Scammed online: what to do on the first day

What decides the outcome of an online scam is not how much was taken but how fast the receiving account is frozen. Money that leaves your account is usually moved on through a chain of further accounts within minutes, and every hop makes recovery harder. Most victims spend the critical first hour trying to reach the person who took the money, or waiting for the refund they were promised. That is the most valuable hour there is, and it is almost always spent for nothing.

The law changed on this in 2023. A bank may now freeze transactions on an account it has reasonable grounds to suspect, and must act on a report from the person who lost the money, without waiting for a court order or the outcome of an investigation. An amendment in 2025 went further and made the banks, mobile network operators and social media platforms share liability for the loss unless they can show they met the prescribed prevention standards. There is more available to victims than there used to be, but the windows are short and they run from the moment the transfer leaves.

Money already transferred: what to do in the first hour

In order of urgency. The first item comes before telling anyone else at all.

• Call the online crime operations centre on 1441. It takes reports around the clock and is the fastest route to getting the receiving account frozen.
• Report it to your own bank at the same time. A call or a message through the bank's app is enough; there is no need to go to a branch.
• Have the details ready before you call: the receiving account number and name, the receiving bank, and the date, time and amount of every transfer.
• If you sent money more than once, report every transfer, not just the largest. Accounts are frozen one at a time.
• Do not send any more money, whatever the reason given. "A fee to release your refund" and "an official who can trace it for you" are both part of the same scam.

The freeze a bank can impose on your report lasts seven days. Within that window you have to file a police report so that the investigating officer can carry it forward. Let the seven days pass without filing and the freeze lapses, and the money in that account can be moved out as normal. This is where most losses become permanent, because people assume that once they have made the call the matter is in official hands.

What evidence do you need to keep?

What you preserve on day one determines how far the case can go.

• Every transfer record, both the confirmation in the app and the account statement.
• The account number, account name and bank for each receiving account.
• The whole conversation from the first message, captured as screenshots showing the dates, times and usernames.
• Usernames, profile links, and the name of the shop or page used to contact you.
• The phone numbers that called you and any number you were told to call back.
• The listing, advertisement or web page that persuaded you. These are usually taken down within days, so capture them immediately.

Two things to resist: do not delete the conversation, and do not block or report the account straight away. Once an account is closed the messages can go with it. Capture everything first, then act. Capture it continuously rather than clipping the parts that look important, because the messages that seem irrelevant are often the ones that show the intent to deceive most clearly.

Where do you report it, and can you do it online?

Two routes: any police station, or the national police online reporting system, which exists for offences committed online. Reporting online counts as a formal complaint in the same way, and on the first day it is usually faster than travelling to a station.

The point that affects your rights directly is the deadline. Fraud against an individual is a compoundable offence, so the complaint has to be lodged within three months of learning both of the offence and of who committed it. Miss that and the criminal case lapses by operation of law, however complete the evidence.

Where the deception was aimed at the public rather than at one person, for instance a page set up to take money from many buyers, the offence is not compoundable and the period is far longer. Working out which of the two you are in tells you how much time is actually left. Entering false information into a computer system dishonestly or by deception is also a separate offence under the computer crime legislation, and is usually charged alongside the fraud.

Will you get the money back, and how long does it take?

It turns on one thing: whether the account was frozen before the money moved on. If it is still sitting in the receiving account the odds are good. If it has been withdrawn or passed along, it has to be traced through the next account and the one after that, which takes time and is never certain.

Once an account has been frozen, the law provides a route for getting the money back. The anti-money laundering authority publishes the frozen accounts so that those who lost money can come forward, and each of them has to file a claim setting out their own loss within the published period. A claim not filed in time may not share in the distribution. This step is yours to follow; nobody will call you about it.

A civil claim runs alongside the criminal case, in tort and in unjust enrichment. Its advantage is that it enforces directly against the assets of the person who took the money. Its difficulty is that you have to identify who that actually is, and in these cases the holder of the receiving account is usually someone who lent it out rather than the person who got the money. The limitation period in tort is one year from learning of the wrongful act and of the person liable, so waiting for the criminal case to finish before thinking about a civil claim is a mistake.

How is lending your bank account a crime?

This section is here for the other group of people who get hurt: not those who lost money, but those who become defendants by letting someone else use their account, thinking of it as a favour or as paid casual work.

• Opening an account, or letting someone else use yours, knowing or having reason to know it will be used in an offence: up to three years' imprisonment, a fine of up to 300,000 baht, or both.
• Acting as a broker, or advertising accounts for sale to others: two to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 200,000 to 500,000 baht, or both.
• Trading in phone numbers registered without identifying the real user: the same penalties as brokering accounts.

The practice businesses should reconsider is having an employee or a relative open an account to receive the company's money. An account with unusual movement can be frozen in its entirety over a matter the holder had nothing to do with, and it is the holder who has to answer for it. Money owed to the business belongs in an account in the name of the business.

This page is general information, not advice on your situation. The deadlines here are much shorter than in an ordinary case. If you have just sent the money, call the hotline first, then send the firm the facts and whatever evidence you hold.