National scam hotline gets 37,002 calls from victims, RM203.33mil losses reported as of May 2024, says Anwar

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) received as many as 37,002 calls from scam victims with a total reported loss of RM203.33mil as of May 2024.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (pic) said that since its establishment on Oct 12, 2022, until May 2024, the total number of calls received from the public was 95,094.

"The number of investigation papers opened by the Royal Malaysia Police were 10,649 for fraud cases under Section 420 of the Penal Code.

"Meanwhile, 74 investigation papers for the offence of money laundering had been opened involving the freezing of 637 accounts amounting to RM72.38mil,” he said in a written reply published on the parliament's website on Wednesday (July 3) to a question from Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman (PN-Kuala Krai) who wanted to know how effective the NSRC is in dealing with online fraud crimes while also detecting the modus operandi of 'scammers'.

Anwar added that the NSRC and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had also taken action to block phone numbers used by scammers.

As of May 2024, a total of 131 phone numbers had been terminated for being involved in fraudulent activities and 112 questionable phone numbers had been blocked. - Bernama