KUALA LUMPUR – The government has agreed to amend the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to allow refunds to victims of online scams, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told the Dewan Rakyat today.
He was responding to a supplementary question from Tan Hong Pin (Bakri-PH) during Ministers’ Question Time.
Tan wanted to know the measures taken by the government to speed up the process of returning stolen funds to victims of online scams.
Earlier, to a question from Tan regarding the plan to extend the National Scam Response Centre’s (NSRC) operating hours to 24 hours daily, the prime minister said the government had agreed to the matter.
Anwar said Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had also informed all banks in the country to monitor such complaints from their account holders around the clock.
“Besides that, there is an effort towards automation measures so that complainants can take action to stop the withdrawal of funds from their bank accounts immediately. This is a new development by BNM,” he said.
The prime minister also told the Dewan Rakyat that a total of 3,595 cases of online fraud were investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code and that the government had so far recovered RM34.8 million of the looted money.
The government, he said, had also increased funds for NSRC’s operations by RM10 million this year through the 2023 budget, and raised the number of officers to strengthen the response centre’s enforcement. – Bernama, May 23, 2023
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