SOME RM2.51bil was lost to phone scammers from January 2018 to Sept 15 this year, says Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin.
He said there were 79,559 such cases.
“The victims were mostly aged between 21 and 40 years old,” he said in a written reply to Steven Sim (PH-Bukit Mertajam) in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
On Sept 26, Bank Negara announced five additional security measures to be taken by financial institutions in a bid to better protect consumers from scams.
The central bank’s governor, Tan Sri Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus, said the modus operandi used by criminals will continue to evolve.
Financial institutions have been instructed to include measures such as migrating SMS one-time-passwords (OTPs) to a more secure form of authentication; further tightening detection rules and triggers for the blocking of scam-related transactions; subjecting first-time enrolment of online banking services and secure devices to a cooling-off period; and restricting customers to one mobile device or secure device for authenticating online banking transactions.
Banks are also required to set up dedicated scam hotlines.
