Malaysia loses 700 million USD due to online scams

Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia lost a total of 3.18 billion RM (700 million USD) due to online scams that involved more than 95,800 victims between 2021 and April 2024, said Malaysian Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo.

He noted the figure can be higher as many victims may not have reported to the authorities for various reasons.

Speaking at the signing of several Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) between Axiata Group Berhad, CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM) and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) on August 13, Gobind said that cases related to phishing, fraud and scam have risen tremendously, as criminals take advantage of the shift towards remote work and causing this issue to become a post-pandemic problem experienced by most countries.

CSM statistics also showed that cyber security cases had increased in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period last year.

From January to July this year, CSM recorded a total of 3,607 cyber security cases compared to 3,327 in the same period last year.

The highest was fraud, which recorded 2,337 cases, followed by malicious code (362), data breaches (312), intrusion attempts (240), intrusions (230), vulnerabilities (69), spam (46) and denial of service (11).

Amid the growing risk and threat of cyber attacks, Gobind said that the government is committed to working with all parties in creating a safer and more resilient cyber ecosystem by increasing national security.

The recently-amended Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA) will be enforced at the end of this month to boost Malaysia's digital competitiveness by ensuring secure management of personal data in commercial transactions.

The ministry also plans to establish a Data Commission at the end of this year to improve the nation's data security, Gobind added.

Facebook has filed a legal action against a group of individuals located in Vietnam who got users to compromise their own Facebook accounts and ran millions of dollars of unauthorised ads.

Singaporean authority registered 9,783 e-commerce scam cases in 2023, more than doubling the 4,762 cases in 2022, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on April 10.

Four scam victims in Japan sued Facebook on Thursday after being hoodwinked by fraudulent online investment ads that used images of celebrities without their consent, their lawyer said.

Authorities have continuously warned Vietnamese businesses to stay prudent when trading with foreign partners in the face of a recent scam increase.