KUALA LUMPUR: The National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) has successfully blocked RM19 million from being transferred in online financial fraud cases and seized RM6 million to date, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said this is one of the successes of the NSRC, involving cooperation with the National Anti-Financial Crime Centre (NFCC), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), as well as financial institutions and the telecommunications industry.
“Since its establishment until October 2024, a total of 140,474 calls were received by NSRC, 69,000 of which involved financial fraud cases,” he said in reply to Suhaizan Kaiat (PH-Pulai) during Minister’s Question Time.
Suhaizan wanted to know whether the government would review the money lending licences under the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) and how the government plans to put an end to scams and manipulations in banking administration.
Anwar said that RM1.224 billion in losses from online financial fraud were recorded from January to October this year, encompassing online scams, telecommunications crimes, e-finance, love scams, e-commerce, non-existent loans, and fraudulent investments.
Anwar said that in order to prevent more people from becoming victims of scams, over 1.4 billion suspicious calls and 1.2 billion unsolicited SMS messages have also been successfully blocked by telecommunications companies.
“The Ministry of Communications, through MCMC, has managed to terminate 118,184 lines and block access to 9,474 fraudulent websites,” he said.
The Prime Minister also expressed concern over statistics from the Semak Mule portal, which showed that as of Oct 31, a total of 181,628 phone numbers, 222,092 bank account numbers, and 1,395 company names were recorded in relation to online fraud cases.
“This portal has been very helpful because, through its reports, 32,066,000 searches were made, and 22,200,984 gave a positive response, meaning there were attempts to transfer funds to mule accounts, but many were thwarted due to the efforts made. We use the Semak Mule portal via https://semakmule.rmp.gov.my,” he said.
Other measures taken to address online fraud include amendments to Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Act 588), the drafting of the Online Safety Act (ONSA), as well as ongoing actions by the NSRC.
Meanwhile, in reply to Suhaizan’s original question regarding the causes of the increase in cases and preventive measures for 361 suspected cases involved in unlicensed money-lending crimes detected within a nine-day period starting from Nov 4, the Prime Minister said that the number involved was the result of Op Vulture, an integrated operation carried out by the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) simultaneously nationwide from Nov 4 to 12.
“The issue is indeed serious because, according to ASEAN records, the total value of all scam crimes amounts to US$64 billion,” he said.
Anwar said that seven money-lending companies had also been raided for violating Regulation 15A(b) of the Moneylenders (Control & Licensing) Regulations (Amendment) 2024.
“These companies held the borrowers’ bank cards, which complicates matters,” he added.
