AI-powered system to hunt down financial scammers

Bank Negara deputy governor Marzunisham Omar.

KUALA LUMPUR: Regulators and financial institutions are taking further steps to address the elevated prevalence of financial scams.

Bank Negara, Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) and financial institutions yesterday launched the National Fraud Portal, an artificial intelligence-driven system that helps to strengthen the operational capabilities of the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC).

The NFP automates the end-to-end process of handling scam reports and tracing of stolen funds by the NSRC.

The process, which was manually done by the NSRC prior to this, vastly improves a victim’s chances of recovering funds should they fall prey to any scams.

However, Bank Negara deputy governor Marzunisham Omar said it is important that reports pertaining to scammed funds be lodged as quickly as possible after it is discoverd by making a call the NSRC’s 997 hotline or bank hotlines.

“Whenever a scam happens, the funds are withdrawn from the victim’s accounts and transferred to the mule accounts.

“In a matter of seconds or minutes, this will move from one account to another. When we started NSRC, most of the tracing was done manually.

“Let’s say the money is at Bank A, we will manually need to call them. Or if it has moved to Bank B or Bank C, we will quickly need to call them manually to hold the funds,” Marzunisham said at a press briefing yesterday.

“But now we are automating this process, there is no need for calls any more. So we can trace these funds quickly.

“But the important thing is the victim must report it to the NSRC very quickly, if not the money will be moved and withdrawn then it is lost,” he added.

He said the system is also expected to promote industry-wide information sharing and collaboration, enabling financial institutions to exchange details and intelligence regarding online fraud incidents, which also involves mule accounts.

The NFP would also standardise the industry’s approach to handling mule accounts, ensuring that account holders affected by such activities continue to have access to essential financial services.

Along with the NFP, the financial industry has also agreed to adopt industry-wide procedures for reporting and handling mule accounts.

The procedures enhance the quality of industry-wide information on mule accounts through streamlined classification, the NSRC said.

It also standardises the industry’s approach towards treating mules to ensure account holders affected by the activities of mule accounts can continue to access basic financial services, NSRC added.

Members of the public are urged to be vigilant at all times and follow the Amaran Scam Facebook page (facebook.com/amaranpenipuan) or the #JanganKenaScam website (jangankenascam.com) for the latest updates and variants of financial scams, NSRC advised.