Police agency backs latest AIS service

Advanced Info Service (AIS) has partnered with the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) to help customers deal with calls from scammers and call centre gangs via its free new service for reporting suspicious phone numbers.
The service, based on a network intelligent system, allows AIS customers to report the last number from which they received a suspicious call by dialling *1185# within five minutes of hanging up on the call.
Having dialled the service number, AIS’s intelligent system will retrieve the suspicious number in order to examine it. If the AIS system discovers the calling pattern of the suspicious number indicates suspicious activity within a period of 48 hours, AIS will forward the relevant information to the CIB.
The service is free of charge 24/7 and the phone user can report a suspicious call received via all kinds of communications networks, including a fixed telephone line, a mobile phone network, an overseas call network, or a Voice over Internet Protocol network. There is no limit as to how many times a customer can report a suspicious number.
The CIB expects to see the number of complaints pertaining to call centre gangs decline by 30% within the next two months, according to Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, commissioner of the CIB.
According to the CIB’s statistics, there were 20,370 complaint cases between October 2023 and Sept 30, 2024, resulting in damage tallying 3.5 billion baht.
Prathana Leelapanang, chief consumer business officer at AIS, said the service allows AIS customers to immediately report and block scam phone numbers from all kinds of networks.
He added that AIS has been working closely with the CIB to investigate and block such numbers in order to prevent further damage and to pursue decisive legal action against the scammers.
“We are working closely with network service providers, particularly AIS, to track down scammers through a tracking and monitoring system,” said Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop.
AIS already established a channel through which customers could report suspicious phone numbers in the form of the AIS Spam Report Center, leading to arrests and legal action against the offenders in many cases.
AIS users have filed 2.2 million complaints via the AIS Spam Report Center since April 2022, comprising 1.7 million cases of suspicious phone numbers, of which 42% were from other AIS numbers, with the remainder being from numbers issued by other operators. AIS users filed 500,000 complaints pertaining to SMS messages.
AIS forwarded 1.06 million of these cases to be examined by the police and other relevant parties.
Mr Prathana said AIS’s first priority is to ensure AIS customers can use services on its secure network with confidence.
The company is supporting and collaborating with the police and government agencies in order to track, monitor and halt suspicious activity via its transparent registration measures used in the issuance of phone numbers, he added.
AIS has developed technological tools to empower customers and the public to protect their mobile phone usage and enable them to report suspicious activity, he said.
AIS has also been building the digital usage skills of Thai people through its Aunjai Cyber project to raise awareness concerning cyberthreats and scams, Mr Prathana said.