Thailand Seeks a Court-Approved Shutdown Against Facebook Over Crypto Scam Ads
- The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) of Thailand seeks to shut down Facebook due to crypto scams.
- The MDES said that over 200,000 people have fallen victim to crypto scams promoted via Facebook advertisements.
- Scammers promoted their schemes by promising 30% daily returns alongside images of well-known celebrities.
- The MDES will submit a filing asking the court to shut down Facebook in seven days.
Cryptocurrency investment scams have been promoted heavily around the world, and people have lost a significant portion of their wealth to these scams that are often promoted on popular social media applications like Facebook and Instagram. Interestingly, Thailand has warned Facebook that it is pursuing a court-approved shutdown of the social media platform if it does not get rid of the multitude of crypto scam advertisements floating on the platform.
The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) of Thailand said on August 21 that around 200,000 people have fallen victim to these cryptocurrency scams that are touted as get-rich-quick investment schemes in Facebook advertisements. Investors have also lost money to ads that promoted investments in fake businesses and fake government agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The Thailand regulator said that popular ways that the scammers duped investors included crypto investment and trading scams, while adding that many scams used the images of popular celebrities to show that they were a genuine platform and promised daily returns of more than 30% to lure investors and rob them of their money.
Additionally, MDES Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn stated that the ministry has held talks with the Meta-owned social media platform regarding the issue, but Facebook has yet to implement policies to block users from being exposed to these scams. The Thailand ministry said that it was collecting evidence regarding the number of cases of these scams, which was around 5,300 at the end of the month.
Moreover, the ministry stated that it is now ready to ask the court to shut down Facebook in seven days if the social media platform is paying no heed to the discussions held between the two entities. Moreover, the MDES warned investors in Thailand to remain vigilant and not fall into the trap of unrealistically enormous returns and promotions that use images of celebrities.
As reported earlier by BitcoinWisdom, Thailand is a place of interest for many crypto businesses, including the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, which recently announced that its joint venture with Gulf Innova has secured regulatory approval in the country after being granted a digital asset operator license from the Ministry of Finance of Thailand. The approval allows for the launch of a crypto exchange and broker.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
