PUTTING THE HEAT ON SCAMMERS
PETALING JAYA: In its latest move to fight scammers, the banking industry has introduced several safety measures including delaying the movement of “abnormal” funds by 12 hours.
Public Bank introduced the half-day cooling-off transfer period, which would allow people who have been scammed to stop their funds from being moved out. The new policy came into effect from yesterday.
In a statement to customers, it said it was introducing the transaction cooling-off period for abnormal transfers.
A cooling-off period is a precautionary measure that allows banks to review and assess transactions that display “characteristics of abnormal behaviour.”
This additional step was proposed by Bank Negara Malaysia and is designed to minimise the risk of unauthorised transactions and potential fraudulent activities, ensuring the safety of customers’ funds.
“As an added security feature to protect your financial interests, the bank will be introducing a transaction cooling-off period for abnormal transfers with effect from June 22, 2023,” Public Bank said in its statement.
It explained that when the bank detects a transaction deemed to be abnormal, the transaction will be put on hold.
“The bank will notify you of the status of your transaction via SMS, email and push notification.
“Alternatively, you may track your transactions by logging into PBe, clicking ‘Account’ and selecting ‘View Pending Verification’. Any transaction that is undergoing the transaction cooling-off period will be listed here.”
On June 11, in an email reply to The Star, Bank Negara said it would be up to banks to implement cooling-off periods of between 12 and 48 hours.
Meanwhile, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd has also executed a cooling-off period – a 12-hour waiting interval for any new application or request made on its IB, GO and GO Biz banking apps this week.
It also introduced a new “kill switch” feature allowing customers to protect their funds from online scams and temporarily deactivate access to several Bank Islam Internet banking services.
Last year, Bank Negara announced several measures for banks to implement, including migrating from SMS OTP to more secure forms of authentication, implementing a cooling-off period for first-time enrolment of online banking services and limiting the number of registered devices for authenticating transactions.
It also wanted banks to establish dedicated scam hotlines for victims and to have a “kill switch” for victims to freeze their accounts temporarily to stop the loss of funds.
“In addition, public awareness remains important in preventing online banking fraud,” said Bank Negara.
On May 2, in The Star’s front-page report titled “Fighting chance to beat scammers”, cybersecurity law expert and lawyer Derek John Fernandez mooted the idea of adopting a 48-hour “cooling period” when funds above a certain threshold are transferred to new bank accounts.
This, he said, would give scam victims time to pull their money back from the brink.
Fernandez said that was one way to stop financial scams as victims usually realise they have been scammed after 24 hours.
He had proposed the 48-hour cooling-off period to the government, including Bank Negara and the Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
“During the cooling-off period, if the new bank account seems suspicious or if the bank receives complaints, the accounts can be tracked down by MCMC and action taken.
“If consumers suspect they have been scammed, they can cancel immediately. MCMC can then publish these account numbers to its website to alert others,” Fernandez said in his proposal.
On May 12, MCMC chairman Tan Sri Mohamad Salim Fateh Din said that RM1.2bil was lost to scammers between 2021 and April 2023.
Dangerous deepfakes
PPETALING JAYA: Deepfake technology, which uses artificial intelligence to manipulate videos, has become a tool for scammers.
The celebrity promoting a product may not really be that person. Instead, it could be scammers posing as the celebrity.
Celebrity impostor scams are fake posts using photographs and artificial intelligence (AI) videos of famous people on social media accounts to lure people into making financial investments or buy products.
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These days, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are filled with such fake celebrity accounts set up to deceive devoted fans.
Scammers con the real star’s followers into making donations to charity, buying exclusive tickets or entering into investment deals which will definitely be profitable or a fee to win big prizes.
Cyberlaw expert Derek Fernandez said the scammers now were very clever, pointing out a recent case in China where the latest technology – the new AI face-changing app – was used to defraud the head of a company of 4.3 million yuan (RM2.8mil) in just 10 minutes.
Local scammers are not far behind, he said, as local celebrities and famous people like politicians seem to be popping up on social media accounts urging one to invest or buy currencies.
“Celebrity impostor scammers can be charged under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1988 (Act 588),” said Fernandez.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) could even haul up internet service providers (ISPs) and their directors for misuse of their network by scammers.
The MCMC, in a statement, said it was urging all over-the-top (OTT) platforms, like YouTube and Netflix, to cooperate in this regard.
“MCMC will be reminding internet service providers (ISPs) regarding their legal obligations under Section 263 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Act 588).
“ISPs are required to use their best endeavour to prevent their network facilities from being used for any illegal activities in Malaysia.
“This includes improving their detection, identification and elimination of scam sites and contents, and cooperating with MCMC in combating such illegal activities.
“MCMC takes a firm stance against any form of scamming and fraud,” it said.
Fernandez said that Section 233 criminalises online content that is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person.
If convicted, an offender could be fined not more than RM50,000 or imprisonment for up to one year or both.
He also said that, depending on the case details, celebrity impostor scammers can be charged under the Penal Code.
