New portal will allow for quick mule account detection, say experts
PETALING JAYA: The Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven National Fraud Portal (NFP) would drastically reduce the time for authorities to weed out potential online frauds involving mule accounts, say cybercrime experts.
Financial forensics expert Raymon Ram said the NFP, launched on Aug 20, is particularly effective in detecting mule accounts because it centralises data from across the financial industry – allowing for more accurate identification, assessment and monitoring of accounts.
Mule accounts, Ram elaborated, are often used to launder illicit funds and can now be more easily tracked through the NFP.
“The platform enables real-time analysis of unusual transaction patterns and other indicators specific to mule activities, which helps in flagging and freezing these accounts more efficiently than before,” he said when contacted yesterday.
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Ram said the NFP is more of a back-end system which complements the overall approach to fighting scams.
There is no explicit mention of its connection to the registry held by the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID), but it still provides a good interface for the general public to do first-line checking using the SemakMule portal, he said.
“SemakMule would give notice to those checking if accounts have been flagged or if there are multiple checks which had been made (by others) on those account numbers,” he said.
Ram highlighted the role of the NFP as crucial especially when it continuously learns and adapts to new scam tactics, ensuring that it will remain effective over time to tackle cybercrimes.
He said the platform’s ability to centralise and standardise fraud reporting across multiple institutions enhances the overall national response to online scams.
Ram elaborated that initial results have shown that the NFP can reduce the time needed to trace stolen funds by up to 75%, vastly improving response times compared to the previous manual processes that could take up to 45 days to settle.
“The NFP is designed to automate and integrate the entire process of handling fraud reports, from initial detection to fund tracing and recovery.
“When a fraudulent activity is reported to the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC), the NFP aggregates data from various financial institutions and uses advanced algorithms to cross-reference and verify this information in real-time.
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“This automated system dramatically reduces the time required to track and act on fraudulent transactions,” he added.
Prof Dr Mohamed Ridza Wahiddin, chair of the Information Technology & Computer Science Discipline, Malaysia Academy of Sciences, said the NFP is likely relying on AI to drastically speed up the process of identifying potential online scams and mule accounts.
“AI, particularly machine learning, will learn to make connections from past transactions and potential frauds to trigger an alarm.
“This will automatically generate a report to assist NSRC,” he said when contacted yesterday.
He noted that this will naturally shorten the time needed by the investigating team to act on suspected fraud or mule accounts.
Mohamed Ridza added that certain portions of the data processed by the NFP would be shared with the local banking institutions.
“Not all data will be shared, but sufficient data to ensure relevant parties are aware of potential threats,” he said.
