Thailand’s central bank and bankers’ association on Tuesday vowed to repay money lost to a recent e-commerce fraud within five days, and to tighten the security system to detect unusual transactions.
Last weekend, local media reported fraudulent debit and credit card transfers in various commercial banks that drained money from bank client’s accounts in successive transactions.
The central bank said those transactions were not associated with leaks in bank databases but third-party overseas e-commerce platforms.
Since October 1, the central bank revealed that around 10,700 debit and credit cardholders had seen money transferred, amounting around 130 million baht of losses.
The banks will reimburse the money to affected debit cardholders within five days in accordance with a request from the central bank, Payong Srivanich, chairman of the bankers’ association, said.
For credit cardholders, the banks will cancel all fraudulent payments and freeze the card immediately.
Commercial banks have mechanisms in place to detect suspicious transactions, said central bank’s assistant-governor Siritida Panomwon Na Ayudhya.
“Recently, there have been a lot of strange transactions, prompting banks to not alert their customers in time, with some cardholders finding the fraud themselves,” Siritida said. – Thai Enquirer
