Rangers hitting the road to spread awareness
WITH scams and fraud cases on the rise, a banking group has relaunched its mobile cybersecurity team to educate the public.
Public Bank’s PB Scam Rangers was first introduced back in 2024.
The latest iteration of its scam safety education campaign – PB Scam Rangers 2.0 – was launched in Kuala Lumpur.
With the theme “Combat Scam: Two Forces, One Mission,” the campaign signals a deepened and expanded public-private partnership between Public Bank and the police.
The event was attended by Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Khalid Ismail, Bukit Aman commercial crime investigation department director Comm Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa, Public Bank chairman Lai Wan and managing director and chief executive officer Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek.
The bank’s digital support, wealth management and transaction banking deputy director Mageswaran Nagarajoo said the present mobile team is made up of 20 members.
“Across 2025 and this year, the team has conducted more than 90 roadshows and awareness programmes nationwide, reaching thousands of Malaysians through public events, university engagements, investment seminars, webinars and community outreach activities,” he said.
“Just this year alone, we have gone to almost 10 universities to conduct half-day programmes.
“The bank is also collaborating with non-governmental organisations representing senior citizens.
“We study fraud patterns statistically. We look at different groups of people and identify the types of scams they are most vulnerable to.”
He said the bank tailored its awareness and prevention efforts based on that.
“For example, for young people who are entering university or have just graduated, we tend to focus more on loan scams and job scams,” he said.
Mageswaran said loan scams often target young adults who may find it hard to get legitimate financing.
“They may see offers on social media or other platforms promising quick loans with no documentation required.
“Upon clicking the link or signing up, they are led to a scam page where they are asked to pay for commission or insurance to get their loan approved and they end up losing money,” he said.
Mageswaran blamed ignorance and a lack of awareness for driving people to click on such links without thinking
“I had one case where a customer was trying to take a RM700,000 housing loan but in the end, lost RM1mil to scammers.”
He said the bank began implementing cybersecurity steps in 2019, with an interactive security quiz being one of the first measures introduced.
Mageswaran said the idea was to build awareness while customers were using the bank’s digital services.
“At Public Bank, our approach to fraud management is quite different. The first priority is to strengthen controls.
“For example, when a customer registers for Internet banking and downloads PB SecureSign for authorisation, we do not allow it to be used immediately.
“The customer must first go to a branch or an ATM to activate it. This measure of human interaction makes it harder for fraudsters,” said Mageswaran.
In his speech, Tay said the campaign reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to weeding out fraudsters.
“As deceptive scam tactics evolve every day, we will have to remain constantly vigilant.
“Our sincere gratitude is also particularly extended to the police who provide continuous assistance at the ground level, engaging with our branches and customers and providing real-time advice on the spot,” said Tay.
“Their dedication and perseverance play a major part in our efforts to protect our customers.”
In addition to awareness and intervention initiatives, PB continues to strengthen its fraud risk management framework through proactive mule account detection.
As at May 2026, over 1.7 million PB customers, or 5.1 million transactions totalling about RM2.24bil were prevented from falling into fraudsters’ mule accounts.
On top of that, since the introduction of the transaction cooling-off period, over 800 PB customers’ transactions valued at approximately RM5.8mil have been protected from scam activities.
The cooling-off period is a 12-hour waiting time which is triggered when customers increase daily transaction limits, activate PB SecureSign on the MyPB App, or when a transaction is flagged as suspicious.
