PETALING JAYA: Malaysia recorded 2.98 million scam calls last year, a whopping 82.81% increase from 1.63 million in 2023, according to the 2024 Whoscall Annual Report.
The caller ID and scam prevention app said in a media release that the data, collected from January to December 2024, covered eight countries, namely Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Fraudulent SMS messages also saw a rise, increasing by 19.97% to 5.29 million in 2024 from 4.41 million the previous year.
Further findings indicate that Malaysia had the highest rate of personal data leaks among the countries studied, with 72.5% of users who checked Whoscall’s ID Security feature discovering that their information had been compromised.
Taiwan ranked second with a data leak rate of 62.4%, followed by Japan at 56.7%.
It also found that phone numbers are the most commonly leaked personal data among Malaysians.
“While phone numbers were the most leaked data across all countries (98% in Malaysia) among users, Malaysia stands out for its high rate of name leaks (89%), followed by addresses and emails,” said Voon Chang Liew, business development director for Gogolook Malaysia, the parent company of Whoscall.
“This makes impersonation scams more convincing, as scammers exploit leaked names to pose as banks, government agencies or delivery services.”
According to Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, the country saw financial losses from scams surge to RM1.57bil in 2024, rising from RM1.22bil the previous year.
“Artificial intelligence-driven scams, including deepfake videos of celebrities and politicians, are making it easier to deceive victims into fraudulent investments or phishing traps.
These scams are becoming harder to detect, especially for the elderly, who are often targeted due to their financial savings,” he said.
“To combat this, the police is continuing its strategic partnership with Whoscall by sharing verified scam numbers in the Whoscall application, recognising AI-powered solutions as a critical first line of defence.”
