Be cautious: The public are advised against sharing screenshots of their EPF accounts on social media. — AZHAR MAHFOF/The Star
JOHOR BARU: Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members should stop sharing screenshots of their accounts on social media to avoid being targeted by scammers, says the Malaysia Cyber Consumer Association (MCCA).
There had been incidents of late in which EPF contributors had “flaunted” their savings, said MCCA chairman Datuk Ahmad Noordin Ismail.
“What is the point of doing so if you end up running to the police later to report that scammers have taken money from your accounts?” he asked.
Last week, a Bahasa Malaysia daily reported that a number of EPF members had posted screenshots of the balance in their EPF accounts.
This had come about after EPF announced that starting May 11, all EPF members under the age of 55 would have their savings restructured into Account 1 (75%), Account 2 (15%) and Account 3 (10%).
According to the news report, someone showed his EPF savings of RM465,938 on platform X.
In an interview, Ahmad Noordin said: “Who do you want to blame when you expose your personal details?
“It’s like offering yourself to the scammers and inviting them to attack you.”
He urged the public to be wary about getting calls or text messages from unknown numbers.
“Just ignore the callers even if they claim to be from the Inland Revenue Board. Or if they claim to be a government officer wanting your account details.”
Social media users should also avoid reposting screenshots of other people’s accounts, he said.
Last week, EPF advised its contributors to get their information from official sources.
This came about after a scam emerged in which the fraudster would send out a message, supposedly from EPF, to “alert” the targeted victim about so-called withdrawals being made from Account 3.
Yayasan Digital Malaysia chief technology innovation officer Ahmad Faizal Zulkipli said the act of revealing one’s EPF savings amount and details is “dangerous” and should not be done.
Such financial information is private and should not be shared, he said.
“Even if the screenshots do not show personal details, posting them on social media accounts, where other personal information is also shared, can help scammers build a profile of potential victims.
“Scammers can use various techniques. They could call you or send out messages pretending to be from the authorities or the EPF itself, and persuading you to do things like downloading a supposedly new EPF app.
“This app could be a malware that gives scammers full access to the victim’s phone,” he explained.
Scammers, he said, could transfer money to mule accounts and victims would end up losing money from their other personal accounts as well.
He said scammers often monitor current events, especially on social media, and adjust their strategies based on trending issues.
“Other types of crimes could also occur. Criminals could take advantage of this information. It could lead to robberies or other crimes,” he added.
