PETALING JAYA: Scammers usually obtain personal data from a source of some sort, so companies need to invest more on cybersecurity, says the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca).
“We receive a lot of complaints from consumers and when we connect the dots, we can see that these scammers had obtained their data from a source,” said its chief executive officer Dr Saravanan Thambirajah.
“Usually, when consumers ask the (scam) callers where they got their information from, these callers would mention ‘random referrals’, but that is not the case.
“Companies should invest to ensure our data is protected. Right now, they say it is, but how safe actually is our data?” he added.
He said that with consumer complaints involving scammers on the rise, it is high time that companies invested more to upgrade their cybersecurity measures to control data leaks.
Saravanan said this should go hand-in-hand with tighter regulations and enforcement on the government’s part.
Consumers Association of Penang deputy president Mohideen Abdul Kadeer suggested that financial institutions and digital financial service (DFS) providers be compelled to alert their customers the moment they know of a breach in security in their system.
He added that this would ensure their customers can take precautionary measures.
“When dealing with ecommerce transactions, consumers have to take extra precautions such as never revealing their personal identification number (PIN) or transaction authorisation code (TAC) to anyone, and treating every call from ‘financial institutions or government agencies’ with scepticism.
“Always check with the actual financial institution or government agency to see if it has actually contacted you and, if possible, adopt two-factor authentication for your apps,” he said, where two steps need to be taken to log in to the app.
