Thailand's Legal Framework Against Call Center Crimes
Keywords:
call center, cybercrime, law enforcement, legal framework, organized crimeAbstract
Call center crimes have emerged as a significant global challenge, characterized by their diversity and complexity. This study explores the various forms of illegal activities associated with call centers, including fraud, identity theft, extortion, money laundering, human trafficking, unauthorized access to data, and market manipulation. Utilizing a comprehensive review of recent literature and case studies, the paper examines the operational vulnerabilities of call centers that criminals exploit, the socio-economic impacts of these crimes, and the existing legal frameworks aimed at addressing them, with a particular focus on Thailand. The findings reveal that despite the efforts to combat these crimes through legal and regulatory measures, challenges persist due to the transnational nature of the operations and the sophistication of the tactics employed. The paper proposes a set of recommendations, emphasizing the need for stronger regulatory frameworks, technological advancements in fraud detection and identity verification, public awareness campaigns, and international cooperation to enhance the effectiveness of the response to call center crimes. The insights offered aim to assist policymakers, law enforcement agencies, and industry stakeholders in developing more effective strategies for prevention, intervention, and legal action against call center-related criminal activities.
References
Aksin, Z., Armony, M., & Mehrotra, V. (2007). The modern call center: A multi‐disciplinary perspective on operations management research. Production and operations management, 16(6), 665-688.
Al-Khater, W., Al-Maadeed, S., Ahmed, A., Sadiq, A., & Khan, M. (2020). Comprehensive review of cybercrime detection techniques. IEEE Access, 8, 137293-137311. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3011259.
Anderson, J. (2015). “Tagged as a criminal”: Narratives of deportation and return migration in a Mexico City call center. Latino Studies, 13(1), 8-27.
Berket, M. R. (2015). Labour exploitation and trafficking for labour exploitation—trends and challenges for policy-making. ERA Forum, 16, 359-377.
Brown, G., & Maxwell, G. (2002). Customer Service in UK call centres: Organisational perspectives and employee perceptions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 9(6), 309-316.
Buil-Gil, D., Miró-Llinares, F., Moneva, A., Kemp, S., & Díaz-Castaño, N. (2020). Cybercrime and shifts in opportunities during COVID-19: a preliminary analysis in the UK. European Societies, 23, S47 - S59. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1804973.
Cassim, F. (2015). Protecting personal information in the era of identity theft: Just how safe is our personal information from identity thieves? Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal, 18, 68-110. https://doi.org/10.4314/PELJ.V18I2.02.
Chen, Z., Van Khoa, L. D., Teoh, E. N., Nazir, A., Karuppiah, E., & Lam, K. S. (2018). Machine learning techniques for anti-money laundering (AML) solutions in suspicious transaction detection: a review. Knowledge and Information Systems, 57, 245-285.
Colladon, A. F., & Remondi, E. (2021). Using social network analysis to prevent money laundering. Expert Systems with Applications, 67, 49-58.
Coverdale, J., Beresin, E., Louie, A., Balon, R., & Roberts, L. (2016). Human trafficking and psychiatric education: A call to action. Academic Psychiatry, 40, 119-123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-015-0462-2.
Defossez, D. (2021). Regulations for cybercrimes: The case of the EU Cybersecurity Act. In Handbook of Research on Theory and Practice of Financial Crimes (pp. 453-476). IGI Global.
Deliema, M., Shadel, D., & Pak, K. (2020). Profiling victims of investment fraud: Mindsets and risky behaviors. Journal of Consumer Research, 46(5), 904-914. https://doi.org/10.1093/JCR/UCZ020
De Ruyter, K. O., Wetzels, M., & Feinberg, R. (2001). Role stress in call centers: Its effects on employee performance and satisfaction. Journal of interactive marketing, 15(2), 23-35.
Farina, K. A. (2015). Cyber crime: Identity theft. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 5, 633-637. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.45054-3
Helser, S., & Hwang, M. I. (2021). Identity theft: a review of critical issues. International Journal of Cyber Research and Education (IJCRE), 3(1), 65-77. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcre.2021010107
Holman, D. (2002). Call centres. The new workplace: A guide to the human impact of modern working practices, 115-134.
Hong, B., Connie, T., & Goh, M. K. O. (2023, August). Scam calls detection using machine learning approaches. In 2023 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Technology (ICoICT) (pp. 442-447), IEEE.
Jardine, E. (2015). Global cyberspace is safer than you Think: Real trends in cybercrime. Centre for International Governance Innovation and Chatham House. https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2634590.
Jones, C. (2023). That call center tech scammer could be a human trafficking victim. Available at https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/human_trafficking_for _cyber_scam/
Kahn, C. M., & Liñares-Zegarra, J. M. (2016). Identity theft and consumer payment choice: Does security really matter? Journal of Financial Services Research, 50, 121-159. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10693-015-0218-X
Kale, N., Kochrekar, S., Mote, R., & Dholay, S. (2021, July). Classification of fraud calls by intent analysis of call transcripts. In 2021 12th International Conference on Computing Communication and Networking Technologies (ICCCNT) (pp. 1-6), IEEE.
