PETALING JAYA: Malaysia ranked top of a list of Asian countries for having the most personal data leaks.
Digital risk management company Gogolook, in its Whoscall Annual Report 2024, found that Malaysia recorded the highest amount of leaks, with scam calls increasing to 82.81% last year.
“SMS scams also increased by 19.97%, showing that scammers are relying more on calls while still using text messages to deceive victims,” the company was quoted as saying by Free Malaysia Today.
The annual report analysed data from Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and the Philippines from January and December 2024.
The company also mentioned that almost 72.5% of its users discovered their personal information had been compromised after checking their status through the Whoscall’s ID security feature.
While the most leaked data in all countries were phone numbers, Gogolook’s Malaysia business development director Voon Chang Liew noted that Malaysia has the highest number of names leaked, standing at 89% of total data leaks followed by addresses and emails.
“This makes impersonation scams more convincing, as scammers exploit leaked names to pose as banks, government agencies or delivery services,” he was quoted as saying.
Bukit Aman commercial crime investigation department (CCID) Datuk Seri Ramli Yoosuf confirmed losses caused by scams nationwide surged to RM1.57 billion in 2024, compared to RM1.22 billion in 2023.
“To combat this, the police are continuing their strategic partnership with Whoscall by sharing PDRM-verified scam numbers with the Whoscall app,” he was quoted as saying.
Additionally, Gogolook found that phishing, banking fraud and gambling scams were reported as the most common types of scams, with the top reported scam and spam calls for banking or debt collection at 25.15% followed by scammers impersonating authority figures or businesses at 22.40%.
“Gambling-related scams made up 45.16% of SMS scams, followed by financial scams (21.47%), including fake investment opportunities and fraudulent money-lending services.
“Other common scam messages included parcel scams (5.29%), telecom fraud (5.60%) and fake payment reminders (5.82%),” Gogolook was quoted as saying.
