tackle criminal networks without “all key stakeholders at the table.”
“Scams are taking advantage of not only international borders, but also a variety of platforms, from banks to telecom companies to social media platforms,” Hanley said.
The coalition describes itself as a collective effort by governments, law enforcement, consumer protection organizations, and companies involved in social media, cybersecurity, and other aspects of the Internet to tackle the problem of scamming.
“TikTok is what we’re talking about today, but hopefully everyone will be involved tomorrow,” Hanley said. “We’re starting to get critical mass and momentum as everyone realizes this is impacting their bottom lines and consumer confidence.”
Recent raids on scam centers in Myanmar, the issue of repatriation of victims in Thailand and the death of a South Korean student forced into scam work in Cambodia have fueled calls for regional action.
Cambodia has been known as the epicenter of the scandal and has been criticized by its neighbor Thailand, but both countries are engaged in armed conflict and Cambodia was not represented at the conference.
Similar pledges to fight scam networks were made by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the months before the Bangkok conference.
These include the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, which was signed by more than 70 countries in Vietnam in October. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the document “a pledge that no country, regardless of their level of development, will be left helpless against cybercrime.”