Thailand was one of the top three countries in the Asia-Pacific region to suffer a significant surge in financial fraud scams last year, according to Google's 2023 Bad Apps Report.
"In 2023, we saw a significant rise in scams and financial fraud. Notably, Singapore, Thailand and India saw a significant surge in financial fraud scams," said Aman Dayal, head of trust & safety operations for Asia-Pacific at Google Play, during an online media roundtable on the report.
The Asia-Pacific region is a hotbed for scams as it has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world at over 90%, with many of the users utilising their phone to make transactions.
"That's a goldmine for scammers to carry out fraud online," Mr Dayal noted.
Moreover, the scammers take advantage of respect for authority figures. For example, the scammers pretend to be from a government agency or a bank.
In addition, many areas of the Asia-Pacific region face a stark digital literacy gap, making it difficult to effectively navigate online threats. This can be true among older mobile phone users, who are more susceptible to deceptive messages, risky apps and scams.
However, a broader age range is also vulnerable to threats. A recent Google survey revealed that the age group between 25 and 34 in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam is most vulnerable to scams.
Recently, Google enhanced its Google Message feature in Singapore, Thailand and India -- countries where it saw a surge in scams last year -- to better protect users against this form of social engineering.
The Google Play store also has a real-time scanning feature which was first rolled out in the Asia-Pacific region last year, beginning with India, Singapore and Thailand. Today, this new feature has already detected over five million new malicious apps, protecting users worldwide.
Recently, Google launched a Google Play Protect feature in Singapore and Thailand to block the installation of potentially risky apps that attempt to access device permissions commonly used for fraud.
Since February, Google has rolled out this feature for Android devices in Singapore, and in April started the rollout in Thailand.
"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," said Mr Dayal.
Phishing apps in Thailand impersonating legitimate banks have been rampant, leading to losses of over a billion baht in 2023, according to the Bank of Thailand.
In the same online media roundtable, Annabelle Chow, principal clinical psychologist at Annabelle Psychology, said that the impact of scams is emotional, not just financial.
She said that scam victims make a lot of the psychological toll that they take, and it is part of the grief process. They start with a lot of denial, a lot of sadness, a lot of anger, and they cannot really make sense of the emotional experience. Particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, it can often be a very lonely and debilitating experience.
This Asian mindset actually stops people from talking openly and in a trusting, empathetic way, she said.
"By increasing empathy, we can help educate how to talk to people who have been scammed, which would actually improve the chances of people talking about it. It's also about the insights that help tech platforms enhance their security," said Ms Chow.
She said users should always be vigilant and should not be quick to dismiss security alerts or warning.
Mr Dayal said that in 2023, Google prevented 2.28 million policy-violating apps from being published on the Google Play store, and banned 333,000 malicious developer accounts from the Google Play store.
"Our continuous investments in machine learning systems, and improved app review processes will also continue to combat bad actors," he said.