There were 11,367 cases of cybercrime recorded from January to July 2022.
According to Senior Assistant Commissioner Victor Sanjos, deputy director for cybercrimes and multimedia at the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID), 11,367 cases of cybercrime were reported between January and July of this year, compared to 18,510 cases of commercial crime during the same time period.
A rise in cybercrimes from 39% to 61% was seen in the trend from 2016 to July 2022.
There are six different kinds of scams: the Macau Scam, e-commerce crimes, fake loans, fake investments, 419 scams (also known as love scams), and phishing.
Macau scams or impersonation/fraud calls have so far resulted in 4,912 cases with a loss of RM199.8 million, 5,397 incidents of e-commerce crimes with a loss of RM71.6 million, and as many as 543 cases of e-financial fraud or phishing with a loss of RM40.5 million, according to him.
With the advancement of technology, con artists create “app scams.” This is one of the phishing techniques scammers employ to obtain usernames, passwords, and other user information.
The programme will request to assume the role of the short message service (SMS) after the user uploads this “app scam,” and if the user agrees, it will be simpler for scammers to conduct their actions.
Social media platform advertisements are one of the methods scammers frequently utilise. From January to July 2022, 39 cases of app scams were reported, resulting in losses of RM721 728.69 for the victims.
In the meantime, Vijayadurai Singgatore, manager of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNMinquiries )’s and complaints division, stated that BNM always advises the public to be wary of scammers’ techniques or promises, regardless of whether they seem reasonable or not.
In order to give consumers confidence in the security of the system provided, BNM and the banking sector also continuously strengthen security standards.
With the addition of CAPTCHA, which requires users to match photos, internet banking is now even more secure.
In the meanwhile, several banks have strengthened security by implementing device binding, which requires users to utilise a registered device in order to conduct internet banking.
Eqhwan Mokhzanee Muhammad, chief executive officer of AmBank Islamic Bhd, advised customers to call the bank first so that their accounts may be blocked right away before filing a police report if they were participating in fraudulent operations.
The customer is advised to call the bank’s customer care line when he feels that he has been defrauded and notices that the money is missing, as well as to change the pin number for his ATM card and the password for his internet banking account.
