Section 338: Blackmail
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดข่มขืนใจผู้อื่น ให้ยอมให้ หรือยอมจะให้ตนหรือผู้อื่นได้ประโยชน์ในลักษณะที่เป็นทรัพย์สิน โดยขู่เข็ญว่าจะเปิดเผยความลับซึ่งการเปิดเผยนั้นจะทำให้ผู้ถูกขู่เข็ญหรือบุคคลที่สามเสียหาย จนผู้ถูกข่มขืนใจยอมเช่นว่านั้น ผู้นั้นกระทำความผิดฐานรีดเอาทรัพย์ ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่หนึ่งปีถึงสิบปี และปรับตั้งแต่สองหมื่นบาทถึงสองแสนบาท หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๔ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๖) พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๐]
English translation
Whoever compels another person to give, or to agree to give, a benefit in the nature of property to himself or to another person, by threatening to disclose a secret the disclosure of which would injure the person threatened or a third person, so that the person compelled submits, commits the offence of blackmail and shall be liable to imprisonment from one to ten years and a fine from twenty thousand to two hundred thousand baht.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Blackmail under Section 338 is a specialized and more heavily punished form of extortion. Its distinguishing element is the nature of the threat: the offender threatens to disclose a secret whose disclosure would damage the victim or a third person. A genuine secret is essential. If the matter threatened for disclosure is not true and so is not a secret at all, the conduct does not amount to blackmail, though it may still be extortion under Section 337 as a threat to reputation. The offence is complete when the victim gives or agrees to give property; where the victim refuses, the conduct is attempted blackmail. The penalty band, one to ten years, is markedly higher than plain extortion.
Why this matters in practice
Exposure is significant: one to ten years imprisonment together with a fine. Two points matter most in defence. First, the disclosure threatened must concern a genuine secret; if the alleged secret is false or already public, the blackmail charge may fail even though a different offence could apply. Second, if the victim never gave in, the charge is attempt rather than a completed offence. Blackmail is frequently paired with modern facts such as threats to release private images or messages online. Because the offence protects a secret, the details a defendant discloses in his own defence should be handled carefully. See our overview of criminal law in Thailand.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 1188/2561 (2018)
Compelling another to give a property benefit by threatening to disclose a secret whose disclosure would cause damage completes the elements of blackmail; where the victim refuses to pay, the conduct is attempted blackmail.
The court held the acts satisfied the elements of blackmail, but because the victim did not hand over the money demanded, the offence was attempted blackmail rather than a completed one.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 10843/2553 (2010)
If the matter threatened for disclosure is untrue and therefore not a secret, the conduct is not blackmail under Section 338, but threatening harm to reputation to obtain money is extortion under Section 337.
The accused threatened a monk with a false claim of a sexual relationship. Because the matter was untrue and not a secret, it was not blackmail, but the threat to reputation that made the victim pay amounted to extortion under Section 337 paragraph one.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 13 Supreme Court decisions (1971 to 2020)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 12685/2558 (2015)
- Decision 10843/2553 (2010)
- Decision 2898/2549 (2006)
- Decision 662/2548 (2005)
- Decision 1869/2536 (1993)
- Decision 2486/2529 (1986)
- Decision 1945/2514 (1971)
- Decision 1188/2561 (2018)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
How is blackmail different from ordinary extortion?
Blackmail under Section 338 requires a threat to disclose a damaging secret, and it carries a heavier penalty than ordinary extortion under Section 337.
What if the secret threatened to be disclosed is not true?
If the matter is false and not a genuine secret, the conduct does not amount to blackmail under Section 338, although it may still be extortion under Section 337 as a threat to reputation.
What is the penalty for blackmail?
Section 338 sets imprisonment from one year to ten years and a fine from twenty thousand to two hundred thousand baht.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 338 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 338. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-338/ (accessed 21 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 338 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-338/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-338/"><p>Whoever compels another person to give, or to agree to give, a benefit in the nature of property to himself or to another person, by threatening to disclose a secret the disclosure of which would injure the person threatened or a third person, so that…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 338 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-338/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.