LOCAL social media users are urging the government to consider legislation similar to Australia’s new law requiring banks to compensate scam victims.
The response follows Australia’s announcement of plans to hold banks responsible for reimbursing customers who lose money due to fraud.
The Australian legislation, proposed by its assistant treasurer Stephen Jones, aims to address cases where victims were unable to claim compensation after being deceived into making legitimate transactions.
Under the new law, Australian banks, telecommunications companies, and digital platforms will face penalties for failing to conduct mandatory preventive checks.
The Australian National Anti-Fraud Center reported that Australians lost A$2.74 billion (RM8.17 billion) to fraud in 2023, a 13.1% decrease from 2022. Investment fraud was the leading cause of financial loss.
This news has sparked discussion among Malaysians about implementing similar measures.
Several users on X (formerly Twitter) expressed support for the Australian approach and called on the Malaysian government to follow suit.
User @PudinMdn stated, “This is the right approach. If users are scammed through software provided by the bank, it’s the bank’s fault for their software failure.”
@radidaros posted, “I hope Minister @fahmi_fadzil, BNM @BNM_official, and the government take action. Banks should also be held responsible for failures in the scammer’s platforms.”
Others, like @__nrblqs and @man_fbm, questioned when Malaysia would implement comparable legislation.
However, user @Fatulamnan pointed out the complexity of the issue, as there are mostly two different types of scam victims: those who fall prey due to personal negligence and those who are more elaborately deceived.
In March, local media reported 34,497 cases of online scams nationwide in 2023, resulting in losses totaling RM1.218 billion.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah had stated that telecommunications-related crimes—such as SMS contest scams, online impersonation scams, and phone call scams—were among the most frequent.
