The Thai government has given the nation's operators two months to develop a system to counter the growing problem of caller ID spoofing using VoIP.
Regulator NBTC has also told operators to block 50 numbers used by call center scammers, the Bangkok Post reported.
The regulator worked with operators as well as the Royal Thai Police, the Anti-Money Laundering Office and commercial banks to develop a slew of measures to protect the public from transnational call center scam gangs using VoIP services such as popular messaging app Line.
The scammers use VoIP services to display fake numbers such as those belonging to police stations, court houses and post offices.
Scammers pose as police officers, state officials or bank employees to falsely accuse victims of committing a crime or having debts, in an effort to scare victims into handing over personal information or money.
As well as blocking calls, operators will be required to develop a system to keep logs of all calls made from VoIP platforms in order to uncover the caller's real identity. All calls made via VoIP platforms will need to show the real calling numbers for receivers.
According to the police, there have been 11 detected victims of VoIP spoofing scams since December, and these victims were collectively defrauded of around 8 million baht ($250,720).
Source: https://www.telecomasia.net/content/thai-cellcos-told-crack-down-voip-scams