KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) has alerted the business community and the public to fraudulent activities by individuals impersonating its personnel via email and WhatsApp.
MATRADE said the perpetrators targeted vendors under the pretext of procuring urgent services for overseas trade delegations, booth translation services for international exhibitions, and corporate recreational events.
It said that under this guise, businesses were asked to provide sensitive documents, including company profiles, Companies Commission of Malaysia registration certificates, bank statements and Ministry of Finance certificates, which were subsequently used to fabricate fraudulent letters of award and government purchase orders.
"MATRADE has received alarming reports that several companies have fallen victim to this syndicate and suffered financial losses by making upfront payments to third-party suppliers or designated ‘sub-orders’,” it said in a statement today.
Under this deceptive arrangement, scammers instruct awarded vendors to immediately purchase merchandise and gift supplies from an appointed sub-vendor to fulfil contract specifications before government disbursement, the agency said.
"These third-party entities are fraudulent shell accounts operated directly by the syndicate,” it said.
MATRADE said it viewed the breach seriously and had lodged formal police reports, as well as filed complaints with CyberSecurity Malaysia and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission for digital forensic investigations and enforcement action.
To protect themselves, it advised businesses to verify all procurement requests and ensure communications originated from MATRADE’s official corporate email addresses ending with "@matrade.gov.my”.
The agency said that its officers did not conduct procurement negotiations through commercial email providers such as Gmail and Yahoo or personal messaging platforms.
It also reminded businesses that all procurement exercises complied with the Malaysian Treasury Circulars (Pekeliling Perbendaharaan) and were conducted through formal, authorised government procurement channels.
"MATRADE never requires vendors to deposit advances or settle external invoices with third-party sub-contractors,” it said.
It advised businesses not to disclose confidential financial or operational information without independent verification.
It urged companies that had transferred funds to fraudulent parties to contact the National Scam Response Centre at 997 immediately to help trace and freeze illicit banking transactions.
They should also lodge a police report at the nearest police station and provide transaction records, forged documents and chat transcripts to assist investigations, it said.
MATRADE said it takes any form of fraud involving the agency’s name seriously and will take necessary action to protect the interests of exporters and the public.
For inquiries or to verify the authenticity of procurement requests claiming to originate from MATRADE, businesses may contact the agency at 03-6207 7077 or email info@matrade.gov.my. - Bernama
