Do you feel that you are getting lesser scam calls in these recent years?
This is because the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has been actively blocking suspicious calls from reaching consumers. According to the reports, the commission had blocked about 1.6 billion suspicious calls between 2018 to 2021!
In a written reply to Hang Tuah Jaya MP Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar in the Parliament on 3 March, the ministry said it has planned to ensure such telephone calls are monitored apart from being detected with the cooperation of telecommunication companies.
It added that 2,232 public complaints on scam-related activities were received by MCMC and had been referred to “relevant enforcement agencies” from January to December 2021.
“The Royal Malaysian Police, the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Security Commission and Bank Negara Malaysia were among the enforcement agencies,” MCMC said.
If you are wondering how did the MCMC try to stop suspicious calls from reaching customers in the past four years? According to the commission, communication service providers were “involved in a special task force” on telecommunication fraud, but they did not elaborate on what the special task force consisted of.
Despite their efforts, Malaysians still lose at least RM2.23 billion to scams in the last 5 years from a total of 67,552 cyber-crime cases reported. These days, phone scams might not be a popular scammer tactic as most had switched to online platforms.
But that’s not to say that phone scams are no longer relevant. From time to time, we would still get reports of people felling victim to phone scams.
The MCMC also stated that it is currently looking at the need to draw up new guidelines to curb fraud via SMS, in addition to reducing suspicious calls.
If you come across one of these phone or SMS scams, you can also make a report to MCMC following this guide here. Just remember to stay vigilant and look out for the red flags at all times.
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