WITH the authorities stepping up efforts to educate people, scammers have now resorted to masquerading as National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) personnel to hoodwink targets.
However, it has been pointed out that communication between the NSRC and the people is only one-way, and that the scam response centre will never call the public.
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Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Comm Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf stressed that the NSRC only received calls and would never make calls to anyone under any circumstances.
"Let me remind the public that there is only one-way communication – and that is from the public to the NSRC.
"Anyone who calls you claiming to be with the NSRC is clearly trying to cheat you, so do not fall for it," he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on Friday (Feb 16).
He said between January and Feb 11, the CCID had opened 18 investigation papers in cases where scammers posed as NSRC officers.
"These 18 cases involved losses of RM1.49mil with the bulk (RM1.43mil) attributed to a 61-year-old former lecturer," he added.
He said the scammers' modus operandi would be to call their targets to accuse them of sending illegal web links with fraudulent messages.
"The victims would then be connected to another individual claiming to be from the police and told to transfer money to an account," he said.
Comm Ramli said the public can contact the NSRC by dialling 997 to report any scam attempts.
