Fraud is a billion-ringgit business

A FRIEND sent me a screencap of a WhatsApp message purportedly from “Star Media managers” offering jobs with a monthly salary ranging from RM1,500 to RM24,000.

If interested, the recipient of this WhatsApp need only click on the link provided.

But if you do that, there’s a good chance that these scammers could hijack your phone and eventually steal the transaction authorisation code (TAC) used for online transactions.

The Star was forced to issue a statement advising the public not to be duped by this WhatsApp message (https://bit.ly/3E2CnkZ).

Cyberfraud is at an all-time high and we appear to be losing this battle.

These scammers have become more brazen, and their modus operandi has become so outrageous that sometimes even the most careful among us are taken in.

It was reported in Parliament that a total of 71,833 commercial crime cases involving losses amounting to RM5.2bil were recorded from 2020 to May this year. And of the total, some 48,850 cases, or 68%, involved online fraud.

On Wednesday, an English daily reported that in South Klang alone, scammers have raked in RM80mil based on 1,300 reports of job, parcel, and love scams that the district police received between January and September this year.

That’s RM80mil from just one district. Imagine what the actual figure is like for the whole country, considering that a lot of these scam cases go unreported. These online fraud cases usually involve larger sums of money, and many victims of smaller amounts are often too shy to report their losses.

Make no mistake, cyberscams are a billion-ringgit “business” in this country. Malaysians appear to be among the most gullible in this region and this trend is set to continue.

Last month, a retiree in Johor was cheated of his life savings of almost RM2mil in a parcel scam. A woman he met on Facebook supposedly from Brazil claimed that she would send him a parcel containing US$2.8mil (RM13mil).

To make a long story short, the retiree was duped into paying a “service charge” to collect the parcel. This was done via 11 online transactions. The parcel never arrived, and the retiree made a police report.

It’s incredible that people are so easily fooled into making online transactions, because these platforms are where we should be most careful and vigilant.

A recent survey shows that ewallet usage has skyrocketed with some 68% of Malaysians using digital wallets in the first quarter of 2022.

I am part of this digital transition and rarely handle cash. Everything involves an online transaction nowadays, and therein lies the danger. From retail shopping to banking transactions, there is no longer a need to be physically present.

It is important to ensure digital transactions and online businesses on platforms such as marketplace, social media, websites and shopping apps are conducive and safe besides being user-friendly.

But two recent proposals by the government to combat cyberfraud do not really make any sense. The first proposal from the Communications and Multimedia Ministry is to introduce a special application to curb activities related to hacking.

This anti-hacking app may come with a charge. I find this laughable because we already have an application in place to check for scam sites or apps – PDRM’s semakmule. And secondly, let’s get real – very few people will pay for something that isn’t proven yet.

The second proposal by the government of introducing a comprehensive law to bring online businesses under close control is in fact a new licensing mechanism.

Such an initiative may or may not curb cyberfraud, but it very likely will result in consumers paying more for online purchases. Online platforms and sellers will pass down this additional cost to consumers.

Creating a new app or a new business licence will have little effect on cyberfraud. What is really needed is concerted enforcement by the authorities.

An amendment to the law that will allow authorities to freeze the bank accounts of scammers and punish “account mules” who allow their bank accounts to be used by these scammers was proposed in Parliament in July.

The two include an amendment to Section 116B of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to allow the investigating officer to freeze the bank accounts of those suspected of being involved in online scams.

And also, Section 424 of the Penal Code to punish account mules who allow scammers to use their bank accounts.

These tough laws to tackle online scams needs to be expedited. We must seriously crack down on syndicates that are milking the public of their hard-earned money.

For the time being, there should be community engagement programmes to spread information to the public about the different tactics and modus operandi of scammers.

Because, ultimately, if something is too good to be true, it usually is.