Malaysia sees big hike in financial cyber scams

Almost RM3.2 billion (£580m) was lost to online scams involving more than 95,800 victims between 2021 and April 2024, the government’s Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo has said.

But he added that the figure could be higher as many victims may not have reported crimes against them to the authorities.

“Cases related to phishing, fraud and scam have risen tremendously, as criminals take advantage of the shift towards remote work and causing this issue to become a post-pandemic problem experienced by most countries,” he said.

Deo made the comments during his speech at the recent signing of several memoranda of understanding (MoU) between Axiata Group Berhad, CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM) and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).

The minister also confirmed that CSM statistics showed that cyber security cases had increased in the first seven months of this year, compared with the same period last year.

“From January to July this year, CSM recorded a total of 3,607 cyber security cases compared with 3,327 in the same period last year,” he said.

Fraud was the most reported crime, with 2,337 cases, followed by malicious code (362), data breaches (312), intrusions (230), vulnerabilities (69), spam (46) and denial of service (11).

Deo said that the government “is committed to working with all parties in creating a safer and more resilient cyber ecosystem by increasing national security, economic prosperity and social harmony for the economy and the people”.

He said: “I also hope that the recently amended Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) will be enforced at the end of this month boost Malaysia’s digital competitiveness by ensuring secure management of personal data in commercial transactions.

“Additionally, the ministry also plans to establish a Data Commission at the end of this year to improve the nation’s data security,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said the collaboration between Axiata, CSM and MDEC is important in fighting high-tech crime.

Deo said: “Cyber security will continue to be a critical foundation and prerequisite for Malaysia’s digital economic capabilities.

“We believe that cooperation like this is one of the most effective strategies to combat cybercrime and accelerate a faster response to monitoring, detection and response to cyberattacks.”

In August, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) launched a new National Fraud Portal (NFP) as part of the ongoing #JanganKenaScam campaign. The goal is to educate Malaysians on the various scams being perpetrated by fraudsters.

While the NFP is not accessible to the public, the new portal will help the authorities by allowing it to streamline the process of expediting an investigation into a potential scam.

To that end, BNM says that the NFP, which is embedded to the Scam Response Centre (NSRC), would provide the latter the capability to trace stolen funds across multiple payment systems.

According to BNM, the big advantage the new portal will bring is the speed in which the NFP allows the NSRC to go through these steps, which it says is much, much faster than what the NSRC was capable of doing two years ago.

The central bank’s assistant governor, Norhana Endut, also said BNM was aware of the existence of cases where victims are emotionally manipulated into depositing money into scammers’ accounts.

“In some of these cases, victims are emotionally manipulated through love scams or may be depressed and emotionally controlled. This is considered a willing, authorised financial transaction.

“The other one is an unauthorised transaction where the customer is not willing but becomes aware after the fact. For unauthorised transactions, the fair treatment policy document will come into play. But for authorised transactions, education and awareness are also key to prevention,” Norhana said.

Bank Negara is also taking further pre-emptive measures by introducing directives to ensure that banking institutions treat victims of fraud fairly.

Among the key principles of the policy, which will take effect on October 1, includes an emphasis on joint responsibility to ensure fairer consumer outcomes in cases where evidence shows negligence on the part of both the institution and the victim.