Thais Use Ringtone Offers to Mask Porn Site Links

THAILAND—A family watchdog group in Thailand has complained about an alleged ruse that uses fake free ringtone offers to drive people to porn sites. The president of the group, Anya-orn Panicheungrat, says she complained to the authorities to get the sites blocked "in order to protect children, families and society." The scam was apparently being used to get around government censorship of such sites. Pornography in Thailand is illegal to produce, distribute or possess with intent to show publicly, but personal possession is allowed. As in many countries, however, porn laws are often not given the attention that other crimes receive, which leaves groups like Thailand's Family Network for Media Watch to find and then report miscreants to the authorities. In this case, the ringtone ruse was reportedly reported to the group, which then forwarded it to the Technology Crime Suppression Division.