KUALA LUMPUR: Macau scam syndicates planning to hoodwink extra of the unsuspecting with their phone calls will discover that issues is not going to be really easy anymore.
The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Corporation (MCMC) goes to the foundation of the scam to identify and block connections right here with the introduction of “technical barriers”.
The initiative below the Industry Taskforce for Telecommunication Fraud is being carried out with telecommunication service suppliers (TSPs) and the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID).
MCMC chief regulatory officer Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin mentioned 1.6 billion of such scam calls, together with these made by way of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), had already been blocked.
He mentioned the technical limitations, referred to as the “Seven Blocking Rules”, identify and mechanically block calls from scammers.
Among the important thing initiatives are the organising of restriction guidelines for TSPs to stem or cut back the variety of suspicious calls from reaching customers.
“Suspicious calls, normally from abroad, will be blocked if they meet the criteria of the seven blocking rules,” he mentioned in an interview with Star Media Group’s Bahasa Malaysia information portal Majoriti.
Zulkarnain declined to make clear the limitations, saying the MCMC desires to preserve the way it operates below wraps.
It is learnt that one of many strategies is to block calls from Macau scam perpetrators from foreign-based phone numbers.
The CCID revealed {that a} complete of 1,585 Macau Scam instances have been reported final 12 months with losses totalling RM560mil.
The Securities Commission Malaysia has obtained 67,552 instances of fraud involving losses amounting to RM2.23bil from 2017 to June 20, 2021, which included instances of ecommerce and funding scams.
Zulkarnain mentioned the scammers used VoIP utility which allowed them to masks their abroad telephone numbers to make it look like the calls got here from native numbers.“At times they disguised themselves as police or Bank Negara officials, but the calls actually came from abroad. There are still many who received calls from Macau scammers, meaning there are still many calls that managed to pass through the technical barriers,” he mentioned, including that the “barriers” are being fortified.
Zulkarnain admitted that it’s troublesome for service suppliers to utterly stop these calls from reaching the unsuspecting public.
As such, he suggested folks to be alert and ignore any suspicious calls or SMS asking them for private particulars.
If the content material is offensive, threatening or inappropriate, he mentioned a police report ought to be lodged, or a test could possibly be made with the CCID Scam Response Centre at 03-2610 1559 and 03-2610 1599 (8am to 8pm each day).
He mentioned the general public ought to be educated on how to report and block such calls/SMS with the service or utility suppliers.
“This will help minimise further attempts of unwanted calls from such numbers coming through,” he added.
The modus operandi of Macau scammers is to make threatening telephone calls posing as cops, tax brokers, central financial institution staff and others, claiming that the particular person they known as is implicated in a legal offence and being investigated.
Their motive is to scare folks into believing that they’re in bother – until they switch sums of money into sure financial institution accounts.
In some instances, the scammer tells the sufferer to contact one other scammer posing as an officer from the identical company to make the scam appear reasonable.
The time period “Macau scam” was coined as a result of it’s believed that it originated from Macau and that the fraudulent behaviour is widespread there.
