Reject ‘NSRC official’ calls
PETALING JAYA: With about RM6.8mil lost over just four months to the latest tactic by scammers who posed as National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) officials, banks are urging the public to simply hang up if they received such calls.
Before this, scammers used to pose as cops and officials of enforcement agencies to deceive their victims into believing they had landed on the wrong side of the law, supposedly over crimes such as money laundering, drugs and human trafficking.
The Association of Banks in Malaysia and the Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia said these scammers would pose as an NSRC officer and attempt to scare unsuspecting victims, claiming that their personal information such as MyKad number or mobile number was found to be linked to illegal or fraudulent activities.
“The scam begins with the victim receiving a call from an unknown mobile number.
“Claiming to be an NSRC officer, the caller would inform that the victim’s name or personal particulars have been used in criminal activities such as money laundering and mule account transactions. Then, the fraudster engages in a lengthy ‘interrogation’ and investigation to convince their victim,” said the associations, adding that the process would often involve a number of phone calls over a period of time.”
The associations also said after getting the victim’s trust, the fraudsters will order their victim to drop off their ATM card at a given location.
Using the card, the scammers will then access the victim’s online banking account before carrying out unauthorised withdrawals, transfers and bill payments.
The associations said if the victim did not have an online banking account, the scammers would sign up for it using the bank card in their possession.
“Quickly hang up upon receiving calls from those who claim to be NSRC officers.
“The NSRC only takes calls from the public and do not make outgoing calls,” they said.
They also reminded the public that bank officials would never request sensitive information such as credit or debit card numbers, the card verification value (CVV) number, one-time password (OTP) or transaction authorisation code (TAC), online banking username and password from customers.
Last week, Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said between January and April, police had initiated investigations on 49 cases of scams involving the impersonation of NSRC officials with losses amounting to RM6.8mil.
Victims should reach out to the NSRC at 997 if they were scammed and also alert their respective banks.
The public is encouraged to keep themselves updated on the latest tactics by scammers at www.JanganKenaScam.com.
Cases of scams continue to rise, causing huge losses to the savings of many Malaysians.
Last year, almost RM1.3bil was lost in various scams in about 35,000 cases that were reported nationwide – a rise by more than a third compared to the losses in 2022, which stood at RM804mil.
Over 85% of the losses were from fake or non-existent investment schemes, followed by e-commerce and telecommunication scams.
Source: The Star
