Selling your bank account for 10,000 baht risks prison

At about 11am on Saturday, 7 November, cyber police opened the door of a room in a two-storey shophouse on Ban Thung Road in Mae Sot district, Tak province. The room carried a beauty salon sign, but it was not open for business. Inside were 40 phones, each with a banking app installed and ready to use, and 7 notebooks. Police arrested three men aged 31 to 42 on charges of jointly arranging, advertising or spreading word about the buying, selling, renting or lending of bank accounts. The office had been running for about a year, according to Naewna and The Thaiger.

The number most readers should remember is the money. People who came to open an account were paid 8,000 to 10,000 baht each, while the three suspects earned 2,000 to 3,000 baht per phone they finished. The seven notebooks were used to note each account holder's name, banking app passcode, email and phone number, and the phones were then passed on to scam groups and online gambling sites. An account like this is called a mule account: it is opened in one person's name, but someone else uses it to collect money from fraud.

Picture a gang holding your app passcode, email and phone number. It can get into your account whenever it likes, and the money victims send passes through an account in your name, not the gang's. The people who lost money trace the destination account, and police follow the same trail to the same person. Police are now widening the case to the financiers, the networks that took the accounts and the people hired to open them, which includes anyone who took that 8,000 to 10,000 baht.

Letting someone use your account is already a crime

Many people think they have not cheated anyone, they only lent an account and took a fee. But the Emergency Decree on Measures to Prevent and Suppress Technology Crime of 2023, in force since 17 March 2023, sees it differently. Anyone who rents out or allows others to use a bank account, ATM card or e-wallet faces up to 3 years in prison, a fine of up to 300,000 baht, or both, as PPTV summarised it. The top fine is 30 times the 10,000 baht on offer. Brokers, and anyone who finds accounts or advertises them for sale, face a heavier penalty: 2 to 5 years in prison and a fine of 200,000 to 500,000 baht.

Thairath reported two more points worth knowing. First, opening a mule account or advertising to get others to open one is a criminal offence in itself, with no need to wait for a victim. Second, someone who knows or should know that their name is being used for fraud can also be guilty. So "I did not know what they would do with it" does not always protect you.

If someone makes this offer, refuse, then check the company

The Mae Sot reports do not say how the office found people to open accounts, but an earlier case gives a clear picture. In 2022, Thai PBS described a Facebook page advertising for an online "admin" to sell products, paying 300 baht a day. The applicant was told to open a bank account on a phone and send an ID number, a photo of the ID card and an OTP code to the page. The page then went silent, and the applicant received three summonses in a fraud case.

The police advice in that report fits every version of the offer. Do not give your account or ID number to people you know only online. Do not let anyone use your account, even if they say it is part of the job. And never forward an OTP code. For a job advertisement, search the company on the Department of Business Development website (dbd.go.th) to confirm it is registered and still active, then call the company directly to ask whether the advertisement is theirs. A real job does not need your bank account to receive money for someone else.

If you have already given an account away, call your bank first

If you have already given away an account, a banking app or a passcode, the longer you wait, the longer the account keeps being used and the longer your name sits on other people's transfers. The first step is to call your bank, on the number on the back of your card or in the app, say that someone else is using the account and ask for it to be suspended. The online-report steps in Thai PBS's report also start with the bank.

The second step is to call 1441, the Anti Online Scam Operation Center of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. On the ministry's page, press 1 to report and ask for a suspicious account to be suspended, or press 3 for legal advice, which is worth doing if you are worried about being charged. You can also report online at thaipoliceonline.go.th, a police channel. The third step is to change your banking app passcode and the password of the email linked to the account at once, because in Mae Sot the gang noted both for every holder. In 2023, police urged owners of mule accounts to close them before being prosecuted, but reporting does not guarantee you will not be questioned. Staying silent, though, leaves the account in use.

Today, save 1441 in your phone, then send this story to anyone at home who has just been offered cash for opening an account, or is looking for online work.

Sources

• Naewna: ทลายร้านเสริมสวยบังหน้า รวบแก๊งรับจัดหาบัญชีม้าแม่สอดส่งสแกมเมอร์ ยึดมือถือผูกแอป 40 เครื่อง
• The Thaiger: Police say Mae Sot mule-account office paid up to 10,000 baht per account
• PPTV: เตือน! รับจ้างเปิดบัญชีม้า เจอโทษหนักจำคุก ปรับ
• Thairath: ขานชื่อ 3 หมื่นบัญชีม้าผิดทันที ดีอีเอสตีฆ้องบังคับใช้ พ.ร.ก.ปราบโจรออนไลน์
• Thai PBS: เตือนมิจฉาชีพแฝงกลุ่มหางาน เสี่ยงถูกหลอกเปิด บัญชีม้า
• Thai PBS: รู้ไว้! ขั้นตอนแจ้งความคดีออนไลน์ เมื่อเสียรู้ให้แก๊งคอลเซนเตอร์
• Ministry of Digital Economy and Society: AOC 1441 centre