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Published on December 31, 2007

Colonel Piyawat Kingket, head of the DSI's Office of Special Criminal Cases, said the department expected fraudulent schemes to increase next year due to the sluggish economy and low interest rates for savers.

Most of the websites lure people to invest online with offers of rewards such as cars, houses or cash. But investors quickly realise that their money has been stolen.

"There was no real money and no investment on the website," Piyawat said.

The DSI also found most webmasters involved in fraud cooperated with foreigners to register their websites in Thailand.

After collecting enough money, they would then close their site and disappear.

The DSI estimated about Bt5 billion was cheated from investors via the Internet over the past year.