NBTC verifies SIM cards used by “Click Farm”

BANGKOK, June 20 (TNA) – The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has verified hundreds of thousands of SIM cards were used by Chinese suspects, to run a “click farm”. Three Chinese men were arrested last week at a rented house in Sa Kaeo after the police discovered that they ran a “click farm” to generate likes and page views for online advertisement of Chinese products. They were charged with working in the country without work permit. After the arrest, Takorn Tantasith, NBTC secretary-general said the NBTC conducted a probe on those SIM cards. The verification of these large number of SIM cards found that 105,485 SIM cards were registered with Advanced Wireless Network, an affiliated company of the Advance Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS) and 104,339 others registered with DTAC and the rest 105,458 with TrueMove H. It also found that about 400 SIM cards were registered in the name of one person with each telecom operator and almost 3,000 SIM cards were registered with TrueMove H by one person. The investigation also found that the Chinese suspects used the SIM cards with telecommunication equipments, which is not allowed in Thailand. The NBTC filed a complaint to the police against them for violation of the Radio Communications Act. Moreover, the NBTC sent letters, warning the telecom operators on SIM card registration that they could be also guilty if the SIM cards are misused. According to the Thai law, possession of SIM cards needs registration, but it does not limit the number of SIM card registration for each person. (TNA)