Kempen, A. (2016). Identity fraud-someone stole my identity. Servamus Community-based Safety and Security Magazine, 109(12), 36-37.
Keshavarzi, M., & Ghaffary, H. R. (2020). I2CE3: A dedicated and separated attack chain for ransomware offenses as the most infamous cyber extortion. Computer Science Review, 36, 100233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosrev.2020.100233
Kiss, L., Yun, K., Pocock, N., & Zimmerman, C. (2015). Exploitation, violence, and suicide risk among child and adolescent survivors of human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion. JAMA Pediatrics, 169 9, e152278. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.2278.
Lewis, J. (2018). Structural Readjustment: Crime, Development, and Repair in the Jamaican Lottery Scam. Anthropological Quarterly, 91, 1029 - 1048. https://doi.org/10.1353/ANQ.2018.0048.
Lin, T. C. (2016). The new market manipulation. Emory LJ, 66, 1253.
Lohr, S. L. (2019). Measuring crime: Behind the statistics. CRC Press.
Malhotra, S., Arora, G., & Bathla, R. (2023, May). Detection and analysis of fraud phone calls using artificial intelligence. In 2023 International Conference on Recent Advances in Electrical, Electronics & Digital Healthcare Technologies (REEDCON) (pp. 592-595). IEEE.
Malkawe, R., Qasaimeh, M., Ghanim, F., & Ababneh, M. (2019). Toward an early assessment for Ransomware attack vulnerabilities. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Data Science, E-Learning and Information Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3368691.3368734.
Mansfield-Devine, S. (2016). Ransomware: taking businesses hostage. Network Security, 2016(10), 8-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1353-4858(16)30096-4
McMahon, R., Bressler, M., & Bressler, L. (2016). New global cybercrime calls for high tech cyber-cops. Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, 19, 26.
NNT. (2023). Thailand’s report of cybercrime crackdown in 2022. Available at https://www.thailand-business-news.com/tech/95761-thailands-report-of-cybercrime-crackdown-in-2022
O'Kane, P., Sezer, S., & Carlin, D. (2018). Evolution of ransomware. IET Networks, 7, 321-327. https://doi.org/10.1049/IET-NET.2017.0207.
Palmer, C., Phillips, D. C., & Sullivan, J. X. (2019). Does emergency financial assistance reduce crime? Journal of Public Economics, 169, 34-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JPUBECO.2018.10.012
Park, S., Kim, Y., Yi, S., Lee, S., Na, B., Kim, C., Kim, J., Kim, H., Kim, Y., Park, Y., Huh, I., Kim, H., Yoon, H., Jang, H., Kim, K., Chang, Y., Kim, I., Lee, H., Gwack, J., Kim, S., Kim, M., Kweon, S., Choe, Y., Park, O., Park, Y., & Jeong, E. (2020). Coronavirus disease outbreak in call center, South Korea. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 26, 1666 - 1670. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2608.201274.
Reynolds, L., & McKee, M. (2010). Organised crime and the efforts to combat it: a concern for public health. Globalization and Health, 6(1), 1-13.
Robinson, F., & Keithley, J. (2000). The impacts of crime on health and health services: A literature review. Health, Risk & Society, 2(3), 253-266.
Sharmeen, S., Ahmed, Y., Huda, S., Koçer, B., & Hassan, M. (2020). Avoiding future digital extortion through robust protection against Ransomware threats using deep learning based adaptive approaches. IEEE Access, 8, 24522-24534. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2970466.
Siering, M., Clapham, B., Engel, O., & Gomber, P. (2017). A taxonomy of financial market manipulations: establishing trust and market integrity in the financialized economy through automated fraud detection. Journal of Information Technology, 32, 251-269. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41265-016-0029-z.
Teichmann, F. (2020). Recent trends in money laundering. Crime, Law and Social Change, 73, 237-247.
Weatherburn, A. (2021). Labour exploitation in human trafficking law. Intersentia. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781839701559.
Williams, M. J., Bélanger, J. J., Horgan, J., & Evans, W. P. (2019). Experimental effects of a call-center disclaimer regarding confidentiality on callers’ willingness to make disclosures related to terrorism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 31(6), 1327-1341.
Wood, S., Liu, P., Hanoch, Y., Xi, P., & Klapatch, L. (2018). Call to claim your prize: Perceived benefits and risk drive Intention to comply in a mass marketing scam. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 24, 196–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000167.
Zimmerman, C., & Kiss, L. (2017). Human trafficking and exploitation: A global health concern. PLoS medicine, 14(11), e1002437. https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pmed.1002437
