ONLINE SCAMS IN MALAYSIA

BALIK PULAU: A 27-year-old doctor was cheated of more than RM20,000 after he received a call purportedly from the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) and the police. Balik Pulau OCPD Supt A. Anbalagan said the victim, who works at a private clinic, received a call on Oct 24 at about 1pm from a man who introduced himself as “Dato Ridzuan” from LHDN’s Kelantan office (Hilmy, 2020).

On the early month of October, our country was shocked by the massive arrests of individuals involved with Macau Scam. They were 11 locals and a Chinese national have been arrested and all their bank accounts have been frozen. In addition, all their property was also confiscated and would be channeled into the country's savings because it is the people’s money. Aside from that, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) were also arrested a total of eight police officers for allegedly protecting individuals operating online gambling and phone scams. The word "Macau scam" was called like that because it is assumed that the phone scam derived in Macau or that from there came the first case. This has never been confirmed. Sometimes, the scam starts with a phone call from someone who appears to be a bank, a government agency or a debt collector officer. The scammer will then claim that the potential victim owes money or has a fine outstanding to settle the bill or face "dire consequences", sometimes in a very short time of less than an hour. It would then ask these unsuspecting victims to make payments to get them off the hook, according to The Star newspaper (Anis, 2020).

What are online scams? Online scams keep changing, and have so many variety. The word usually mentions to those who are using the internet, typically for financial benefit, to defraud or take advantage of victims. Cybercriminals can contact potential victims in an attempt to obtain valuable personal or financial information through personal or work email accounts, social networking sites, dating applications, or other methods. There are common endings to several popular internet scams which is either the victims will lose their cash or fail to collect the promised scammer's funds (Johansen, 2019).

Why they are using Internet to scam people? Because of its enhanced effectiveness in facilitating the business operations of the criminal sector, criminals have embraced the Internet. Their productivity gains are among the Internet's great success storeys, and those in companies just wish they could reach the same degree of efficiency. They were also have invented hundreds of ways to manipulate peoples over the Internet. There are about eleven types of scams that are more common which is romance scam, the overpayment scam, quick-money promise, Facebook impersonation scam, fake shopping websites, phishing scams, unexpected prize scam, the Nigerian letter scam, exortion or threat or “hitman” scam, malware and ransomware scams, and the tech support online scam (Cohen, 2003).

In Malaysia, we heard so many cases about online scams happen especially this year. However, there are some things that make me feel puzzled because we have heard a lot of news about people who are victims of this online scam but there are still some who are deceived by it. There must be a reason why they are so easily deceived by these online scams.

According to a research undertaken by psychologists at the University of Exeter found that  there were two main reasons victims responded to scams, which were appeals to trust and authority, and visceral triggers. A number of errors causing triggers were also identified in the Exeter study and some of the most significant were scarcity indicators which is emphasising a personal offer with a time limit to respond, induction of behavioural involvement which is series of small steps towards victimisation, excessive reward size which is a high value reward for small investment and lack of emotional control because some were less able to control their feelings and were more responsive to persuasion (Mark Button, 2014).

Other than that,they are using Internet because nowadays, we can get so many information including private information. Sometimes the victims will share their private information in social media such as Facebook, so this will attract the criminals to deceive them. Sometime, self-loathing panic can also cause us to be deceived by online scams. For example, in Kuching, Sarawak, the criminals disguised as police or other authorities request the victim's personal information and identity card number. Then the victim is said to have credit card arrears, loan debt, have a court case or a court summons, crash cases, tax arrears and services (GST), income or business tax arrears and so on. The victim then continued to provide the requested information due to panic without referring to anyone (Daily, 2020).

There is only one problem, until when we want to let this online scam continue to deceive the people around us? There must be ways we can take to prevent us from being further deceived by online scams. It is time for us to defend ourselves from continuing to be victims by this cyber crime.

The first way that we can take to prevent us from being deceived by online scams is by filing a report. We may file a report with the Malaysian Communications And Multimedia Commission (MCMC), which is the focal point for monitoring internet crime-related fraud and abuse trends. The centre investigates reports, analyses information, and produces intelligence reports highlighting emerging threats and new trends. Before falling victim to it, understanding how online scams operate can helps us recognise the hazards involved and recognise the scam. Any cases will be referred by the centre to local authorities, which could bring civil proceedings against the offender. The center suggests retaining any copies of documentation relating to your case after you file the report, for example, cancelled emails, receipts, checks or chat transcripts. These may assist in conducting the investigation. Second way is set up multilayered security features. An additional layer of security known as multifactor authentication, also called two-factor authentication, is offered by certain online accounts. This needs, when you log in to an account, two or more credentials. This can be a combination of a password, for example, plus something you have, such as an extra passcode sent to your phone, or something you are, such as fingerprint or face recognition. So, multifactor authentication makes it harder to log in to your accounts if a scammer gets your username and password (Campbell, 2012).

Then, we should not respond to messages about scams. An answer can have various outcomes, such as triggering a download of malware, or verifying that your phone number or email address is working. Alternatively, make backup of documents that can assist authorities and erase other communications that look and sound like a fraud from emails, texts and social media communications. Do not click links, open attachments, respond to a post, attempt to unsubscribe or call any of the unknown phone numbers of the messages. And do not give out any of your bank information, or any other personal information. Forth way is download antivirus software. The protection programme is designed to protect your computer or system from embedding any malware. It works to disarm or kill it if the programme detects any virus or a worm. When you mistakenly click a dangerous connexion, this may help secure your devices. Antivirus software is capable of combating ransomware and protecting your files. Always make sure that only official vendor pages download software apps and services (Campbell, 2012).

Other than that, we can make a copy for our data. It is a great idea to make backups of our data on a regular basis in case a malware attack is compromised. The copies should not be in your home network, it can be forwarded to external hard drives or cloud storage. Make copy for the data, including your smartphone and all your devices. Last way is we should not trust unrequested phone calls or emails. If anyone calls or emails pretending to be a bank officer, do not believe it, give out personal or financial information. Alternatively, ask for evidence of identity and analyse the organisation (Campbell, 2012).

In my opinion, online scams can be eradicated if all Malaysians are given exposure on how they act and the tactics they use to deceive victims. This is because I had so many experiences about online scams especially during this pandemic because I surf the Internet often but I just let it go and ignored it because I knew it was one of the online scam tactics. For example, when I entered one website, there will be a pop-ups that told me that I had win a smartphone and told me to give my phone number and others. Since that, I provide an antivirus software in my laptop to block those pop-ups from continuing to appear on my laptop screen. Last but not least, I really hope that every people can avoid becoming the next victims because I feel sorry when I hear the news of fraud victims who suffered losses of tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands ringgit of their money.