Malaysian authorities create song to raise scam awareness

Malaysian police authorities at Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) have partnered with Whoscall, a mobile application created by Gogolook, on 4 January to curb cases of online fraud.  Along with the partnership, CCID’s director, Comm Datuk Kamaruddin Md Din said an anti-scam song of the title “Be smart stay alert” will be launched to curb online fraud and scamming by keeping the awareness top of min.

According to The Star, the song will be uploaded on CCID’s Facebook page. With the hopes of the song being shared on social media platforms, consumers will then be more aware of the realities of online fraud and be more cautious of it. The Star reports that Kamaruddin also announced the ongoing effort for the lesson to be spread among schools by having students sing the song to help internalise the message of commercial crime prevention

Kamaruddin said that users can download the application in order to be flagged a scammer’s call.

According to media reports from October 2022, financial scams have been at an all-time high. Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Acryl Sani Abdullah announced that "Last year, there were 20,701 scam cases registered with losses amounting to RM560.8 million.”

He specified that the reasons behind these online scams ranged from exploiting technology to approaching victims with specifically low awareness on cybercrime using online platforms. In a video published on The Star's Facebook page, the Inspector-General shared that scammers' adaptability has led to a 50% rise in cyber crime. 

The same was noted in Singapore in 2020, when the Singapore police revealed that there has been a 50% surge in scam cases, pushing the overall crime rate to its highest in nine years.

According to the statistics, scammers took more than SG$160 million from victims last year. The significant rise in police reports of scams have mostly been online scams. Following this, an inter-ministry committee on scams was set up to combat online frauds.

Comprising the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Communications and Information, and Ministry of Trade and Industry, and other members, the unit focused on deterring potential perpetrators, mitigating the losses incurred by victims and ensuring the public is vigilant and wary of scams.

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