KUALA LUMPUR – In an effort to weed out scammers, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) today said it will set up a special website to collect information on bank accounts and details used by fraudsters to commit financial crimes.
The portal, which is expected to be up and running by mid-2024, will only be accessible to banks, said BNM’s deputy governor Datuk Marzunisham Omar.
“The website’s aim is to gather information about suspicious bank accounts used by scammers to receive stolen money.
“Using this database, the banking industry will then be able to detect patterns and connections between the accounts used by scammers.
“This can help banks quickly halt fraudulent transactions and assist law enforcement agencies in their investigations,” he said at a workshop on combating financial scams at Lanai Kijang, Kuala Lumpur today.
Marzunisham pointed out that this database could also be used to prevent money from going into accounts used by criminals.
Though he said this is not something that could take place overnight, he stressed the long-term potential benefits for victims to recover their funds and for prosecuting scammers.
Marzunisham also said that BNM and other agencies are working to use technology to help the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) automate its processes for reporting and recording scams.
NSRC handled 15,723 financial scam cases with total losses valued at RM141.47 million from October 2022 until June this year.
According to NSRC’s data, during this period, the centre received the most reports involving e-commerce scams, amounting to 4,603 cases.
Total losses from such cases amounted to RM13 million, followed by job scams (3,000 cases, RM44 million), phishing or Application Packaging Kit scams (2,573 cases, RM19 million), telecommunication scams (1,782 cases, RM34 million) and loan scams (1,432 cases, RM6.9 million).
The NSRC is a joint effort among the National Anti-Financial Crime Centre, police, BNM, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, financial institutions, and telecommunications companies.
Marzunisham advised victims to call their banks’ 24-hour hotline or NSRC at 977 to report online financial scams on the spot.
He said immediate action is important to ensure banks could intercept any stolen funds and allow police to take action immediately. – The Vibes, September 5, 2023
