Stay vigilant: It is common for mobile users nowadays to get a notice on their phone screens warning them to beware of scammers. — ART CHEN/The Star
PETALING JAYA: The two most common elements that ensnared people in scams were their greed and gullibility, says a bank’s financial crime investigator.
The officer at a publicly listed bank in Malaysia told Sunday Star under the condition of anonymity that scammers would try to target people who evaded taxes or believed that they could get rich quickly.
“When calling the victims, the scammers would impersonate an Inland Revenue Board officer and see if they could ‘bait’ the victim.
“They would say things like, ‘If you do not cooperate with us, we will take you to court as we found you have an old company and owe back taxes of such and such big amount’,” he said.
The caller will claim to be able to grant the victims a 70% discount, but the victims must move their money to a “safe” bank account.
But all this would turn out to be a trap, he said.
On March 26, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain said the police force is planning to set up a new department in Bukit Aman to focus on cybertechnology and the challenges brought on by digitalised crime and increasingly complex technologies.The top cop said these scamming incidents may be addressed and investigated by the new police department, which is planning to focus on digital crime to keep up with the ever-changing technology landscape.Currently, cyber and digitalised crimes are under the jurisdiction of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID).
According to Razarudin, the CCID conducted 18,221 operations last year, which resulted in the arrest of 22,911 people for various commercial crimes.
Elaborating further to Sunday Star, the bank officer said most of the scam cases involved customers who fell victim after they revealed their personal banking details out of gullibility or greed.
These victims will later claim that the so-called transactions were unauthorised.
“Malaysian banks are secure. All banks are secure in terms of avoiding unauthorised transactions,” he said.
The source added that scammers would target older people, who tend to be less aware of the latest scam tactics.
This is on top of the scammers having a believable script that invokes a sense of urgency to make the victims transfer the money to them quickly.
According to Bank Islam, local banks are also vigorously combating online fraud.
It said in a statement that the bank has recently managed to prevent cases of online fraud, with its officers intercepting scam attempts and saving their customers from significant financial losses.In Seremban, the bank’s manager, Azizah Ahmad, was able to intervene in a scam attempt after a customer in her 30s discovered that her bank account had been depleted to only RM19 after receiving a call from a so-called authority figure.
Azizah managed to intervene and retrieve RM272,000 for the customer, who is a healthcare professional.
Another incident involved a branch in Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur: the bank’s Branch Service Ambassador Nurul Syafiqah Nasarudin was able to stop a suspicious transaction after a customer attempted to transfer RM100,000 in Amanah Saham Nasional Bhd funds.After checking with the 60-year-old customer, it was discovered that the customer had received suspicious calls instructing him to open a new account and transfer his funds.
In 2023, Bank Islam Group Chief Operating Officer Mohamed Iran Moriff Mohd Shariff said the bank successfully prevented more than RM11mil in potential scams.He stated that telecommunication scams, followed by ecommerce and investment scams, primarily target Bank Islam customers.
“Among these, the Macau scam is the most prevalent form of telecommunications scam affecting our customers. In this scheme, scammers impersonate an authoritative figure, often law enforcement personnel, and falsely accusing victims of wrongdoing.“It is crucial to highlight that legitimate authorities, such as the police or Bank Negara Malaysia, will not contact individuals through mobile phones and that customers should terminate such calls immediately,” he said.
Upon detecting suspicious transactions, Mohamed Iran said Bank Islam directs callbacks to customers’ mobile numbers to validate the transaction.
“Our fraud detection system will identify potentially fraudulent activities, prompting our team to contact customers for verification.“Customers must cooperate fully during these calls with us. Scammers often impersonate law enforcement officers and coerce victims into silence,” he said.
Through an advanced Fraud Detection System, Bank Islam is also able to meticulously oversee the transactions conducted daily through its mobile and Internet banking platforms, he said.
“For instance, the heightened fraud risk associated with transactions conducted over public WiFi prompts our system to scrutinise and deny such transactions to safeguard our customers’ accounts,” he said.
