JOHOR BARU: A local leader has called on the government to step up efforts to protect the public’s personal data after private information belonging to more than a dozen of his family members fell into the hands of scammers.
Johor Bersatu associate wing public complaints bureau chief Lim Thow Siang said he received a series of threatening voice notes and messages on Saturday (Jan 10) from a Singapore-registered number, believed to be linked to a loan shark case he had highlighted at a press conference earlier that day.
“I have received many threats over the years, but this is the first time my family members have been involved.
“The threats included photos, full names, phone numbers, home addresses and MyKad numbers of 14 of my family members, including my children and siblings.
“They even had information about my mother, who has passed away. This is sensitive information that not everyone can access, and it raises questions about how such data could be obtained so easily,” he said at a press conference.
He said that he had held a press conference on last Saturday (Jan 10) over a case where a woman’s house was attacked with Molotov cocktails three times after receiving money from a loan shark.
Lim said that he had also been seeing dozens of others, especially loan shark and scam victims, whose private information had fallen into the wrong hands.
“It has been getting worse, and the authorities, particularly the police and the National Registration Department (NRD), must seriously address this matter.
“If this can happen to me, and all these people, it could also happen to anyone else,” he said, adding that he had made a police report on the matter.
A police official confirmed that they have received a report and are investigating the matter.
