According to the United Nations’ most recent report on Online Scam Operations and Trafficking, global scamming generated US$7.8bil in stolen cryptocurrency in 2021, with South-East Asia accounting for a sizable portion.
Scam SMS messages identified by the app are sent to the phone’s junk folder, while scam calls are automatically blocked without notifying the user. Non-registered SMS will be labelled as “Likely-SCAM” which acts similarly to a “spam filter and spam bin”, it explained. The Philippines State News Agency reported that in 2022, to address the growing incidents of cyber fraud, the state’s central bank required all financial institutions to have an automated and real-time fraud monitoring and detection system.
Locally, Communications and Digital minister Fahmi Fadzil said that his ministry is in talks with the Prime Minister’s Department to bring a Cabinet Memorandum on the setting up of a National Anti-Scam Task Force in Bank Negara Malaysia to curb online scams.