Google Play Reports Thailand Has Become Goldmine for Scammers

Google’s 2023 Bad Apps Report has listed Thailand was one of the top three Asian-Pacific nations to experience a large increase in financial fraud scams last year. “In 2023, Google Play recorded an increase in frauds and financial crime claims over scam apps.

Aman Dayal, head of trust and safety operations for Asia-Pacific at Google Play said, Thailand, Singapore and India experienced a large increase in financial fraud scams,” during an online media round-table on the report.

The Asia-Pacific area is a hotbed for scammers since it has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world (over 90%), with many users using their phones to conduct transactions. “That’s a goldmine for scammers to carry out fraud online,” Mr Dayal said.

Furthermore, scammers take advantage of people’s respect for authorities. For example, scammers pretend to be from a government body or a bank. Many areas in the Asia-Pacific region also have a significant digital literacy gap, making it difficult to properly manage online risks.

This may be true for senior mobile phone users, who are more vulnerable to false communications, dangerous programs, and frauds.

However, hazards can affect people of all ages. According to a recent Google survey, people aged 25 to 34 in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are the most vulnerable to scams.

Google recently improved its Google Message service in Singapore, Thailand, and India, which saw an increase in scams last year, to better safeguard users from this type of social engineering.

Google Play Protect feature

The Google Play store also includes a real-time scanning capability, which was first available in the Asia-Pacific region last year, starting with India, Singapore, and Thailand. Today, this new function has discovered more than five million new harmful programs, protecting people all across the world.

Google recently introduced a Google Play Protect feature in Singapore and Thailand to prevent the installation of potentially dangerous apps that try to gain device rights typically used for fraud.

Google has been rolling out this functionality for Android handsets in Singapore since February, and it will be available in Thailand starting April.

“The aim of this programme is to actually directly block the installation of potentially risky apps that attempt to access sensitive device permissions, which we have seen are commonly used for fraud,” Mr. Dayal added.

According to the Bank of Thailand, phishing apps in Thailand imitating real institutions have been common, resulting in losses of more than a billion baht in 2023.

Scams carry a psychological toll

In the same online media round-table, Annabelle Chow, chief clinical psychologist at Annabelle Psychology, stated that scams have an emotional impact in addition to a financial one.

She stated that scam victims bear a significant portion of the psychological toll, which is a natural part of the grieving process. They begin with a lot of denial, despair, rage and even suicide, and they struggle to make sense of their emotional experience. It may be a lonely and debilitating experience, especially in Asia and the Pacific.

According to her, the Asian attitude prevents individuals from speaking frankly and trustingly, empathetically.

“By improving empathy, we can help educate others on how to talk to people who have been scammed, increasing the likelihood that they will speak up about it. It’s also about insights that assist digital platforms improve their security,” Ms Chow explained.

She advised consumers to remain attentive and not dismiss security alerts or warnings.

According to Mr Dayal, in 2023, Google will prohibit 2.28 million policy-violating apps from being uploaded on the Google Play store, as well as ban 333,000 malicious developer accounts.

“Our continuous investments in machine learning systems, and improved app review processes will also continue to combat bad actors,” he went on to say.