The authorities in Thailand are taking a tough stance against the rampant menace of cryptocurrency scams and fraudulent ads on Facebook and are seeking to bring a court-issued shutdown order against the social media giant if it fails to curb these illegal activities.

Thailand Seeks Legal Action against Facebook

The proposed action was taken as, according to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES), fraudulent Facebook ads, including cryptocurrency scams and investments into fake businesses, have duped more than 200,000 Thai people.

To lure victims, the fraudulent ads offer daily returns of up to 30 percent and even illegally used the photos of celebrities and well-known financial industry figures as fake endorsements. Some advertisements even used the name and symbol of Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Stock Exchange of Thailand to show authenticity.

During the meeting with representatives of several Thai ministries and agencies, MDES Minister, Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, said that his ministry has been in talks with Meta-owned Facebook on the issue of the fraudulent ads and sent a letter to the platform. However, the social media giant has failed to screen the fake advertisements.

The Thai ministry asked Facebook to block more than 5301 fraudulent ads and fake pages.

With the failure of Facebook to take action against the fraudulent ads, the Thai ministry is now gathering evidence and will ask to shut down the social media within seven days.

“If Facebook wants to do business in Thailand, it must show responsibility to the Thai society,” Thanakamanusorn said (translated from Thai).

A Massive Market for Facebook

According to DataReportal, Facebook has about 51.6 million users in Thailand, making it the social media platform’s ninth-largest market. Any action to limit the presence of the platform in the country by its government might put a massive dent in the company.

However, Facebook is not the only social media platform infested with scammers. Telegram, a well-known encrypted messaging platform, has become a hotbed for scammers impersonating legitimate companies and offering fraudulent investment services. The policy of Telegram around tackling these scammers is opaque, and though the regulators are aware of these clones/fraudsters, they do not have any authority over the activities on the social media platform.

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