KUALA LUMPUR (April 18): Scam calls received by Malaysian users have more than doubled in 2023 compared to 2022, according to TrustTech service provider Gogolook.

In a statement on Thursday, Gogolook said its digital anti-fraud tool Whoscall had identified 1.63 million scam calls received by Malaysian users in 2023, representing an increase of 100.92% from over 812,000 calls in 2022.

“Out of seven Asian countries, Malaysia is the second top country seeing an increase in scam calls after Hong Kong, followed by Japan taking the third spot,” said Gogolook Malaysia’s country marketing lead Man Yong.

However, other countries such as Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and the Philippines witnessed a decrease in scam calls, according to the company.

The surge in scam calls received comes despite the government’s intensified effort to combat fraud. Previously, then-deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Ramkarpal Singh told the Dewan Rakyat that the Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had blocked 2.6 billion suspected scam calls as of September last year.

Gogolook further pointed out that 10.4% of users still chose to pick up calls flagged as scams.

“We would like to remind our users not to entertain any calls tagged as 'scam' and to immediately take action to block the number,” said the company, which has partnered with the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) to combat fraud in Malaysia.

It quoted Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department’s Assistant Supt Rahmat Fitri Abdullah as saying that phone scams had led to a total loss of RM65.8 million within the first two months of 2024 while link scams has also become a popular tactic shared through messaging applications.

“Malaysia is now seeing emerging trends in AI-based [artificial intelligence] scams by manipulating news where scammers take real news footage and alter the audio clip to achieve a certain goal such as producing positive news on an investment opportunity to win the victims' trust which has seen more and more Malaysians falling for this trick,” he was quoted as saying.

According to official data, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) attended to 66,997 calls on online financial scams from the public last year, more than five times 2022’s tally of 12,253 calls.

It affirmed that the National Fraud Portal (NFP) will be rolled out by mid-2024 to further strengthen Malaysia’s defences against financial fraud.