Thailand’s DES minister vows to combat online scams

Newly appointed Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister, Prasert Chanthararuangthong, pledged to prioritise the suppression of online fraud and call centre scams. As part of the Pheu Thai Party‘s commitments, the DES ministry is also expected to cooperate with related agencies to roll out a digital wallet scheme by 2024, with an initial rollout anticipated for early next year.

The scheme involves a digital handout of 10,000 baht to every Thai aged 16 and over, to be disbursed via smartphone. Prasert will also focus on continuing state projects like the e-government project and big data analytics project, critical to Thailand’s digital economy.

The new minister has acknowledged the importance of an advisory and support team and plans to commence work at the ministry on Thursday. Despite not being a computer…