News & Reviews:   scam

The government recently distributed eBeliaRahmah RM200 eWallet credit to youths aged 18 to 20 and eligible full-time students in our country. However, since its disbursement, there have been many stories of recipients getting scammed when trying to cash out the credit, something that the initiative expressly said NOT to do. 

As you should know, Telegram has finally agreed to work with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the Royal Police Force (PDRM) to combat cybercrimes on its platform. We have been wondering when MCMC would also take action against Facebook and the announcement has been made.

In case you didn't receive it, a few of us have gotten an SMS from our respective telcos. Starting on 2 July 2023, SMS containing links, requesting personal data and phone numbers will be blocked to prevent online fraud. 

From time to time, we would get scam messages and calls on our phones. While you could always install the Truecaller app, it doesn't work for WhatsApp which scammers tend to use nowadays. However, that could change in the future.

By now, you should know scams in Malaysia have been quite prominent. Not only are we getting scam messages from our mobile phones, but they also exist in Facebook Ads which poses a huge problem. To address this problem, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil is going to take action.

Today, Google announced that the Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) will be expanded in Gmail. Introduced in 2021, this new update will now have a checkmark icon from senders to show verifications, just like the blue ticks from Facebook and Twitter.

As you all know, scammers have different methods to con you into giving them money. One of these methods is including URLs in SMS, which can redirect you to websites that either steal your information or money. Well, Maxis has already confirmed when it will start blocking this.

Over 73 per cent of cell phone numbers in our country, or approximately 21 million people were leaked or sold to scammers last year. According to the Gogolook 2022 Annual Fraud Report, Malaysia was granted the unwanted title of being 1st place in cell phone numbers breached by the global security company.

The Ministry of Communications and Digital (KKD) has instructed all telco companies in Malaysia to block any URL links in short message services (SMS). The directive, made through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was to ensure that no malicious URL is being spread that would possibly make people become victims of scams.

If you recall, Touch 'n Go eWallet announced that it will implement five new safety & security measures to combat scammers. Fast forward to today, the company is pleased to announce that it has successfully done it as imposed by the Bank Negara Malaysia.