Wacana English Edition to discuss how to not fall victim to online scams
SHAH ALAM - Online scam cases in Malaysia are on an upward trend.
According to the police's statistics, from 2020 until May 2022 during the Covid-19 pandemic, there were a total of 71,833 scams reported, which involved losses of more than RM5.2 billion.
The cases involved online sales scams, online trading scams, African scams, Macau scams, Business Email Compromised (BEC) scams, fake loans and SMS scams.
In the next episode of Sinar Daily's Wacana English Edition entitled “Scammer Alert, Don't Fall For It!”, panellists will be discussing how scams happened and ways to prevent them.
Among the topics which will be highlighted are ways individuals could safeguard themselves from scams and finding solid solutions to prevent a scam.
The panellists who will be discussing the issue on the show are Senior Vice President, Fraud and Corporate Integrity Mohd Azril Fadzli Azmi, crime prevention specialist Dr Shamir Rajadurai, and Universiti Malaya senior lecturer and criminologist Dr Haezreena Begum.
The show will be broadcasted live at 8.30pm on Friday (Feb 17) on all Sinar Daily and Sinar Harian's digital platforms.
In September last year, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said the rising expertise in exploiting technology and approaching victims with low awareness on cybercrime via online methods were among the reasons behind the increase in online scams.
The police predicted that youths, especially students, would be the next target of scammers.
These perpetrators would use mule accounts for illicit activities and police have been cooperating with banking institutions to facilitate and complete the investigations into the cases as soon as possible.
The police will also continue to spread awareness on the prevention of cybercrime, and the efforts will be intensified further this year.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that more than 100 individuals have lost over RM4.6 million since 2018 after being duped into joining an online rewards scheme that offered 50 per cent discounts through a dubious company that used names of famous people, royalty, former government officers, and religious leaders to attract their victims.
Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO) secretary-general Datuk Hishamuddin Hashim said so far, about 100 victims have lodged police reports and his team believed there were many more who have fallen victim and thus it will involve bigger losses.
Meanwhile, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has issued an alert over a new scam where individuals were claiming to collect funds on behalf of the central bank.
In a posting on Facebook, BNM said it has received information where individuals in group chats on Telegram and WhatsApp have reportedly posted messages claiming that they have orders from officers in BNM to gather and process funds.
