The Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) and Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM) jointly launched an anti-scam campaign on Tuesday (Oct 3) called #JanganKenaScam.
Maybank group chief executive officer of community financial services Datuk John Chong said the national scam awareness campaign underscores the banking industry's commitment to combat financial scams in fostering unity and strengthening its efforts to prevent fraudulent banking activities, and drive forward a singular message to avoid being scammed.
00:00 Put your hands together as we kick off the launch of the Jangan Keraskan National Awareness Campaign by ABM and IBIM.
00:09 As you know, this is what you call a refresh or a relaunch of our Jangan Keraskan campaign.
00:17 And I think the reason we're doing it is to show our commitment in ensuring the safety and interest and financial security of all our public in terms of their safety.
00:29 So I think that's the number one. And I think what's more important is you can see that this is a collaborative effort by everybody here today
00:36 to ensure that all individuals are empowered with the right tools and knowledge so that they can defend themselves better by the growing fraud and scam situation.
00:46 For me personally, if you look at it from our perspective, there are three prong strategies in how we're going to address this.
00:53 So the first strategy, as you're aware, most recently it is for the banks and the non-banks, which means also the wallets as well as the fintechs,
01:05 to provide certain measures in order to block any fraud and scams that are happening potentially in the digital space.
01:13 That's the first strategy.
01:15 And you'll be aware that I think last year it was announced that the banks are actually working on rolling up countermeasures,
01:23 five countermeasures in order to address and provide further security obviously to the public and to our customers.
01:29 And if I can just recap the five measures.
01:31 The first measure is of course the migration from SMS OTP into a more secure platform. So that's the first measure.
01:39 The second measure is also to enhance our fraud detection systems.
01:43 The third measure is to of course introduce a cooling off period.
01:48 And I must stress here that obviously there will be a balance between customer friction as well as keeping you safe.
01:56 So I think that's where we have to balance it for the industry.
02:00 Third one is of course, the fourth one is also ensuring that we have a 24-hour call facility now.
02:08 So as you know that you can, dedicated fraud lines for all banks.
02:12 So these are all the measures that we have actually put in place.
02:15 But over and above that we have also put in additional measures.
02:18 I think some were also mentioned by the governor earlier.
02:21 One of those measures obviously to introduce Kill Switch.
02:24 And you may be asking me what's Kill Switch, right?
02:26 So Kill Switch is where it allows an individual, like all of you, your customers, to basically block your own accounts or your own cards.
02:34 So whether it's your credit card or your debit card, your accounts, you can do it by yourself because obviously as you all know, time is of essence.
02:40 So you can do it and you can even unblock it later, but obviously you need to call the respective banks to get it done.
02:45 So that's one.
02:46 Second thing we have also done in addition to the five measures is also to extend the cooling off period time for the non-working hours, I guess.
02:54 Because in those times when individuals are less observant, especially in the morning,
03:00 and this allows us to prevent fraudsters from doing unauthorized transactions, for example, when you're sleeping.
03:08 And the third thing I think banks have done is also come up with a mobile device purchase program.
03:13 So for example, there may be many members of the public, they may find it difficult to purchase mobile phones that are supported by the latest operating system, OS.
03:24 So we want to make sure that we have come up with programs so that basically they can purchase the newer phones that provide this support.
03:29 So that's the first strategy.
03:31 The second strategy I think is all of us here, the collaborative effort.
03:35 I think it's very important that we work together as an industry.
03:39 I think that's something we are doing, all stakeholders.
03:42 And I think the more we have synergies within all members of the ecosystem, the stronger our defense against fraud.
03:48 So hence we work very closely with, of course, the Ministry of Communication and Digital.
03:52 We work very closely with our friends in PDRM.
03:55 We work very closely with, of course, MCMC.
03:58 So these are very, very important.
03:59 This is the second strategy we are doing.
04:01 And the third strategy, in my view, the most important as well, one of the most important, would be education, communication and awareness.
04:09 I think that's key.
04:10 And that's something you will see after this campaign, much more being done intensively.
04:14 So you will see it, you will see it, as you mentioned, in the launch today, in the newspapers, in the radio, in the TV, even in your LRT, you go, all of this.
04:23 And we go throughout nationwide to address everybody, public, so that they are aware.
04:28 And even with the simple knowledge of scam, at least that will protect them.
04:32 So I think this is the key thing we are doing.
04:34 But having said that, all that we have done as an industry, as stakeholders, the most important thing is the protection against fraud and scam is a responsibility for everyone, including the individuals.
04:48 They must protect themselves.
04:50 So if you want to protect yourself, you want to protect your loved ones, you just have to follow simple steps.
04:55 So if I can just recap again, number one, never disclose your credentials, your password, and all your other credentials to anyone, including your loved ones and family members.
05:08 That's number one.
05:09 Never click on any hyperlink.
05:12 I can tell you today, there is no bank that will send you an SMS with a hyperlink.
05:17 No bank.
05:18 So you can never click on any of them.
05:20 Never download any apps, especially those unauthorized apps.
05:24 And sometimes if the deal is too good to be true, definitely it's not true.
05:29 I can tell you that.
05:30 And of course now there's a rise in phishing scams as well.
05:34 People are calling.
05:35 So don't divulge your credentials over the phone.
05:37 So please relay that message to your family, to your friends, so that you spread the word.
05:42 I think that's very, very important.
05:43 That's the whole reason we're having the campaign today.
05:45 We also form, as you know, the NSRC, which is the National Scam Response Centre, which is a collaboration between Bank Negara, BDRM, NFCC, and the banks.
05:54 So this is in addition to the call hotline centre that each bank has, as I mentioned earlier.
06:00 For the banks themselves, to show collaboration, we actually form an industry national taskforce where all the banks are represented there.
06:07 And there, we will discuss all the issues on scams.
06:10 So you take off today, irrespective of where you go, which branch, whichever bank, you will see that the messages are the same.
06:19 So consistent message, simple, that everyone can cascade down basically.
06:24 So if you look at effectiveness, because it's effective, if I look at the numbers, I know I think Mr Derek has mentioned a few numbers, I think even our governor has mentioned a few.
06:34 But if you look at the numbers that we have that's been reported to the banks, it's the ones that are within the banks' information.
06:41 If you look at the period of quarter, the last quarter, four of last year, and quarter two of this year, you will see obviously a decline in banking scams, especially in malware.
06:52 So overall, from the banking perspective, banking scams have dropped by about 46%, right?
06:57 And malware especially has dropped by about 50 to 51%.
07:02 So that's quite a big drop for us.
07:05 But having said that, I don't think we should be complacent because obviously scammers are, like what Derek mentioned, trying to stay ahead.
07:15 So we need to continue this fight, we need to continue to be vigilant, we need to continue to defend, defend, defend.
